How to password protect PDF documents or files?

Password protect PDF files or documents or suppress printing of PDF documents or copying text from PDF documents with the instructions listed below. 

The big advantage that PDF documents have over image files like TIFFs or JPGs, is the ability to secure the document. You can secure PDF documents by password protecting the PDF files or documents.You can also limit a user’s ability to copy text from a PDF document and even prevent a user from printing the PDF document.

How to password protect PDF documents or files?

• Open the PDF file in Acrobat
• Select File > Document Security from the menu
• Got to the “Security Options” drop-down and select “Acrobat Standard Security”
• Find the box labelled “Password required to open document” and place a check mark against it.
• Edit or type the password
• You can also add a password requirement for changing permissions or password.To add a a required password check the box against “required password to change permissions or password” and enter the password. However note that this password must be different from the one that you entered for securing or password protecting the PDF file.
• If you want your PDF document to be password accessible to users with previous versions of Acrobat Reader (versions earlier than 5.0), do not change the 40-bit encryption setting. However if your users or audience will be using version 5 or later versions of the Reader (or the full Acrobat program) then you may use 128-bit encryption.

How to suppress printing or copying text from a PDF document?

• You can suppress printing of the pdf document, suppress changing the document, suppress content copying or image extraction, and suppress adding or changing comments.Check the boxes next to the options that you want to apply to the PDF document.
• Click OK
• You will then be required to confirm one or both passwords. You must re-type them correctly.Be careful in doing so.

Password protect your PDF files and enjoy sharing them with better security. 
 

Though there are options for securing image files, the easiest method of securing them is by zipping or compressing them into an archive and password protect the zip or compressed file.Read How to password protect zip files in windows XP or Windows vista, to learn how to password protect compressed or zipped file.