Questions, answered.

No. Every copy is a standard PDF that opens in any normal reader — Acrobat, Preview, a browser, a phone. There's no app to install, no account to create, and no login. That's the whole point: protection that's invisible to the buyer.

No tool can, and we won't claim otherwise. A file can always be screenshotted, photographed, or retyped. What we do is remove anonymity: every copy carries multiple personally-identifying marks, so a leaked file always points back to the buyer it was issued to. That deterrent is what actually stops casual sharing.

Personally-identifying watermarks (visible, on every page), custom PDF properties (owner baked into the file metadata), embedded tracking hyperlinks (which reveal reuse and location), and hidden steganographic codes (which survive even if the other marks are stripped). They work independently, so removing one doesn't defeat the rest.

However you already sell. Send directly by email, connect your Shopify or 3dcart store, plug into a learning management system, or automate everything end-to-end with our documented REST API. The marking and tracking are identical no matter which channel you use.

Deliveries, opens, and downloads in real time, mapped by location and tied to the individual buyer. When the same copy appears in several places at once, that reuse surfaces in your dashboard along with whose copy it was.

Yes — Instant.pub is free for early access while we're in beta. No credit card is required. The prices shown on the pricing page apply at launch; beta users get plenty of notice before anything changes.

PDFs are the core use case and get the full set of marking layers. You can also upload other document types for delivery and tracking. If you have a specific format in mind, ask us.

Yes. If you ship more than the listed limits or have custom integration needs, get in touch and we'll put together a plan that fits.