Robust PDF Watermarking against Print–Scan Attack
Portable document format (PDF) files are widely used in file transmission, exchange, and circulation because of their platform independence, small size, good browsing quality, and the ability to place hyperlinks. However, their security issues are also more thorny. It is common to distribute printed...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/17/7365 |
| _version_ | 1797581850258964480 |
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| author | Lei Li Hong-Jun Zhang Jia-Le Meng Zhe-Ming Lu |
| author_facet | Lei Li Hong-Jun Zhang Jia-Le Meng Zhe-Ming Lu |
| author_sort | Lei Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Portable document format (PDF) files are widely used in file transmission, exchange, and circulation because of their platform independence, small size, good browsing quality, and the ability to place hyperlinks. However, their security issues are also more thorny. It is common to distribute printed PDF files to different groups and individuals after printing. However, most PDF watermarking algorithms currently cannot resist print–scan attacks, making it difficult to apply them in leak tracing of both paper and scanned versions of PDF documents. To tackle this issue, we propose an invisible digital watermarking technology based on modifying the edge pixels of text strokes to hide information in PDFs, which achieves high robustness to print–scan attacks. Moreover, it cannot be detected by human perception systems. This method focuses on the representation of text by embedding watermarks by changing the features of the text to ensure that changes in these features can be reflected in the scanned PDF after printing. We first segment each text line into two sub-blocks, then select the row of pixels with the most black pixels, and flip the edge pixels closest to this row. This method requires the participation of original PDF documents in detection. The experimental results show that all peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) values of our proposed method exceed 32 dB, which indicates satisfactory invisibility. Meanwhile, this method can extract the hidden information with 100% accuracy under the JPEG compression attack, and has high robustness against noise attacks and print–scan attacks. In the case of no attacks, the watermark can be recovered without any loss. In terms of practical applications, our method can be applied in the practical leak tracing of official paper documents after distribution. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T23:13:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7133584e43b140f699783c24a45d106e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T23:13:25Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-7133584e43b140f699783c24a45d106e2023-11-19T08:48:54ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-08-012317736510.3390/s23177365Robust PDF Watermarking against Print–Scan AttackLei Li0Hong-Jun Zhang1Jia-Le Meng2Zhe-Ming Lu3Command and Control Engineering College, Army Engineering University, Nanjing 210007, ChinaCommand and Control Engineering College, Army Engineering University, Nanjing 210007, ChinaSchool of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, ChinaSchool of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, ChinaPortable document format (PDF) files are widely used in file transmission, exchange, and circulation because of their platform independence, small size, good browsing quality, and the ability to place hyperlinks. However, their security issues are also more thorny. It is common to distribute printed PDF files to different groups and individuals after printing. However, most PDF watermarking algorithms currently cannot resist print–scan attacks, making it difficult to apply them in leak tracing of both paper and scanned versions of PDF documents. To tackle this issue, we propose an invisible digital watermarking technology based on modifying the edge pixels of text strokes to hide information in PDFs, which achieves high robustness to print–scan attacks. Moreover, it cannot be detected by human perception systems. This method focuses on the representation of text by embedding watermarks by changing the features of the text to ensure that changes in these features can be reflected in the scanned PDF after printing. We first segment each text line into two sub-blocks, then select the row of pixels with the most black pixels, and flip the edge pixels closest to this row. This method requires the participation of original PDF documents in detection. The experimental results show that all peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) values of our proposed method exceed 32 dB, which indicates satisfactory invisibility. Meanwhile, this method can extract the hidden information with 100% accuracy under the JPEG compression attack, and has high robustness against noise attacks and print–scan attacks. In the case of no attacks, the watermark can be recovered without any loss. In terms of practical applications, our method can be applied in the practical leak tracing of official paper documents after distribution.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/17/7365digital watermarkingPDF protectionleak tracingrobustnessprint–scan attack |
| spellingShingle | Lei Li Hong-Jun Zhang Jia-Le Meng Zhe-Ming Lu Robust PDF Watermarking against Print–Scan Attack Sensors digital watermarking PDF protection leak tracing robustness print–scan attack |
| title | Robust PDF Watermarking against Print–Scan Attack |
| title_full | Robust PDF Watermarking against Print–Scan Attack |
| title_fullStr | Robust PDF Watermarking against Print–Scan Attack |
| title_full_unstemmed | Robust PDF Watermarking against Print–Scan Attack |
| title_short | Robust PDF Watermarking against Print–Scan Attack |
| title_sort | robust pdf watermarking against print scan attack |
| topic | digital watermarking PDF protection leak tracing robustness print–scan attack |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/17/7365 |
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