Home Forums Mac Software Mac Applications Password protecting an Illustrator PDF

Do I need to buy Acrobat to do it? I want it non-editable.

Not sure about applying the password in Illustrator, but you can open any PDF in Preview, and "print" it to a PDF with a password.

I have Illustrator CS, and in the Help Index under PDF is a whole page entitled "Adding Security" on setting security options when saving as a PDF. Take a look in the Help of your version of Illustrator.

> [...] you can open any PDF in Preview, and "print" it to a PDF with a password.

Would you lease explain that (step-by-step)?

I've been trying since you posted but have been unable to turn the trick.

Thanks.

I've tried everything here, but these must be newer options because my programs don't have the options you spoke of. When I create a pdf out of my Illustrator 10 doc, it gives me security settings under that tab, but no options to change them. Just tells me what the file can and cannot do. The only settings I am allowed to change are timestamps and signatures. I am running older versions of everything because I am running Panther, Adobe Reader 7.1, Preview 2.1.0.

The Help section just tells me what the settings mean and all about signatures. I give up here. I'll flatten the artwork before making the pdf and hope for the best.

Actually, you don't need to be in Preview, and the document doesn't have to start life as a PDF.

With the document you want to password-protect open, hit Command-P to invoke the Print dialog. Click the PDF button, and select Save as PDF… from the drop down menu.

Click the Security Options button in the Save dialog. Voilà! Behold the PDF Security Options dialog.

Note: this description of steps is correct for OS X 10.5. I believe this feature was introduced with 10.4, but with a slightly different series of steps required (see Mac OS X 10.4 Help: Saving a document as a PDF file), so I don't think it will be available to slolerner.

Thanks a million, dk; I somehow kept overlooking the "Security Options" button.

Unfortunately, I am running Panther and Illus 10 which does not give me the security options but does let me save it without the editing capabilities as an option. That seems fine. It was difficult to make and I don't want others to be able to see how it was done or change it to suit their needs.

I can confirm this too. Open Preview, command-O for file open, select a pdf, open it, select print... from file menu, in the dialog box select pdf, save as pdf>dialog box for save>security options>password protect (open, or edit, or print). I am trying this on 10.6.1 and it works.
DK is right that security options are enabled in print dialog. BUT if one wants to print from Illustrator, print>save as pdf option IS NOT enabled. Tried this today and Adobe invokes its own dialog box without this option.