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In this guide, we'll teach you how to electronically sign a secured PDF document.
By the end of reading this post, you're going to know everything about secured files and how to create your eSignature an add it to those files.
A secured PDF is a password-protected document, or one that is encrypted to limit people's access to seeing its contents.
People secure their PDF documents so as to limit everybody else's access to changing the contents of the file.
Now that you know what a locked PDF is, lets get to electronically signing it.
As you can see, there are quite a lot of methods to eSign a secured PDF. Fear not, we'll go through each of them into detail right now.
There are three tools that help you sign a PDF document on Windows without a password: Google Chrome, Google Drive, and SignHouse.
Let's take a look at each method, one by one.
Electronically sign a secured PDF document with Google Chrome:
Google Chrome is an underestimated tool that helps you save a PDF document without having its password.
When downloading the document, you'll get a 1:1 copy of the locked file, only now it doesn't have a password anymore and you can freely sign it.
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Another way to unlock and sign a secured PDF is to take it through Google Drive. First, go to your preferred Google Drive account. Then, follow these steps:
Use this simple trick to unlock a PDF document and electronically sign it.
Simply downloading it through Google Docs is going to remove the password, which allows you to go ahead and eSign the file.
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One of the most reliable ways to electronically sign a secured PDF document is to use an online password remover.
At SignHouse, we've got a tool that removes PDF passwords and allows you to edit documents in multiple ways — including adding your signature:
SignHouse allows you to do two steps in just one place: first removing the password, and then adding your online signature to the PDF document.
The best part about our password remover and eSignature software is that they're both 100% free. No need to pay!
Using a MacBook or iMac? Here are two relevant ways to sign a password-protected PDF document, using: Preview & Safari.
Let's check out both of the options!
You can electronically sign a password-protected document using Preview, the app that comes by default with your Mac:
Pro Tip: If you don't know the password to the file, use our free PDF Unlock tool that lets you remove the password in seconds.
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Alternatively, you can also use Safari to digitally sign a secured PDF document:
By default, you'll see the 'PDF' option in the bottom-left corner. Though, you need to expand the menu and select the 'Save as PDF' menu in order to save the file.
You're not necessarily going to print the PDF, but you want to open the 'Print' menu to get saving option in first place.
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There is an easy way to electronically sign a secured PDF document on any Android device as well — may that be a phone or a tablet:
At SignHouse, we've got an Android PDF signing solution that helps you get work done on any of your Android devices.
Signing secured PDF documents on iOS is easy as well. Use your iPhone or iPad to electronically sign a document like so:
Alternatively, an useful guide for you is our story on how to sign a PDF on iOS. The guide says pretty much what you just read here, only it goes more into detail.
The last option to sign a secured PDF is with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Here are the steps you need to follow:
You might be interested in how to sign a PDF without Adobe. That's another one of our guides that shows free eSignature alternatives to Adobe's tools.
That's every way you can electronically sign a secured PDF document.
There are many online eSignature tools that help you add a signature to a PDF without Adobe. For instance, SignHouse is a free PDF editor that lets you sign files as well.
To unlock a PDF document without having its password, upload it to SignHouse and select the option to remove the password. Wait a few seconds and the download the unlocked PDF.
If you forgot a PDF's password, upload it to SignHouse and select the option to remove the password. Wait 10 seconds and download the unlocked PDF.
Ch David is the co-founder of SignHouse. David is here to help the product development team expand the capabilities of ultimate eSignature maker for all your needs. Join David and the SignHouse team in stepping up electronic signatures!