Shrink a document and set a password

Something has to be emailed, it is too large, and it should not be readable by whoever the message is forwarded to. Both problems, in one pass, on this device.

• Compressed before encrypting, because an encrypted file cannot be worked on.
• The password is typed into a masked field and never stored.
• Standard PDF encryption that any reader will open.

Compress first, encrypt last

This is the one ordering here that is not a preference. An encrypted PDF has to be unlocked before anything can touch its pages, so a compression written after the password simply cannot run. The plan moves it in front and prints the reason against the step rather than failing halfway through the job.

The compression aims at the number rather than at a preset and keeps the largest file that still fits, so the document stays as readable as the limit allows, and the size it reached is reported rather than assumed. The compression is destructive, so open the saved file before sending it, or run it through the Compress tool, which draws page one on screen first.

What the password is and is not

It is standard PDF encryption. Any reader will ask for the password and open the file, there is nothing proprietary in the result, and nothing about it needs this site again later.

It is not rights management. Whoever can open the document can print it, screenshot it and retype it, and no feature of the format has ever changed that. What it does is stop the document being read by somebody who was forwarded the mail and not the password, which is the ordinary case and worth doing.

The password is typed into a masked field when the plan runs, never read out of the instruction, never stored in a saved workflow and never carried in a shared link. The microphone stands down while that field has focus, so a spoken instruction cannot capture it by accident. Both steps run in this tab and nothing about the document leaves the machine.

Can I set a different size?

Yes. Change the number in the instruction; the plan shows you how it read it before running.

What if I lose the password?

Nothing here can recover it. Nothing is stored, which is the point and also the risk.

Support and billing: support@gosmartpdf.com. Operated by Mrityunjay Kumar, India. Payments by Dodo Payments, our merchant of record.

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