When a client approached me with a requirement to protect pdf files from being copied and used elsewhere I thought it would not be too difficult to satisfy the simple needs of their project. However I discovered that the built in security and the cost of the drm offerings from the major players both left a lot to be desired. In Fumblin’ with the Drumlin I mentioned a product that I was hoping would fill the gap between very simple protection and certificates and the high end DRM overkill.
After making contact with the developers I explained my requirements – specifically
1) Need to batch convert 500 or more files
2) ability to convert large pdf files
3) need to convert password protected files
4) control of printing / copying and the need to prevent files being removed and remaining viable from laptops
5) ability to add to the secure library
6) ability to completely revoke rights on a machine to read any files.
7) be able to have granular control over which files would be accessible to each user / machine as required.
Pretty straightforward ? Well yes for the guys at Drumlin it was. After they had understood my needs they made some changes to their application to deal with some of the above and now I have a tool which not only does what I need but actually makes it a relatively painless process to boot……
The last stumbling block was the sheer size of some of the files. The largest pdf I needed to convert was 350 mb and the application due to other dependencies currently won’t convert them but as always Drumlin advised on an alternative approach which yielded a result – you can read that here