Redacting password protected PDFs
I wanted to post because I couldn't find a good clear answer anywhere. In some cases you may want to redact PDFs that are being shared to third parties and it's common for PDFs downloaded from websites to be password protected by default.
Use Case:
I am filling out rental applications and they are asking for bank statements. I don't want to share any account numbers or purchase history so I want to redact the information before I send it to them. Bank statement PDFs downloaded from Chase are automatically password protected so they can't be edited in Acrobat.
Solution (Windows):
- Open the PDF in Chrome
- Right click on the page and select Print
- Under Destination, click the drop down and select See more...
- Select Microsoft Print to PDF
- Click Print
- Choose destination and name for new PDF
This will save the PDF as a new PDF stripped of the password protection. This version can be edited in Acrobat.
The only issue for me was that the quality seemed to be degraded slightly.
I'm not sure if other print methods will work the same but I've had success with Microsoft Print to PDF.
