PDF Question

[DannyAustin]

Hi everyone i have a bit of a small problem if anyone can help that would be great.

I have a client who I do work for, basicaly they suuply me a brief, I do them a shiny design, supply them a low resolution PDF for approval, then, after they approve the design the job gets sent of to print and I invoice the job.

Occasionally however, when there's a few jobs going through the design to approval process, sometimes the client will tell me that a job will be on hold for a while. After a few weeks i'll chase the client to see if there's anything that needs doing to that job only to be told that it has been cancelled and it won't be progressed any further. Fine, that's not my problem, my problem is that the client has gone behind my back to a printer and printed the job frm one of my low resolution PDFs!!!! I mean , the quality of print scares the sh!t out of me for one, two, they don't seam to bothered that some fo the pics are pixellated, and three they think that lower quality print is more important than paying that litle bit extra for high quality print.

So...

What I need to know so they don't bypass me to the printers anymore, is that can I encrpyt a PDF, so that the client can open it OK, but cannot physically print from it? Or something to that nature, I've thought of watermarking the PDF but i don't want to upset the design in any way, can anybody think of any other way i can stop this from happening?

Thanks for looking, any advice appreciated. Ta x

[evilfugi]

In Acrobat Standard it is: Document Properties -> Security. You can set for open, edit, print.

If they try hard enough they can probably still print it. I think there is third party software that might do a better job.

[DannyAustin]

I'm running Acrobat 7.0 Professional can i still do that?

[garricks]

Yup.

But be aware, they can take a screen shot of the open document and print from that, if they're that determined and cheap.

[DannyAustin]

Awesome thanks guys, i've managed to do it thanks for all your help!!!!

[CkretAjint]

Watermark?

Put YOUR trademark and copyright info at the bottom of it??

Don't send the full size document?? Brand the documents (http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=618268&postcount=1) you send them (See #4 in that post)???

[DannyAustin]

I know what your saying about copyright and watermarks, but, on most occasions the client needs to present our work to their client, and don't want watermarks and copyright info on it, we have a working relationship that goes back some 14 years, and when they ask us to do something we do it with bells on, in the past they've asked us not to watermark so we don't do it. Copyright is a bit different, we have copyright on all work as a standard sign off C2009 Designed and produced by etc etc, but i doubt any company in the world will sue their main client for an infringement as petty as this. All i'm trying to do is to stop them printing their work from our PDFs so we can't put any mark up on the print cost.

[Lilithness]

sounds like you respect that 14 year working relationship a lot more than they do. you definitely want to keep your clients happy, but at the same time you don't want to let them lead you around by the nose. depending on your relationship with the client you might want to offer some friendly advice that the low-quality prints they are sending out really aren't doing them any favors, especially if they are producing them for their own clients.

[DannyAustin]

There was once a day i can remember when quality ruled price, though in the current climate it's the other way around. We've told them this. Though worryingly at the end of the day, its our name on the artowrk.