How to protect your illustrator file while sending it as a PDF and is there a way to deliver a PDF version that does not contain the vector artwork?


Is there a way to send your Illustrator file as PDF so that it doesn't contain the vector artwork? How can you protect the vector artwork and send it as PDF?

1/27/2016 11:55:00 AM

Accepted Answer

I am guessing you are trying to protect you artwork from being extracted and re-used by the party you are sending it to.

The best way to achieve this is by saving it as a PDF. In the Save Adobe PDF dialog, there is a "Security" section. This is where you can limit the way the user can interact (or use) the PDF.

You'll need to tick the section in the middle 'Use a password to restrict editing Security and Permissions settings', then at the bottom select 'Any except extracting of pages' from the Changes Allowed. Lastly, untick the 'Enable copying of text, images, and other content' box.

At this point, the PDF can only be printed (but not to a PDF), and would accept the addition of notes/comments.

Hope this method would serve to what you are trying to achieve.

1/27/2016 4:55:00 PM

You can:

  1. Save the AI file as a high res JPG
  2. Open the JPG (into Illustrator)
  3. Resize the artboard to actual size
  4. Save this file to a PDF

The PDF is now FLAT and an un-editable PDF.