It is important to protect PDF from unauthorized sharing. How to prevent PDF sharing? If you are still trying to figure it out, read this post from MiniTool PDF Editor because it provides 5 simple methods.
Nowadays, PDF files have become more and more prevalent in all walks of life. It’s almost inevitable that we will share PDF files in our daily work. Is there a way to protect PDF from unauthorized sharing? How to do that? Pay attention to the following content to get the answers.
Way 1. Password Protect the PDF
The simplest and most straightforward method to prevent PDF from sharing is to encrypt the PDF using a professional tool. MiniTool PDF Editor can prevent PDFs from editing, printing, copying, or sharing easily with passwords.
Tip: Besides, MiniTool PDF Editor is a full-featured PDF converter that can convert PDF to image, Word, Excel, PPT, HTML, EPUB, TXT, and vice versa. It can also convert PDFs to scanned or searchable PDFs and convert scanned PDFs to editable using OCR technology.
Here’s how to prevent PDF from sharing using the MiniTool software.
Step 1. Click the Download button below to get the MiniTool PDF Editor package and install it on your computer.
MiniTool PDF EditorClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 2. Open the PDF that you want to protect, navigate to the Protect tab from the top ribbon area, and click on Encryption.
Step 3. In the Encryption window, you have 2 ways to set up passwords for the file: Open Password or Permission Password. Both of the two options provide you with secure PDF sharing, so just choose one according to your preference.
- Open Password: Protect your PDF from unauthorized opening.
- Permission Password: Protect your PDF from printing, copying, editing, or annotating.
Step 4. Type your password in the Enter Password field. If you want to save the PDF to a new location, don’t check the box of Replace Existing Files.
Step 5. Click on Apply to make the encryption take effect.
Way 2. Add Watermarks to the PDF
Another effective method to protect PDF files from sharing is to add authorized watermarks. Once shared, plagiarists will be held legally responsible. Here MiniTool PDF Editor can help you add watermarks to PDFs, adjust their transparency, change their appearance, and so on. Let’s have a try.
Step 1. Open the PDF you need to protect and go to Protect > Watermark from the top toolbar.
Step 2. Click on the Plus icon under Custom Watermark. Alternatively, you can choose the Most-used Watermark if you like.
Step 3. In the pop-up window, configure the watermark according to your needs, including source, appearance, location, and page range. After you have determined these settings, click on OK to apply these watermarks.
Way 3. Add Signatures to the PDF
To protect PDF from unauthorized sharing, you can also add signatures to the PDF manually. This operation has been proven by lots of users to be helpful. Here’s how to do that using MiniTool PDF Editor.
Step 1. Open the PDF you want to protect again and navigate to Protect >Signature. Then click on Create New Signature.
Step 2. In the pop-up window, you can sign the PDF by adding an image, handwriting, or input words. After configuring the signature, click on OK to save it.
Step 3. Choose the place where you want to add the signature. Just drag the signature to your desired place and pin it. Then you can locate the signature and adjust its size, rotation, and transparency. Once done, save the change to prevent PDF sharing.
Way 4. Set an Expiration Date for the PDF
However, sometimes you may have to share PDF files online. In this case, if you still want to protect PDF from unauthorized sharing, you can set an expiration date for the PDF.
The most common way is to use the Digital Rights Management (DRM) tool that allows you to set the PDF-sharing expiration time and other advanced security parameters, including accessing, viewing, editing, and so forth.
Way 5. Use a Secure Sharing Platform
In addition to the above methods, you should use a trusted file-sharing platform. There are many secure cloud-based platforms you can choose, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Adobe Document Cloud.
These platforms allow you to set up permissions and control who can access your PDF documents. For example, Google Drive can enable the View-only options and expiration dates for PDFs, which can protect PDF files from sharing unauthorizedly.
Wrapping Things Up
How to protect PDF from unauthorized sharing? This post has introduced 5 simple methods above. You can encrypt PDFs, add watermarks and signatures to PDFs using MiniTool PDF Editor, set an expiration date, or use a secure file-sharing platform.
If you have any questions about MiniTool PDF Editor, you can contact us via [email protected] and we will give you a favor as soon as possible.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Ariel has been working as a highly professional computer-relevant technology editor at MiniTool for many years. She has a strong passion for researching all knowledge related to the the disk, partition, Windows OS management, and PDF. Up till now, she has finished thousands of articles covering a broad range of topics and helped lots of users fix various problems. She focuses on the fields of disk management, OS backup, and PDF editing and provides her readers with insightful and informative content.