Comments on: Removing encryption from (legitimate!) PDF files on Ubuntu

By: Etienne le Roux

Etienne le Roux — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:07:00 +0000

You are my hero, thank you, this is truly amazing!

By: Boeini

Boeini — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:06:00 +0000

I am rather new,
could somebody explain how to use it. I need this tool really

By: Anspectrum

Anspectrum — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:08:00 +0000

Works like a charm

By: Ankit Sharma

Ankit Sharma — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:23:00 +0000

a.pdf (encryption dictionary, file position 2462757): unsupported encryption filter

this is the error i got, The pdf i have is a verisign server encrypted format
that needs user to sign in before opening.

Could you help me!!

By: Removing encryption PDF files – Ubuntu » Amagob

Removing encryption PDF files – Ubuntu » Amagob — Sat, 07 May 2011 21:06:07 +0000

[...] via Removing encryption from legitimate! PDF files on Ubuntu | sandipb.net. [...]

By: agelos

agelos — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:10:00 +0000

Really helpful.

Thank you for sharing!

By: xbill

xbill — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:10:00 +0000

Wow! Works perfectly.

I was experimenting with some PDF user manuals downloaded from a manufacturer’s support site. They were protected (SECURED) from edits, extracts, etc. I installed the qpdf package and used no password ($qpdf –decrypt inputfile.pdf outputfile.pdf) and it decrypted/removed the protection. Amazing. Thanks.

By: sandipb

sandipb — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:04:48 +0000

I always find it interesting to make scripts smaller. You can use one of bash's features here to do what sed is doing.

for file in *.pdf; do qpdf –decrypt –password=PASSWORD ${file/.pdf/_unenc.pdf}; done

By: dmsu

dmsu — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 05:15:55 +0000

Thanks for sharing this!

It's great for batch processing multiple files that have the same encrypted password:

1. Put your pdf's into a folder and create a new file in there
2. Edit the new file and input a bash script code:

#!/bin/bash

for file in * ; do
file2=`echo $file | sed "s/.pdf/_unenc.pdf/"`
qpdf --decrypt --password=password_of_files $file $file2
done

3. Make it executable: chmod +x newfilename
4. Run it!

By: ideas

ideas — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:43:27 +0000

much better and easy option in any os , which I do
open the encoded pdf in pdf reader ,
print the opened pdf with pdf printer ( I use pdf Creator )
the output file is without restriction !

note: adobe reader does not allow pdf to be reprinter with pdf printers !