how to export password protected PDF that can be printed without password

[Chills]

Hi,

I want to stop diss-assembly /changes etc  (ie password protection)  but permit printing without a pass word.
I can't see how to do it.  Is it possible?
If not why not?

[Alfred]

I don’t know whether it’s possible to permit printing of a password-protected PDF file, but if it is then I don’t see how you could prevent printing to a PDF printer driver. That would, of course, result in the creation of a PDF file that isn’t password-protected, which rather defeats the object of the exercise.

[walt.farrell]

Use these settings during Export from an Affinity application:

(with a password specified, of course, in the Permissions password field)

That will result in a PDF with these settings, that anyone can Open in Acrobat Reader without a password (but will not be able to Open or Place in Affinity applications without one.)

Here's a sample, with password = password

password3.pdf

[Chills]

12 hours ago, Alfred said:

I don’t know whether it’s possible to permit printing of a password-protected PDF file, but if it is then I don’t see how you could prevent printing to a PDF printer driver. That would, of course, result in the creation of a PDF file that isn’t password-protected, which rather defeats the object of the exercise.

Of course, that has always been the way around PW protected PDFs However I only want to do it to stop the casual disassembly and to show if anyone has done it they have had to intentionally do it knowing the PDF was protected.  "I didn't know" won't be an excuse.

[David in Яuislip]

If password3.pdf is opened in LibreOffice Draw there is no warning whatsoever so "I didn't know" would be true and honest
It's trivial to remove the password from such a file, I think Affinity's approach to passwords could be a little more robust

The attached file is password protected by Draw, Chrome won't allow copying or printing, Publisher V1 allows copying if the file is opened without entering the password. The only software I would depend on for password protection is Acrobat but I no longer have it so cannot test it

password3fromdraw.pdf