The content of the PDF documents you share on the Internet can be easily copied using the Copy function, available by default by right-clicking on a paragraph or the entire document. If you do not want this to happen, you can set a password to restrict the use of this function only to users who know it. For this, you can use the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC program, which will also allow you to restrict the use of the print function.
Protect Your PDF Files Against Copying and Printing
To protect your PDF files against copying and printing, download
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC on your computer, and run it.
Then, go to
File >
Open, and select the
PDF on your hard drive. Go to
Tools >
Protection >
Encode >
Encode with password. In the
Permissions section, check the
Restrict document editing and printing box. In the
Printing allowed field, select
None.
Enter a password in the
Change permissions password field. Check that the
Check copy text, images, and other content box is clear. In
Compatibility, choose a version of Adobe Acrobat that is equal to or less than the Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader version of the recipient. Click the
Accept button, and confirm the password.
Save the document for the changes to take effect. After this, a lock will appear in the left sidebar of the PDF. If you right click on a paragraph, you will notice that the
Copy option no longer appears. In addition, the print button will have been disabled.
N.B. There are free web programs and services that also allow you to remove the copy and print protection of PDF documents.
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