Documentation

Your First Job

Create your first fingerprinted PDF job step by step

This guide walks you through creating your first PDF fingerprinting job from start to finish.

Before You Start

Make sure you have:

  • ✅ A PDF Ghost account with verified email
  • ✅ An organization created
  • ✅ A PDF document ready to upload (size limit varies by plan)
  • ✅ A list of recipient emails or names

Creating a New Job

Step 1: Start a New Job

  1. Log in to your PDF Ghost dashboard
  2. Click the New Job button in the top right
  3. You'll be taken to the job creation wizard

Step 2: Upload Your PDF

  1. Click Choose File or drag and drop your PDF
  2. Wait for the upload to complete
  3. PDF Ghost will analyze your document and show:
    • File size
    • Number of pages
    • Estimated processing time
    • Cost estimation

Step 3: Add Recipients

Add recipients in one of two ways:

Option A: Manual Entry

  1. Click Add Recipient
  2. Enter email address or name
  3. Repeat for each recipient

Option B: Bulk Import

  1. Click Import CSV
  2. Upload a CSV file with recipient information
  3. Map the columns to required fields (email or name)

Step 4: Configure Fingerprinting Options

Invisible Fingerprints

  • Enabled by default - Adds invisible marks to track each copy
  • Metadata - Embeds fingerprint in PDF metadata
  • Invisible Text Layers - Adds hidden text layers

Visible Watermarks (Optional)

Choose whether to add visible watermarks:

  • None - No visible watermark
  • Recipient Email - Shows "Confidential — [email protected]"
  • Recipient Name - Shows "Confidential — John Doe"
  • Custom Text - Add your own watermark text

Watermark settings:

  • Position - Top, bottom, center, or diagonal
  • Opacity - Adjust visibility (10-100%)
  • Color - Choose watermark color

Step 5: Review and Confirm

Review your job details:

  • Original PDF information
  • Number of recipients (artifacts to generate)
  • Selected fingerprinting options
  • Estimated cost

Click Create Job to start processing.

Job Access by Privacy Mode

  • USER jobs: accessible to the job owner and organization owner/admin.
  • ORGANIZATION jobs: accessible to organization members.

Understanding Job Status

After creating your job, you'll see the job detail page with status updates:

Status Types

  • Queued - Job is waiting to be processed
  • Processing - Artifacts are being generated
  • Completed - All artifacts are ready
  • Failed - An error occurred (see error message)

Processing Time

Processing time depends on:

  • PDF file size
  • Number of pages
  • Number of recipients
  • Current system load

Typically:

  • Small PDF (< 5 MB, < 10 recipients): 1-2 minutes
  • Medium PDF (5-20 MB, 10-50 recipients): 5-10 minutes
  • Large PDF (20-100 MB, 50-100 recipients): 15-30 minutes

Downloading Your Fingerprinted PDFs

Once processing is complete, you have several download options:

Individual Downloads

  1. View the list of artifacts
  2. Click Download next to any recipient
  3. The fingerprinted PDF will download

Bulk Download

  1. Click Download All at the top of the job
  2. A ZIP file will be created with all artifacts
  3. Files are named with recipient information for easy identification

Distributing Your PDFs

Best Practices

  • Use Secure Channels - Send via encrypted email or secure file sharing
  • Verify Recipients - Double-check email addresses before sending
  • Include Instructions - Tell recipients the document is confidential
  • Track Distribution - Note when each PDF was sent

Email Distribution

When emailing fingerprinted PDFs:

  1. Attach only the PDF intended for that recipient
  2. Use a secure email service
  3. Include confidentiality notice in email body
  4. Consider using encrypted email

What's Next?

Congratulations! You've created your first fingerprinted PDF job. Next steps:

Need Help?

If you encounter issues:

Your First Job | Documentation | PDF Ghost