PDF restrictions on the Unicode Standard 10.0

Henri Sivonen via Unicode unicode at unicode.org
Sat Jan 13 11:14:13 CST 2018


I was reading https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode10.0.0/UnicodeStandard-10.0.pdf
on a Sony Digital Paper device and tried to scribble some notes and
make highlights but I couldn't. I still couldn't after ensuring that
the pen was charged and could write on other PDFs.

Since Evince told me just "Security: No", since the Digital Paper's UI
for designating non-editability is easy to miss and since there's no
password required to open the file, it took me non-trivial time to
figure out what was going on.

Upon examining the PDF in Acrobat Reader, it turned out that even
though the PDF can be viewed, printed and copied from without
artificial restrictions, there are various restriction bits set for
modifying the file. (Screenshot:
https://hsivonen.fi/screen/unicode-pdf-restrictions.png )

It doesn't make sense to me that the Consortium restricts me from
adding highlights or handwriting if I open the Standard on an e-Ink
device even though I can do those things if I print the PDF.

I'd like to request that going forward the Consortium refrain from
using restriction bits or any "security" on the PDFs it publishes.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen at hsivonen.fi
https://hsivonen.fi/


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