Not only your valuable files and folders but also ordinary documents can be password protected in OS. For example, creating a password-protected PDF takes literally one minute, and now we’ll see how to do it.
Why do we need to protect PDF files with a password?
Today, the main format for the distribution and transmission of documents is PDF. In this form, the location of the text, pictures, and tables in the file will look the same on any computer, smartphone, and tablet with different operating systems. PDF software offers several tools to help protect your files from outsiders and ensure that documents are always intact and that employees and competitors cannot use them for their own purposes. And even if the document is accidentally lost or gets to competitors or ill-wishers, you can be sure that no one can open it or that it is protected from editing.
You made the document available in PDF format, but want to protect it from copying, editing, and printing so that no one duplicates your content? All you need is a good program and you can change a lot – especially when it comes to copying, editing, and printing. There is also a way to block copying with built-in PDF viewers, but this protection can usually be easily removed with special tools.
There is a way to block copying much better, more precisely more reliably. It is that all text in PDF format is converted into vector graphics. In this way, the text becomes a “picture” and even the paid version of Adobe Reader will not be able to do anything, because, from a technical point of view, there is no text.
PDF documents, like any other, can contain valuable information that you want to protect. The simplest form of security is to use a password. As a result, no one will open the document without knowing the password.
A password allows you to protect a document from one or several actions at once:
- from opening,
- from the press,
- from editing,
- from copying text, images, and other information,
- from access to screen readers.
The password also allows you to restrict the print quality of the document and only allow some editing functions, for example:
- operations with pages;
- filling in form fields,
- commenting,
- everything except extracting pages.
How to password protect PDF files on iPhone?
You may need password protection for PDF files in a variety of situations: when sending an important document to a colleague at work, sending bank account data to a family member, banal blocking file data from other people using an iPhone, etc. The best part is that you don’t need to install any additional applications on iPhone to password-lock a PDF file – this feature is available on the system by default. So, how to password protect a PDF on iPhone?
There are the following steps to do that:
- Find the PDF you want to password protect;
- Right-click on it and select “Open in Program” and “View”;
- When the file is opened in the “Preview”, in the menu bar, select “File” and “Export”;
- On the export page, check the “Encrypt” box and enter the password with which you want to protect your PDF file;
- To complete the procedure, click “Save”.
Thus, without entering the correct password, it will be impossible to familiarize yourself with the contents of the file and you cannot worry about the fact that an unwanted person may gain access to personal data.