Create and place password protected PDFs

[Ash]

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad

All Affinity apps now allow you to both create and place password protected PDFs.

Create

In the advanced export options for PDF files you will see two new options:

1. Require password to open. If you set a password here that means anyone who tries to open that PDF will be prompted to give this password before they can open it.

2. Permissions password. Here you can further protect the PDF with options for restricting printing, modification, editing and copying with a secondary password.

You will also see the type of encryption being used for the file in question. This is based on the PDF compatibility being used in Export. PDF 1.6 & 1.7 both use AES-128, PDF 2.0 uses AES-256. Password protection is not available with PDF 1.4, 1.5 or PDF/X file compatibility.

Passwords can be saved with the document preset, so for example you could have a preset of “Company Internal PDF” which both specifies the export settings, DPI, etc. you want for that type of document, but also the password settings.

Place

Previously you could not place password protected PDFs in Affinity. Now you can - when you attempt to place the PDF you will get a prompt asking you for the password for the document you are attempting to place.

 

[ATP]

Excellent to see PDF 2.0 with AES-256 added!

[Hangman]

Agree, great to see the addition of PDF 2.0 with AES-256 Encryption...

One minor, minor cosmetic tweak to the PDF status on opening... When opening a Locked PDF file there is no space between the filename and the [L] (unlike with Modify [M]), resulting in filename.pdf[L] [M] instead of filename.pdf [L] [M]

[Bit Disappointed]

Ah, we got passwords. 🙂

Now I think the time is ripe for Designer and Photo (and a bit easier in Publisher) to allow the entry of elementary document metadata, so that exported PDFs contain absolutely critical and necessary information about the origin: title, author, URL, etc. Specifically, I'm thinking of the fields called Document Information in Publisher, if I'm correct in my assumption that it's the content from these fields that will be displayed in Adobe Reader when viewing document information there.

It's not fair for Serif's Designer and Photo customers to have to purchase Publisher just to add or edit this information, and it's too cumbersome to have to go through Publisher to add this information if one DOES have Publisher. Furthermore, I believe many might not even understand that they need to go through Publisher and deep into the References submenu to even find and edit metadata in 'Fields'. This isn't user-friendly, and the worst part is that it blocks the discovery and use of this feature.

And if you implement this, Serif, the primary document information should (also) be enterable and viewable under something similar to document info/setup from the file menu. Not hidden away in fields.

All three programs should provide easy and logical access to these document details, which are not only needed for PDF export, but also for regular use in companies and educational institutions, as well as for archiving and tracking the employees who have created the content in the documents. I've always missed this feature.

[retrograde]

Cheers @Ash I've been waiting for this one. 

[pruus]

Perhaps the TAG  function could be used to add metatags, exif-info a file? Than we have all we want.

[R C-R]

My one minor suggestion for this is to put the Password Protection options in a separate section below Advanced, with its own collapse/expand triangle. The reason for this is the Export dialog window for PDF is now very long, so if it used three sections, they could all be set to be collapsed (& sticky as it appears to be) so each could be expanded only when needed.

[Hangman]

Show and Hide PDF Password Icons and Tooltips are Incorrectly shown across all three apps in the Export Window and Designer's Export Persona...

 

Affinity Publisher and Photo - Incorrect Icon but Correct Tooltip For Show Password

 

Affinity Publisher and Photo - Correct Icon but Incorrect Tooltip For Hide Password

 

Affinity Designer - Correct Icon but Incorrect Tooltip For Show Open Password | Incorrect Icon but Correct Tooltip For Show Permissions Password

 

Affinity Designer - Incorrect Icon but Correct Tooltip For Hide Open Password | Correct Icon but Incorrect Tooltip For Hide Permissions Password

[Hangman]

Affinity Designer's Export Persona Incorrectly accepts ASCII 2-byte UTF-8 password characters when exporting PDF 1.6 and 1.7 PDF files instead of displaying a warning as the Export Diaog does...

 

Some PDF Readers (Acrobat and Preview) but not all (Foxit PDF Reader) correctly identify the error showing a warning when attempting to open the PDF file using the same ASCII 2-byte UTF-8 password and will subsequently fail to open the file...

 

However, Affinity apps will presumably incorrectly open the encrypted PDF file using the same ASCII 2-byte UTF-8 password without any warning message...

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Hangman said:

Show and Hide PDF Password Icons and Tooltips are Incorrectly shown across all three apps in the Export Window and Designer's Export Persona...

Also, the icon does not change to indicate if it is set to show or hide the password. Not a big deal but a bit confusing if no password has as yet been entered so you can't tell if it will show or hide it when you start entering it.

[Hangman]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Also, the icon does not change to indicate if it is set to show or hide the password. Not a big deal but a bit confusing if no password has as yet been entered so you can't tell if it will show or hide it when you start entering it.

There are two icons in Designer, one for Show and the other for Hide (see the bottom two screenshots above) but they are displayed incorrectly and inconsistently depending on how they were last set when exporting a file...

I don't think the Hide Icon appears in either Publisher or Photo though I have a feeling it all depends on what is entered where at the time or export...

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, Hangman said:

There are two icons in Designer, one for Show and the other for Hide (see the bottom two screenshots above)

I am not seeing that: whether set to show or hide there is no difference -- neither one shows a slash through the eye symbol:

[Hangman]

47 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I am not seeing that: whether set to show or hide there is no difference -- neither one shows a slash through the eye symbol:

I've just figured out the issue... Basically, when the focus is on either of the two Password text entry boxes the icons and tooltips don’t update when clicked. It's only when you move focus away from both Password text entry boxes e.g., by clicking in the Advanced > Use DPI text entry box and then move focus back to the Password text entry boxes that they update their icons but this can still result in the incorrect icon and tooltip being displayed...

 

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, Hangman said:

I've just figured out the issue... Basically when the focus is on either of the two Password Text entry boxes the icons either don't change at all or they show one or the other icons. It's only when you click in another text entry box that the icons update, e.g., File Settings > Raster DPI at the top of the export window...

For me, that works to update the icon if I click on File Settings > Raster DPI, but (sometimes?) does not if I click on a text entry box in the Advanced section.

Either way, it all needs to be fixed.

EDIT: I just noticed something else that might need some attention. If I set a password for a file & then uncheck "Require Password to Open File" the password is greyed out but still retained, so if I cancel the export & then return to it again, that password is still there & would be used if I set the export to require a password. I think it should be cleared when canceling the export to prevent accidentally using the wrong password.

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

For me, that works to update the icon if I click on File Settings > Raster DPI, but (sometimes?) does not if I click on a text entry box in the Advanced section.

I've just updated the previous post slightly as there appears to be a specific technique...

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Either way, it all needs to be fixed.

Agreed...

[Hangman]

The Open Password text entry field in the Affinity Designer Export Persona's Export Options for PDF slice exports loses focus when manually typing and deleting password characters resulting in the user having to continuously reselect the text entry field to both add or delete additional characters from the password...

[Hangman]

A really minor issue, more an inconsistency really but:

• When password protecting a PDF 1.6 or 1.7 file Affinity apps will happily accept more than the 32-character limit for the password and will truncate the password to 32 characters
   
• When password protecting a PDF 2.0 file Affinity apps will reject the password entered if it exceeds the 127-character limit throwing up a 'The file could not be created' error

It's not really a big deal in as much as even if entering a password exceeding the 32-character limit to open the PDF 1.6 or 1.7 file, it is still accepted by PDF Readers and Affinity apps since they only read the first 32 characters.

I'm unsure if this is actually a feature of the two different PDF specs but just highlighting it as I'm wondering whether:

• The same or a more helpful error message should be presented if exceeding the character count for PDF 1.6 and 1.7 files
• The error message presented when exceeding the character count for all PDF files could be clearer, e.g., 'Your password exceeds the character count for' the respective PDF version

[Hangman]

Opening a Password Protected PDF in Affinity Apps is the only place where the Show and Paste Password Icons don't appear. Just wondering whether they should appear here as well for consistency...

[Hangman]

When encrypting a PDF file, if characters are used for the Password which Affinity Apps won't accept, when toggling the Password visibility 'On' the Password is shown in its 'visible' state with its 'masking' state overlayed, i.e., the actual password with the dots overlayed...

This is the case in both the Export Window for all three apps and the Export Persona in Designer...

 

[Hangman]

When deleting a PDF encryption Password in the Export Window using the backspace key, Affinity Apps will display the error message 'Your open password contains characters that are not supported by PDF' each time a character is deleted when using what Affinity Apps consider to be illegal characters (even though they're not). It should only show the error message once allowing the user to delete individual characters.

The Export Persona in Designer behaves correctly only displaying the error message once allowing all characters to be deleted using the backspace key without re-displaying the error message...

Obviously, it is possible to Ctrl-A selecting all the password characters and then delete them all using the backspace key in one go though that may not be the intention if only wanting to 'edit' the password.

[Hangman]

Affinity Apps won't accept certain Unicode 4-byte characters including emoji characters as part of PDF 2.0 Encryption Passwords despite ASCII 4-byte characters being legal characters but Affinity Apps will happily open PDF files using Unicode 4-byte characters (including emoji characters) rejected in the Export Window.

Acrobat and other PDF Readers using passwords made up of only Unicode 4-byte Emoji characters happily open the encrypted PDF as well.

 

Sample PDF 2.0 File | Password 🥸😎🥸😎🥸

This PDF file can be opened in Affinity apps and various PDF readers using this password...

Emoji.pdf

[Hangman]

Affinity Apps won't accept bidirectional passwords when exporting to PDF, displaying the error message "Your password contains characters not supported by PDF" but Affinity Apps will happily open PDF files with bidirectional passwords as will Acrobat and certain (but not all) other PDF Readers.

PDFlib says "The password is normalized to Unicode normalization form NFKC, and special bidirectional processing is applied to avoid ambiguities which may otherwise arise if right-to-left and left-to-right characters are mixed in a password."

Sample PDF File Using a Bidirectional Password | Password is މަސްandchips

Cerise.pdf

[Hangman]

Affinity Designer Export Persona

When selecting the ‘Require password for modification and printing’ checkbox it has to be clicked twice to enable it when the ‘Require password to open’ checkbox is already selected...

Steps to Reproduce

1. In the Affinity Designer Export Persona, create a slice
2. Select a PDF Preset from the Export Options window
3. Select the ‘Require password to open’ checkbox
4. Add or Paste an ‘Open password’
5. The ‘Require password for modification and printing’ checkbox has to be selected twice before it becomes enabled

[Hangman]

Affinity Designer Export Persona

Toggling the ‘Show password’ On for ‘Require password for modification and printing’ results in the entered password vanishing from the permissions text entry field and the checkbox for the field being deselected...

Steps to Reproduce

1. In the Affinity Designer Export Persona, create a slice
2. Select a PDF Preset from the Export Options window
3. Select the ‘Require password for modification and printing’ checkbox
4. Add or Paste a ‘Permissions password’
5. Toggle the ‘Show password’ eye icon On
6. The password entered vanishes from the permissions text entry field and the checkbox for the field is deselected

[Hangman]

Affinity Designer Export Persona

When toggling visibility for ‘Require password for modification and printing’ the password switches to the ‘Open password’ text entry field...

Steps to Reproduce

1. In the Affinity Designer Export Persona, create a slice
2. Select a PDF Preset from the Export Options window
3. Select the ‘Require password to open’ checkbox, add a password or leave the field blank
4. Select the ‘Require password for modification and printing’ checkbox and add or paste a ‘Permissions password’
5. Either toggle the ‘Permissions passwords', Show password’ eye icon or mouse click once in the ‘Open password’ text entry field
6. The ‘Require password for modification and printing’ checkbox is disabled and the ‘Permissions password’ jumps to the ‘Open password’ text field