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C
cindyg17168645
Participant
May 1, 2016
Answered

Acrobat DC - Making clipart in pdf secure but not requiring a password to open?

  • May 1, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 1240 views

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!  I am confused by the security options and have been searching for answers but not quite getting the answer I need.  I am creating a pdf that will be available as an instant download on a website.  I need to secure the document so that the clipart in the document is "locked" down but the text is editable.  The security settings - and it may be the way things are worded - are throwing me off.  I do not want to require a password for someone else to open the document.  I just want to secure the images/clipart.  What settings would I need to use to accomplish this?  It seems that everything is requiring a password, which I don't want.

Thanks!

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Correct answer Test Screen Name

Just enter the permissions password as it says. You have left OFF require a password to open the document. You must have a permissions password but users don't need it.

2 replies

T
Test Screen NameCorrect answer
Legend
May 1, 2016

Just enter the permissions password as it says. You have left OFF require a password to open the document. You must have a permissions password but users don't need it.

I
IsakTen-RwIoo2
Inspiring
May 2, 2016

As Try67 already have noted, the file-edit protection in PDF is meaningless these days. It's an old technology which was fine when Adobe Reader was the only game in town, because it depends on a PDF Viewer to respect these restrictions and many non-Adobe PDF Viewers do not respect them. This is why when you try to add permissions password you get an alert that all Adobe products respect these restrictions but 3rd-party PDF processing apps may not.

The only real way to secure PDFs is to use DRM solutions but they cost money.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
May 1, 2016

Any security settings would provide you zero real protection. This is the difficult lesson all creators have to face.

C
cindyg17168645Author
Participant
May 1, 2016

Yes, I understand that but to comply with the artist of the clipart, I need to do this anyway - if even as a formality.

try67
Community Expert
try67Community Expert
Community Expert
May 1, 2016

(Reply copied from duplicate thread)

There are two types of password-based security policies you can apply to a PDF in Acrobat: A file-open policy, which only applies when the file is opened and doesn't restrict it from being edited in any way.

The other type is a file-edit policy. This policy allows you to define some types of editing that are allowed and other which are prohibited. For example, you can allow the filling in of form fields, but the extract of contents (such as text and images) and printing the file.

Both policies can be applied on their own, or you can apply both. They are independent of one another.

An important side-note is that the file-edit policy is much more easily removed by third-party tools, but any Adobe application will respect either one you apply.

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