Adobe PDF Reader provides the capability of limited access and restricting certain features in documents with password security.

  • Document open password the user must type in the password specified by you to open the pdf.
  • Permissions password the recipients don’t need a password to open the document, but they must type the permissions password to set or change any restricted features.

Visit Adobe for a more detailed description of securing documents with passwords.

You will need to share your password with your recipient. The best method is to share passwords before sending encrypted documents. You should NEVER send the password in the same e-mail as the encrypted document. 

Adobe Password Instructions

Adobe Document Encryption Guidelines and Compatibility Matrix

Product Version

Acrobat X

Acrobat 9.0 and Later

Acrobat 7.0 and Later

Acrobat 6.0 and Later

Acrobat 5.0 and Later

Acrobat 3.0 and Later  

Acrobat X (Recommended Version)*

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Acrobat 9.0

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Acrobat 8.0

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Acrobat 7.0

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Acrobat 6.0

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Acrobat 5.0

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Acrobat 4.0

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

Acrobat 3.0

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

*Note: In Acrobat X there is not longer an "Acrobat 9 and later" option on the list because the 256-bit AES implementation used in Acrobat 9 was flawed.