Remove Restrictions
Lift print, copy and edit restrictions from a PDF
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About Remove Restrictions
Lifts the printing, copying, editing and commenting restrictions from a PDF that opens without asking for a password. Such a file is encrypted, but with a key every reader works out on its own, so the restrictions are a request readers are trusted to honour rather than a lock.
The permission flags are cleared in your browser; the document is not uploaded to a service that would then hold an unrestricted copy.
How to use Remove Restrictions
- Load the restricted PDF.
- Click Remove Restrictions. A PDF that asks for a password to open is left unchanged, and the tool points you to Decrypt PDF instead.
- The new file is read back before it is offered: it has to open without a password and show every page.
- Download — printing and copying now work in any reader.
On a production
A supplier's datasheet that refuses to be printed, or a manual whose text cannot be copied into a gear list. The document is already open in front of you; the restriction is only stopping you doing ordinary things with it.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this different from removing a password?
- Yes. A PDF with an open password cannot be read at all without it; Decrypt PDF removes that protection and needs the password. Remove Restrictions only works on a document you can already read, and asks for nothing.
- Why are these restrictions so easy to remove?
- Because anyone can derive the key that encrypts such a PDF — every reader does, to show you the pages. The permissions password only asks readers to refuse printing or copying. It expresses an intention rather than enforcing one.
- Does anything else in the document change?
- No. Pages, bookmarks, links, form fields, attachments and properties stay as they were. The document is saved anew without its encryption, which also means a digital signature in it stops validating.
- Am I allowed to do this?
- That is a licensing question, not a technical one. Removing a restriction does not grant you rights over the content — check the terms attached to the document if you are unsure.