Frequently Asked Question:
EncodePermissions - CanAssemble?
I'm confused - what does CanAssemble do?
"CanAssemble Set this to 1 to allow the user to assemble the document. Only works with 128-bit encryption."
What does that mean, exactly? Assemble what, and how?
Here a description of the options from the PDF 1.7 Specification
CanAssemble is bit number 11.
BIT POSITION MEANING
1 Reserved; must be 0.
3 (Revision 2) Print the document. (Revision 3 or greater) Print the document (possibly not at the highest quality level, depending on whether bit 12 is also set).
4 Modify the contents of the document by operations other than those controlled by bits 6, 9, and 11.
5 (Revision 2) Copy or otherwise extract text and graphics from the document, including extracting text and graphics (in support of accessibility to users with disabilities or for other purposes). (Revision 3 or greater) Copy or otherwise extract text and graphics from the document by operations other than that controlled by bit 10.
6 Add or modify text annotations, fill in interactive form fields, and, if bit 4 is also set, create or modify interactive form fields (including signature fields).
9 (Revision 3 or greater) Fill in existing interactive form fields (including signature fields), even if bit 6 is clear.
10 (Revision 3 or greater) Extract text and graphics (in support of accessibility to users with disabilities or for other purposes).
11 (Revision 3 or greater) Assemble the document (insert, rotate, or delete pages and create bookmarks or thumbnail images), even if bit 4 is clear.
12 (Revision 3 or greater) Print the document to a representation from which a faithful digital copy of the PDF content could be generated. When this bit is clear (and bit 3 is set), printing is limited to a low-level representation of the appearance, possibly of degraded quality. (See implementation note 25 in Appendix H.)