Re: Web safe text?

**"Christopher P. Lindsey" t*@spamfodder.com**

>    I fell exactly the same way about my work as, I'm sure, everyone else
>    here does about theirs. I'm building a web site now to include some
>    writing samples - does anyone know of a web design scheme to prevent
>    or deter the theft of text from the web? For example, will Adobe
>    Acrobat (full version) create a pdf file that does not allow selection
>    of text?

The only way to do it within a PDF file is to encrypt the contents, and
even that's debatable (ask Dmitry Sklyarov).  There are lots of utilities
out there that convert PDF documents to plain text.

The most effective way that I know of is to actually create a graphic 
with the text inside.  It could still be printed out and scanned into 
an OCR, or even transcribed manually by the non-tech savvy.

Still, most people willing to steal others' work are probably too lazy
to go through these steps.  I don't know of any Windows software to 
do it, but I could probably whip something out on the UNIX end of things.

There's an idea -- I'll create a Web site (in my copious spare time) that
people can submit text to and it will spit back graphics with the text
embedded inside...  Seriously, if there's enough interest I could look
into doing something like that.

Oh, disadvantages...  The most obvious to me is that your stuck with
a fixed font size.  People with small monitors might have a hard time;
they can't just increase the font size in their browser.  And then 
there's the bandwidth issue, but if we stay low on color consumption
that wouldn't be too horrible.

Chris

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