Tagged: password

10 Tips for working with PDF files

Working with PDF files

If you’re a designer, you most likely have a copy of Acrobat Pro (or the new Acrobat DC). But it’s quite likely that your clients do not. If you want to be a hero to your client in need of help with their PDF files, you can share some of the tips found in this excellent article from Hongkiat for working with PDF files when you don’t have a copy of Acrobat Pro.

The tips include converting documents, extracting text to other file formats, opening PDF files with passwords (which I’ve covered here), merging PDF files, and more.

Recovering PDF passwords: what to expect

Recover PDF PasswordIt’s not often that I get a password protected PDF file that I don’t get the password for. I’m not talking about a restricted PDF that doesn’t allow you to print or copy text out of, those are easy to work around. I’m referring to the obnoxious graphic artist at Client X who no longer works there who set the security settings on an important PDF to require a password just to open. That guy is a jerk, but that’s for another time. How to get into the PDF is the immediate dilemma we need to deal with.

Prior to Mac OS X Leopard, you could open the PDF in Apple’s ColorSync Utility – a simple workaround that obviously got missed by someone at Apple. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work anymore. So I decided to give Eltima’s Recover PDF Password ($40 minus 15% off if you use the offer code GRAPH-MAC-15 at checkout time) app a try. It’s the only Mac solution I came across that not only can bypass the no-print restrictions, but the more annoying “password just to open issue.” Plus, I’ve reviewed a few of Eltima’s apps before and found them to work pretty darn well. Below are my findings in my initial tests. (more…)