What is "obscured content"?

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Jensen Head
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What is "obscured content"?

Post by Jensen Head »

In the list "Sanitize Document Options" ("Sanitize Document will remove hidden data and metadata so any sensitive information will not be published with your PDF. Choose an option to be...") there is an item "Remove obscured content". No tooltip is displayed when hovering over this item. In the help system for the "PDF-XChange Editor/Editor Plus V9 (Ribbon UI)", I only found article "Tabs Guide" / "View Tab":
Click Thin Lines to enable/disable the Thin Lines feature, which displays all annotation lines at a thickness of one pixel. This is a useful feature in cases where important document content is obscured as a result of multiple annotations/annotations with large borders. Annotation lines are those created using the annotation tools, which are detailed here.
Can you please tell me what kind of content you are talking about? How is this content different from hidden layers, hidden text and content with overlapping objects (other items in the same list of objects to be cleaned with this tool)?
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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Re: What is "obscured content"?

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Jensen Head.

The Thin Lines feature sis distinct and separate from the "Obscured Content" that is removed when sanitizing.

Thin lines can be toggled on and off and is often used to make complex drawings more readable when the otherwise defined thickness of lines would make what's rendered very full and difficult to see definition on. Thin lines is simply a toggle for the thickness and makes no changes to the document in any way. It is not a factor when sanitizing documents.

Obscured content is content that is behind other content and "hidden" from view as a result of that, but still in the document. A good example of this might be if someone used a text box or rectangle tool to cover over some content. That content is still in the document, it is only covered or "obscured" from view by the boxes on top. The "obscured content" - that which is below the boxes can still be recovered. Remove Obscured content will delete what is behind those boxes.

I hope that helps.
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Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
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Jensen Head
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Re: What is "obscured content"?

Post by Jensen Head »

Paul - Tracker Supp wrote: Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:08 pmThat content is still in the document, it is only covered or "obscured" from view by the boxes on top. The "obscured content" - that which is below the boxes can still be recovered. Remove Obscured content will delete what is behind those boxes.
Thank you very much for the clarification. However, I still do not understand how "obscured content" differs from
Jensen Head wrote: Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:45 pmcontent with overlapping objects
image.png
It follows from your explanation that they are (almost?) the same thing. Or under the word "box" you have exactly "text box" and "rectangle tool" and nothing else? That is, is "content with overlapping objects" a more general concept that includes "obscured content"?
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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Re: What is "obscured content"?

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Excellent question to which I will found an answer...

So I need to correct the above reply, it turns out was not entirely accurate.

Overlapping content is what we discussed above, where something is on top of something else, so the text box over content example applies here.

Obscured content is content that would otherwise not be rendered for pretty much any other reason like:
  • an object is off the page
  • something has no fill or stroke
  • content outside a "clip"
I hope that helps.
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
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Jensen Head
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Re: What is "obscured content"?

Post by Jensen Head »

Paul - Tracker Supp wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:50 pmObscured content is content that would otherwise not be rendered for pretty much any other reason like:
  • an object is off the page
  • something has no fill or stroke
  • content outside a "clip"
Now everything is clear, thanks!
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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What is "obscured content"?

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

:)
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