Designers, there are a lot of unethical people out there who are trying to use, duplicate and flat out steal your work. I just read a great post over on Decor8 about people who think DIY means "Duplicate It Yourself." The post received a lot of comments and I am not surprised. This subject seems to be on the design/art community mind lately. Please double check that your PDF's are protected. Do not forget about the option to copyright and trademark.
Tutorial works well for
- free printables you offer on your website or blog
- printables that you are selling on Etsy or Big Cartel
- PDF artwork approval to an unpaid client
ILLUSTRATOR CS3 TUTORIAL ON HOW TO PASSWORD PROTECT YOUR PDF'S
1. Save Illustrator artwork file as a PDF.
**After I save the PDF, I always open it in Illustrator and outline all the fonts and flatten the artwork. This way you will not accidentally outline your Illustrator file. Then I do a "Save As" PDF and do the following steps:
**If you only uncheck this box, people with certain versions of Illustrator may be able to open your artwork and grab all the graphic elements.
3. Select the Security setting. Check the "Use a password to restrict editing Security and Permissions settings" box. Enter a password you will remember in the "Permissions Password" box.
4. You can pull down "Changes Allowed" and choose the option that works best for you. Select "Save PDF" button.
{This step is optional. I do not make any changes and just leave the options as the default. Sometimes making changes here can make your PDF show up blank.}
5. You will be asked to re-enter your permissions password. Enter password, select "Ok."
6. Warning will probably pop up. Select "Ok." If allowed, select "Save PDF."
7. As a final step, I try to open the PDF in Illustrator. It should not let you and it should pop up a window to enter a password. If the file opens in Illustrator, something went wrong. Try tutorial again. I would recommend you send one test file to a trusted design friend who will be able to try to open in Illustrator. They should be prompted to enter a password.
NOTE : If you need to make adjustments to the PDF file, simply open PDF in Illustrator, enter the password when prompted and your file will open right up.
