"Save a tree" with the WWF's new unprintable "green" PDF format | Hacker News Reader

"Save a tree" with the WWF's new unprintable "green" PDF format

saveaswwf.com

15 pointsjarin27 comments

Of all the silliness. There is already a "no printing" flag in PDF.

Bit position 3 of the 'P' key in the standard encryption dictionary. Page 61 of http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/pdf/pdfs/PD...

On OS X when you print to PDF you can adjust the security options to forbid printing.

(Um, not that I've made modified version of xpdf or anything… but I had a legal right to print that document and DMCA wasn't dreamt of yet.)

I don't know if they got the memo that paper comes from sustainable tree farms that plant trees. Pretty sure Weyerhauser isn't flying down to South America to chop down virgin rainforests.

True, but it does create a lot of waste.

Almost 100% recyclable waste - with the exception of commercial glossy print (I hate glossy print) almost all paper products nowadays are recyclable.

I'd attack the horrifyingly wasteful, and deceptively un-recyclable bottling industry. Depending on the recycling capabilities of your area, if you throw away plastic soda bottles with the cap on, it very well could go into the landfill.

yeah I think these days WWF exists for it's own ends - more of a political advocacy think-tank than an organisation actually trying to save animals. It's come a long way from being a bunch of tin-rattlers trying to save a certain species.

I downloaded the app and tried it out. They're saving files as regular PDFs with a .wwf extension. This causes the files to open in their app, but if you rename the file to .pdf you can open it in other PDF viewing apps just fine. They set a password on the PDF to restrict re-saving or printing.

Dumping the strings on their binary turns up genRandStringLength:, so I'm guessing they're generating a string of random characters and setting that as the password on the PDF.

They're just shipping a modified version of Skim (http://skim-app.sourceforge.net) embedded inside their own app to do the PDF viewing.

These sort of 'green' gimmicks really annoy me. I'm a strong supporter of being environmentally conscious and taking actions to minimize our environmental footprint. However I am a bigger supporter of the idea that if you are going to take an action, make it really count and for it to be long lasting.

Virtually no-one is going to download a unique .wwf file viewer (and most office environments where pdf usage would be rife are probably locked down anyway). So straight away it fails. Greenies will often say that this sort of campaign builds 'awareness', and that it's not really about results - which is exactly what annoys me - we seldom need more awareness about issues, what we need is real practical ways to make a difference.

Instead of 'creating' a .wwf format, why not base their campaign around educating people how to turn on the built-in 'disable print' capability that is part of the standard pdf format?!? They achieve their 'gimmick' around paper conservation, but also actually give people the knowledge on how to actually make an ongoing 'difference' since pdfs will be around for a long time, unique .wwf viewers won't.

You don't need to download a unique .wwf file "viewer" according to the website:

"WWF documents can be opened with most programs that can open PDFs."

http://www.saveaswwf.com/en/faqs.html

If I got a file in this format from someone, I think I would download the software, take screenshots of the document pages, and print them off.

I would send it back and ask for a version I can read.

Reasons to print a PDF:

* I want to read it in the bus.

* I want to make annotations with a pen (with colors).

* I want to compare two versions.

* ...

I try to print the documents only when it is necessary, but sometime I really need to print them and I want to be free to do it.

Anyone who sends me a file in this format is going to be ignored. I have seen stupid DRM, but this is ridiculous.

Coming soon: The ecofriendly WWF car that doesn't drive.

If it can't be opened by standard PDF software, it's not a PDF.

I think it's a good idea in principle, make it available and let the market decide. No windows yet? Foolish. But: no samples, no specifications, no source code, no technical details...no thanks.

Well, you can find one sample: http://www.saveaswwf.com/en/press.html But not many English readers are going to download a document in German. As for the printing, it just looks like a limited document permission with an secret password. Ooooh, a secret password, on PDF specification 1.3.

Removal instructions: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Adobe/Gallery/anon21jul01-pdf-enc...

Now let's calculate the excessive energy required to launch adobe acrobat and install a new security patch weekly.

Who wants to start a company? I just registered WWFtoPDF.com and WWF2PDF.com

I'd happily join you, but if I weren't already convinced the format will go nowhere, I'd assume it this whole campaign was a publicity stunt on the part of the WWF.

"Weird... I can't print this PDF... oh well, I will just screenshot it and paste it into a Word doc."

I hope this is one step closer to having PDF documents die in the most horrible twisted way possible, I hate it with every essence of my being.

Not for "green" reason but for bloat reasons and having the updater pop up at work which seems like every day.

Uh don't use Adobe. Problem solved. "I hate Fords, when are we going to stop using cars."

It's not that simple, it's on the desktops in most offices already it's not that I want to use it but most offices have it installed so it makes it hard to get away from them. It's not Adobe I dislike it's the pdf itself, well yeah Adobe too.

I'm heartened to see that pointless gestures don't fly with this crowd. Not one single supportive comment in the entire block.

PDF Unlock should be able to handle these:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35106/pdf-unlock

How does this work? Some kind of DRM wrapper over PDF?

It doesn't.

This is kind of a dumb idea, even on paper (pardon the pun). Deliberately crippling print functionality is a little gimmicky, despite the good intentions of the WWF.

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