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Small PDF with password protection - remove password & keep it small

My accountant send us our tax returns.  To open them, you need to enter our password. Then it opens on our windows PC with acrobat reader.

I want to be able to save them without the password needed.

If I print to Microsoft PDF printer (that is native w/ win 10), the resulting PDF is 500KB. the PDF he sent us is 50KB and I can open it without the password.

Typing that - I see it's KB, not MB... not that much bigger file I guess on a pure size comparison, Yeah, 10x larger.. but not huge.

But in general is there a way to keep it closer to the original size without the password?

thanks!
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Jackie Man
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Joe Winograd
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And, yes, as Jackie posted, another idea is QPDF, as mentioned in idea (2) at my posts here and here. Note, also, the interesting use of it with batch files, scripts, and file managers. Regards, Joe
I use nitro pdf reader, it lets me do a "save as", type a new file name and voila I have a copy without a password.
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nitro seems easiest.  Have you seen that the save as is (much) bigger than the original file?
> nitro seems easiest

Probably the same effort as PDF-XChange Editor — remove the password and do a Save As. I just tested it on a 2MB file — the file it created was actually smaller:

before removing password: 1,945,642 bytes
after removing password: 1,944,907 bytes

Regards, Joe
I never really looked at the file sizes, but I'm sure if there were a huge difference I would have noticed, since I do some that need to be filled in and emailed back.  

You can get the free version here:  https://www.gonitro.com/pdf-reader
You can get the free version here:  https://www.gonitro.com/pdf-reader
Nitro's free PDF Reader does not allow you to change password security. I just installed the latest version (5.5.9.2), opened a password-protected file, then did File>Document Properties>Security. The Security Method drop-down shows Password security, but it is grayed out, so the password can't be removed. Likewise, I opened a non-password-protected file, then did File>Document Properties>Security. The Security Method drop-down shows No security, but, once again, it is grayed out, so a password can't be added. I'm guessing that you have to get Nitro Pro to have the Security Method feature ("guessing" because I don't have Nitro Pro). As already mentioned, the free PDF-XChange Editor does support the Security Method feature. Regards, Joe
You're welcome!
Joe - 1 last question if you don't mind.  I installed the free version of  PDF exchange editor, got to doc settings, turned off security and saved as a new file name. Then closed the app.

Repeated that for the other files with passwords, saving to a new name each time.

Then I tested the new files - no password needed, same size as the originals : )

Went to delete the old password protected PDFs and got a 'file in use' message.

Ran sysinternals process explorer I think it was.  There was a windows process - explorer and something like previewer? that had hooks into the files. Closed the windows explorer and still had issues.

Finally killed explorer in task manager and then ran it again to delete the files.  just a fluke or something with PDF xchange editor that you've seen too?
> no password needed, same size as the originals : )

Great news!

> Went to delete the old password protected PDFs and got a 'file in use' message.

Just tried it here — did not happen. Deleted the old password-protected PDF via my file manager with no message, no problem — even had the new non-password-protected PDF still open in PDF-XChange. So I guess I'll go with the "just a fluke" explanation. :)