Opening Password-Protected (Print Restricted) PDFs in PS

[Crassinnola]

I have about 3000 medical records/forms. Each is saved as a PDF with security enabled. The Permissions for each PDF, found in the Document Properties, are:

Printing: Allowed
Changing the Document: Not Allowed
Document Assembly: Not Allowed
Content Copying: Not Allowed
Content Copying for Accessibility: Allowed
Page Extraction: Not Allowed
Commenting: Not Allowed
Filling of Form Fields: Not Allowed
Signing: Not Allowed
Creation of Template Pages: Not allowed

What I'd like to do with all of these documents is: create small thumbnails (200 px wide or so) so that I can create an online master catalog of the documents.

I would ordinarily do this using a batch operation in Photoshop with an Action that just opens the first page of the PDF, resizes/resamples it from its high res/printing size down to 200 pix @ 72 dpi, then do Save For Web and make it an optimized jpg.

This would be a super simple task, EXCEPT:

The passworded Permissions on each file require that the password be entered in order to open each one.

Now, I could still set up the batch, then sit here for a day and a half entering the password over and over again each time the batch tries to open the next PDF. Um, yeah, not exactly efficient.

Does anybody know of a way that Photoshop can get around the restrictions on a password protected pdf so that I can create thumbnail images of these 3000 PDFs?

 

[eugenetyson]

You could try something like this?

http://pdf-password-remover.verypdf-com-inc.qarchive.org/

 

[jimoblak]

I don't know about other parts of the world but disabling security and reproducing personal medical data likely violates two distinct US federal regulations (DMCA and HIPAA).

You should check with the original author of the files to gain access.

If this is being done for some sort of web application to provide a visual index, why not use an automated server application that generates these previews for you? That is how this task is typically handled. Most of these server functions can ignore PDF security. Those apps that most often honor the PDF file permissions are those from Adobe. The security is often ignored in other PDF readers.

 

[jimoblak]

If printing is allowed, why not print to a virtual printer that can produce the image file for you? There is likely no need for Photoshop.

 

[Crassinnola]

Jim,
The virtual printer idea might very well be my solution.

Also: the forms were created by me (and others in my department.) They're blank forms, i.e., they're not populated with any confidential patient. We're creating this online catalog so that doctors in our hospital can search for the form and print it for their own use.

For years, we've been creating the PDFs with security restrictions set. And now that I'm trying to create these thumbnails, the security settings are slowing me down.

 

[Crassinnola]

Hmmmmmm...

How could I print each of these PDFs to a virtual printer... in a batch? I have around 3000, so anything I do needs to be automated.

As I said earlier, I'm trying to create thumbnails of each of them.

 

[jimoblak]

If you had Acrobat, you could combine the PDF files.

Some printers allow you to drag a file right on to their icon to start printing. Perhaps once you have the virtual printer set up, all you would need to do is drag a handful of your PDF files onto the printer icon.

 

[Crassinnola]

I have Acrobat professional.

But: I just tried printing one of the PDFs to the "Adobe PDF" printer... but the security settings stopped me.

This message popped up:

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
This PostScript file was created from an encrypted PDF file.
Redistilling encrypted PDF is not permitted.
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

 

[jimoblak]

Adobe PDF printer checks for security settings. Try another virtual printer like one powered with Ghostscript.