Set PDF Permissions
Drag & drop your PDF here
PDF only
Choose what readers may do with the document. It still opens without a password.
Private · Fast · No watermark
Drag & drop your PDF here
PDF only
Permissions tell a reader what the document owner allows. Compliant readers honour them: the print button greys out, text refuses to select. Nothing in the format forces a reader to obey, and software exists that ignores them entirely.
That makes permissions right for signalling policy on a document that still has to be readable by anyone, and wrong for keeping content away from someone determined to take it. When the content itself must stay unreadable without a password, use the Protect PDF tool instead.
The permissions are written using AES-256, the same mechanism the Protect PDF tool uses, with an empty user password so that opening the file needs nothing.
Yes, with software that chooses to ignore them. Permissions are honoured by compliant readers but nothing in the PDF format enforces them. Treat them as a statement of what you allow, not as protection.
Yes. The user password is left empty, so the file opens with a double click like any other PDF. Only what a reader may do with it is restricted.
It is what lifts the restrictions later. Without it the settings cannot be changed, so record it before you send the file.
Protect PDF encrypts the content so the document cannot be opened without a password. This tool leaves the document readable by anyone and restricts what they may do with it.
No. An already encrypted file is refused rather than re-encrypted. Remove the existing password with the Unlock PDF tool first.