The Complete Guide: Printing a Secured PDF

Helping others who might be in the same boat as me

June 13, 2011

So this goes out to all of those folks out there who've tried to print those secured PDF files and failed innumerable times. This guide is an effort to simplify the process so that others do not have to undergo what I had to.

This is what a secured PDF looks like, where printing is not allowed. Mind you, the feature is very annoying. Very Annoying.

Secured PDF
Secured PDF

So what I had on my hands was an awesome tech quizzing eBook, which unfortunately, due to it being secured at the time of creation, did not allow me to print it.

After hours of lonely wanderings through thousands of useless not so helpful articles, I did come across something quite brilliant.

A software tool called 'PDF Unlocker' was what I was looking for.

So let's go over it, step by step:

  1. Get a Secured PDF that you really want to print.
  2. Download the tool. ( Just 5.67 MB, should be a breeze)
  3. After you download, just follow what the instructions say, click on all the 'Next' s and 'I Agree' s and the tool should be installed in a very short time.
  4. Now, installation would have created two separate shortcuts on your desktop. One with the icon of a key:
  5. Now as is in the image, drag your file onto the Key-Icon Shortcut.
  6. Now the screen will flash, and the Windows Command Box will appear for a few seconds, before vanishing and leaving behind a copy of the file; just with the extension of a ' _nopw' after it.
  7. Now open the new '_nopw' file and enjoy the functional print facility.

Personally, I found the procedure very quick and efficient.

P.S : I should be saying that illegal use of tools and methods mentioned here must be avoided.

Comments

  • Shiven MianJune 13, 2011

    That is so awesome. 😀 BTW, which eBook are you talking about?

    • Bharat KashyapJune 13, 2011

      One I found on Gyaan.in.

  • RonSeptember 12, 2011

    I have a secured PDF that I wanted to print for a long time. Thanks a lot for your excellent post.

  • AnkurJanuary 20, 2012

    Thanks. It worked 🙂

  • SallyMay 17, 2012

    Nice Work Bharat, This tool is good enough to break password security up to 128bit (Adobe Acrobat 9) but if your files is protected with 256bit encryption i.e with Acobat X then probably it wont work. I would rather suggest a utility called pdf security removal as it can remove password from 256bit encrypted pdf file too. From here you can get the free trial version: http://www.pdfunlockers.com

    • Bharat KashyapMay 17, 2012

      Hey Sally Yup, I acknowledge the fact that this is only good enough till Acrobat 9. Adobe stepped up their security with Acrobat X. The tool you suggested works fine too.

  • asianastroboyOctober 24, 2012

    It doesn't seem to work for 64bit OS. Do you have a solution for Windows 7 64bit?

    • Bharat KashyapOctober 24, 2012

      Should be working -.- Check out new versions of the tool I mentioned if they've been released?

  • asianastroboyOctober 24, 2012

    ahh there seems to be some free web services that do this now. I used the first one fine: http://www.pdfunlock.com http://www.unlock-pdf.com http://www.crackmypdf.com

    • Bharat KashyapOctober 24, 2012

      Haha yes the post is a bit outdated. Nevertheless, job's done 🙂

  • WNovember 8, 2012

    Unbelievable. It actually worked. Thanks for the info!

  • JijujoanNovember 20, 2012

    Thank u very much for the post... Unbelievable

  • GeorgeDecember 20, 2012

    thanks a great deal very useful tool ! appreciate the effort put!

  • SethuJanuary 23, 2013

    Great work Bharat. Thanks it was very handy

  • NetHead21March 9, 2013

    Wow! amazing.

  • mateenJune 10, 2013

    Oh my god thank you so much man