Xpdf
xpdfreader.com
xpdfreader.com
Here's a very long, and entertaining thread about it on the OpenBSD mailing lists from 2008.
https://marc.info/?t=120906296700004&r=2&w=2
No longer on their website, but original author considered this to be "cracking".
https://web.archive.org/web/20161129092715/http://www.foolab...
2) preventing copy pasting text, especially if book has eg: code samples, is silly.
Edit:
So did Okular (the KDE reader) it seems https://tsdgeos.blogspot.com/2009/06/okular-pdf-and-drm.html
Evince too https://superuser.com/questions/767617/disable-drm-in-evince but it is disabled by default now.
(which is another way to describe the flags)
Edit: as far as I can tell the groupthink has gone beyond “everyone should use a free license for everything” to “I have a free license to everything damn the actual license”.
I think it's disingenuous to frame it as a "bypass". The publisher is setting out a terms of use, and I think it's bad that the software try to force that I abide by such terms, because:
• the software will be too conservative: there are many situations where it is legal (and even ethical) to ignore such terms, but the software will not recognize them.
• there will be alternative software which does not enforce such terms, making it worthless as an actual protection measure.
• like I said, I think my machine and the software runs on it ought to represent me and my interests. I would certainly hesitate before installing software that put others' interests above my own, no matter how well-intentioned.
> Have you considered that maybe that's disempowering other people using the same tool?
No, but I'd be more open to the thought if you'd provide a compelling example.
> I think it's disingenuous to frame it as a "bypass". The publisher is setting out a terms of use, and I think it's bad that the software try to force that I abide by such terms
You coulda just said “yeah”.
Edit:
> No, but I'd be more open to the thought if you'd provide a compelling example.
I did but I’ll make it more clear: I licensed my content to you, with the expectation you would honor my license. If you use the technology I distribute my licensed content to you to violate that license you’re undermining my ability to determine the terms under which I distribute my content.
Your licenses have legal limits, including fair use.
Too many authors seem to believe that once they have created something, they should have total control over all copies of it made in perpetuity. That's not how it works even today (and today is closer to that "ideal" than just about any other point in history).
If I buy a physical book there are all sorts of things I can do with it. I can cut out the pages and use it in an arts-and-crafts project. I can even burn it should I wish. Many authors are horrified at some of the ways their books can and have been used, but they cannot legally limit these things.
PDFs are not physical books, and any analogy between the two will eventually break down, but I do not consider printing or copy-pasting from a document to be "bypassing the terms under which the content [I'm] accessing were shared" when many possible uses of these are 100% legal, just like photocopying a few pages from a book at the library for a school research project is 100% legal.
But then I'd be tacitly agreeing that it's a "bypass", when there's nothing to "bypass" in the first place.
> you’re undermining my ability to determine the terms under which I distribute my content.
Isn't this exactly what IP law is for? Why do you need PDF readers of all things to also enforce your terms?
It's like locks on doors. Yea, B&E is illegal and the lock helps as a forcing function/indicator. Easier to lock a door than chase 100s of thieves.
DRM is like that for a publisher, and digital theft is loads easier than physical theft, otherwise publishers are really set back for getting compensated for their works (see author above).
I get you don't like DRM but should software be a tool for stealing others works?
Note: I loathe DRM but when I pay for content/books, I respect the game.
Yeah IP law is for enforcing IP in court. But your position is you should be entitled to use any content and software in any way you want without any mechanisms attempting to reinforce the contract outside of a court. Essentially you’re saying “if an author explicitly says I’m allowed to use their content but not this way, anyone but the law trying to ensure I comply with the contract I agreed to is wrong”.
If I made some work that said you were free to do anything with it other than defecate on it, and you agree to it, there’s nothing inherently wrong with me trying to take measures besides a lawsuit to try to prevent you from that.
If the terms of the distributed content are “I don’t want you to copy this” and the technology has the ability to disable copying it (however flawed or limited), and your expectation is that the software disregard that express wish for distribution... you are asking the software to facilitate you in disregarding the express wish of the creator. How is that long winded way of saying it not “bypass”?
Yes
> Have you considered that maybe that's disempowering other people using the same tool?
I can't see why given xpdf with DRM and xpdf without DRM anyone would select the first.
Yes, obviously.
With the mupdf backend it also supports epub save for an bug in how it treats the table of contents which presently afflicts 0.4.7 which has already been fixed which will presumably be fixed in 0.4.8.
Come on guys cut another release!
Another reason to use it is seccomp mode. Zathura puts itself in a seccomp jail before reading the input document. Inside the jail all it can do is read from the input file and read/write to the display (in my case, Wayland socket -- on X11 this isn't quite as effective).
Just wish it had nonrectangular (i.e. paragraph-flow) select-and-copy, but I know PDF makes that as difficult as possible. Works great on touchscreens except that the pinch gesture is misinterpreted as select instead of zoom.
Tip: press tab while viewing a document to see the outline (which you can navigate with vi keystrokes!). Took me a while to discover that.
Maybe just roundtripping your pdf through djvu or postscript would be sufficient?
But PDF is a subset of Postscript, so the roundtrip seems to be the identity transformation ….
Ghostscript is written in C and doesn't have a great reputation for security.
Seems like 3.04 & 4.03 (latest) as for now has no CVEs.[0,1]
> I see a recent release but couldn't find a change log.
Just grab a latest source release tarball[1], extract files & read `CHANGES` (changelog text file).
[0] https://repology.org/project/xpdf/versions
I have a lot of nostalgia for Xpdf, but I guess these days it's been successfully replaced by Zathura.
That said, yes, it's quite handy.
Xpdf tools have been a lifesaver for ages. Thank you Derek et all!
You might as well say Notepad or VI "just work" as HTML viewers.
Does that happen on all operating systems? With all printer drivers?
They were working on an SVG renderer to support proper vector printing still don’t think its done. They should have used SVG to begin with.
I actually like the idea of pdf.js, having a pure browser based pdf viewer is a good thing, really needs good vector print support though to be serious.
It's up to the browser to render the page to the printer, if it contains canvases they are sent as bitmaps, since thats what they are.
HTML elements and SVG are generally rendered as vector commands to the printer which might end up being postscript or pdf. So svg's are much lighter going to printer then high dpi canvases. They also looks much better too since the printer renders them to the final raster at native res say 600 dpi.
Other browsers use a native PDF renders that can do whatever it wants, not sure what PDFium does in Chrome/Edge maybe it just sends the PDF if it can determine the printer supports it, otherwise it does native print commands for sure, it does not send bitmaps.
The nice thing about pdf.js is it runs on platforms that have no pdf viewer built in but have a web browser or maybe a buggy built in one. You can also style and control it yourself and add features to it for your app making for tighter embedding. Also it can be updated independently of browser.
Seems to be derived from Foxit.