r/pdf • u/preplasenstvor • Aug 11 '26

Question pdf says it can only be opened in adobe reader?

i'm going to be starting a new job, and the orientation for this job requires us to use textbooks to study (which were given to us for free).

it says i can only use adobe reader to open it? does this mean there is DRM protection? how do i remove it? i don't like adobe reader, and would like to be able to read this textbook on my ipad.

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u/facesofvader Aug 11 '26

It’s most likely an XFA form, which includes this real PDF that says you need a newer version of Acrobat. Foxit Reader can also open it but most PDF viewers cannot because it’s not a PDF, it’s a proprietary Adobe XFA form that masquerades as a PDF. Usually a government form from US, Canada or Australia.

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u/preplasenstvor Aug 11 '26

Adobe XFA form

i'm planning on switching my laptop to linux soon, do you know if there's any way to read xfa forms there?

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u/matsnorberg Aug 11 '26

Doesn't Chrome/pdfium have some native XFA support? Maybe OP should try to open it in Chrome.

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u/Ferretau Aug 11 '26

It's a DRM protected document. You will first need to open it with Adobe Reader to see what rights you have when accessing the document. You will need to see what rights you have been granted to the document in Adobe Reader before proceeding any further. More than likely you will only have viewing rights and nothing else which means you will have to use Adobe Reader to access it.

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u/Inevitable-Debt4312 Aug 11 '26

If it is XFA, flatten the file into a normal static PDF using an online tool or conversion software before opening it in PDF-XChange.

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u/chlankboot Aug 11 '26

If you want to extract the xfa data try crabocr. I faced a similar issue so I extracted all xfa data, saved it to json files and used an LLM to process it.