Question from a customer: “Will Nitro Pro accept that PDF file?”

I was just scouring our sales inquires at the end of the day (something I like to do, see what questions and issues pre-sales are being asked) and noticed a question that is pretty straightforward for us PDF nerds, but I’m sure a others would think about it when considering a non-Adobe PDF solution.

Will Nitro compile an existing PDF file?  If we have a previously existing  pdf file of an eBook with pics and text, that is free of any extra security settings in Adobe, will Nitro accept that pdf file and work with it to set the security settings?

The answer is absolutely. PDF is now an ISO standard, and even before this happened (in 2007) the PDF specification was published by Adobe each time a version of Acrobat was released. So 3rd party developers are able to learn about the internals of a PDF and ensure they conform to that specification.

So yes, you can set security in Nitro Pro on a PDF that was created with Acrobat (or any other PDF creator for that matter). You can even remove security in Nitro Pro on a PDF that was secured with Acrobat (as long as you know the password!).

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This entry was written by Chris Dahl and posted on October 9, 2008 at 12:08 am and filed under knowledge, tips. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • What do you mean PDF is an ISO standard now? Care to elaborate on that I was just wondering. what that means.
  • Sure thing.

    From when PDF was introduced by Adobe back in 1993, through to 2007, they had control over the direction of the file format. That is, it was Adobe themselves who chose what new features/enhancements were to be added to the spec. And it was largely driven by what new features they wanted to put in their Acrobat and server-based product range. That said, Adobe did publish the specification through all those years for 3rd party developers to use to build their own applications (like Nitro has done with Nitro Pro and Express), it's just that they controlled the format's future direction.

    In 2007 they made (a very well received) decision to release control of the PDF spec to the International Standards Organization (ISO). So now, it's an independent committee who controls the spec (there would be a rep on their from Adobe i'm sure) which gives the PDF spec that extra street-cred.

    The whole XPS file format (from Microsoft, a format that has similar goals and solutions as PDF) came about around the same time, so it helped to knock that on the head a little too.

    PDF is here for good my friends :)
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