How to prevent people from taking screenshot of PDF?

One of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent unauthorized use of your PDF document is by adding a watermark to it. A watermark is a graphical image or text that is added to a document to identify the owner or origin of the document. When a watermark is added to a PDF document, it becomes much more difficult for someone to use a screenshot of the document without your permission. This is because the watermark will be visible in any screenshot taken of the document. The best option is to use feature called "Dynamic Watermarking", where watermark is generated dynamically based on user's email, name, date or other info. This way PDF is marked with person's data and harder to share without permission. Our tool HelpRange gives you an option to enable "Dynamic Watermarking" very easily, by just turning it on by clicking on a button.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a technology that is used to control access to digital content and prevent unauthorized use. DRM solutions can be used to control access to your PDF document and prevent unauthorized use, including taking screenshots. However, these solutions are often complex and can limit the accessibility of your document. For example, DRM solutions may require that users install specific software or plug-ins in order to view the document, which can be inconvenient and time-consuming..

An excellent solution for this purpose is our proprietary tool: HelpRange.

HelpRange is a comprehensive tool designed to facilitate document tracking and protection. By leveraging HelpRange, you can effectively mitigate the risk of unauthorized screenshots of your PDFs, as well as prevent photography of document screens.

We use the term 'very difficult' because even though our method is robust, it is not entirely foolproof. Our approach involves displaying only a portion of the document at any given time within the internet browser (shared as links with others), thereby thwarting users' attempts to capture screenshots or photos of the entire document. We call this feature "Screnshot Mask". This "mask" could have rectangle shape or be a circle. You can customize in your Profile Settings its appearance.

Alternatively, you can use our "Screenshot Protection" feature, so that users will need to install our Android, iPhone or iPad app to view your documents. This way you can prevent taking screenshots entirely, but as you can see it is only available for mobile devices.

If you want to utilize HelpRange to prevent people from taking screenshots of your documents, you simply need to click on the link for your uploaded PDF and enable "Screenshot Mask" or "Screenshot Protection" feature. You can see how it works by watching the following video (you can control the size of the 'visible box'):

In conclusion, while it is not possible to completely prevent someone from taking a screenshot of a PDF document, there are several measures that can be taken to make it more difficult for someone to do so. Watermarking and DRM solutions are some of the most effective ways to prevent unauthorized use of your PDF document. When choosing the right security measure for your PDF document, it is important to consider the level of security you need and the accessibility of your document for authorized individuals.

HelpRange is "Virtual Data Room For Business-Critical Documents Platform". HelpRange represents the cutting-edge platform for document access controls and in-depth analytics, ensuring superior management and usage insights for your documents.