6

All \randomize{} does in the following MWE is removing the space between the words. I wonder why the text is not randomised.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{randtext}
\begin{document}
\randomize{Random Text}
\end{document}

I am using TeX Live.

egreg
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Reza
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1 Answers1

6

The randtext won't randomize as it looks. You can't copy paste the word.:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{randtext}
\begin{document}
this is my randomized \randomize{Random Text} here.
\end{document}

This is how pdf looks:

enter image description here

When you try to copy paste the entire sentence from the resulting pdf, you get:

this is my randomized
n
x
m
t
o
d
e
T
Ra
here.

This package is meant to prevent the copy paste-ability of email addresses. From documentation:

enter image description here

Unfortunately not all pdf readers obey this randomization. It works with sumatrapdf (for me) and not with adobe.

  • 1
    @cyberSingularity: Yes. PDF readers don't follow uniform rules. This is same as putting a security password to pdf files. Some readers open the files ignoring all the pass words! –  Dec 24 '12 at 10:58
  • (This is no attack, I am genuinely interested to know the answer to the question that I'm going to ask!)

    I compiled your code with pdfLatex on my ubuntu and default Document Viewer copied it correctly (un randomize). What is the point of this command if most of readers can reorder the text?

     – Pouya Dec 24 '12 at 11:09
  • @Pouya: I don't know exactly :-) –  Dec 24 '12 at 11:11