Secure PDF Files

Why Secure Your PDFs?

When you email a PDF, it leaves your control. If that document contains a sensitive contract, confidential financial data, or trade secrets, you must ensure that only the intended recipient can read it, and that they cannot alter the contents.

Our Security and Forms suite provides professional-grade tools to lock down your documents, establish chain-of-custody through electronic signatures, and sanitize files for public release.

The Security Toolkit

Protect PDF (Encrypt)

The strongest defense against unauthorized access. The Protect PDF tool applies military-grade AES encryption to your document. You set a password, and the file becomes unreadable mathematical gibberish to anyone who doesn't have the password, ensuring your data is safe even if the file is intercepted.

Unlock PDF

If you locked a file years ago and forgot the permissions password, or an ex-employee left behind restricted files, the Unlock PDF tool can strip away the restrictions (like printing or editing blocks), giving you full access to your document again.

Sign PDF (eSign)

Stop printing contracts just to sign them. Our Sign PDF tool allows you to draw, type, or upload your electronic signature directly onto the document in your browser, enabling incredibly fast and legally binding document execution.

Redact PDF

Drawing a black box over a social security number using a standard editor does not delete the data underneath it. Our Redact PDF tool permanently destroys the text and image data in the areas you select, ensuring sensitive information cannot be recovered before you share the file.

Compare PDF

When someone sends you a revised contract, how do you know exactly what they changed? The Compare PDF tool analyzes the original and the revised documents side-by-side, instantly highlighting every single added, deleted, or modified word.

Fill PDF Forms

When you receive an interactive government or HR form, use our PDF Forms tool to type directly into the fields, select checkboxes, and complete the document digitally without ever needing a printer.

Best Practices for Document Security

1. Never Redact with Shapes: It cannot be stated enough: placing a black rectangle over text in a normal PDF editor is not redaction. The text is still fully searchable and copyable. Always use a true Redaction tool that mathematically erases the data from the file.
2. Use Strong Passwords: If you use the Protect PDF tool, do not use the word "password123". A weak password can be brute-forced by hackers in seconds, rendering the encryption useless. Use a long, complex passphrase and share it with the recipient via a separate channel (like a text message, not in the same email as the file).
3. Flatten Signatures: When you eSign a document using our tool, we automatically flatten the signature onto the page. This prevents malicious actors from extracting the image of your signature and pasting it onto a different contract.