How to Edit a Read Only PDF – 5 Powerful Methods

PDF has become very popular in modern times and is widely used in all areas of work, study, and personal life. One of the distinctive features of PDF is that it can be set to read-only, which mainly protects the integrity of the original PDF or unauthorized changes, etc. However, for those looking to edit read-only PDFs, what to do? Luckily, this blog will show you how to edit a read only PDF in 5 simple ways. Let's have a look!

It's annoying to meet a read only PDF as it prevents any modifications to the content, causing inconvenience during the editing process. But luckily, you can use a free and safe PDF editor called iTop PDF to convert read only PDF to edit.

Step Guide to Edit a Read Only PDF with iTop PDF

So, how to change read only PDF to editable using iTop PDF? Let's check it!

Step 1. Download and install iTop PDF on your PC > Run iTop PDF > Sign up for an iTop PDF account to begin your PDF editing journey.

Step 2. Click the Open PDF option located in the left column to import your PDF.

Step 3. Navigate to the Protect tab > Click the Decrypt option to enter the password to decrypt your PDF file.

Step 4. Now go to the Edit tab and then take advantage of the editing tools to modify the PDF content, such as adding texts, images, watermarks, links, bookmarks, etc.

After making the desired changes, you could combine, split, or delete pages from PDF before exporting it to your desktop.

More Powerful Features of iTop PDF:

• Add and Remove Password from PDF: iTop PDF allows you to easily add password protection to PDF files for enhanced security or remove password to facilitate editing.

• Add and Remove Watermark in PDF: With iTop PDF, you can easily add watermark to PDF for branding or security purposes or remove watermarks from PDFs as needed.

• Convert File Formats Between PDF and Word, Excel: iTop PDF can help you convert PDF files to editable Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Text, or Image formats and vice versa, enabling easy editing.

• Permanently Black Out Sensitive PDF Content: iTop PDF provides a PDF redact tool to permanently black out sensitive information in PDFs to ensure privacy.

• Comprehensive Editing Functions: iTop PDF offers a wide range of editing functions (such as text and image editing, merging, and splitting PDFs, adding annotations, and more) enabling you to customize PDFs for your specific needs.

Adobe Acrobat, developed by Adobe Systems, is one of the most popular PDF editors, which can also be used to convert read-only PDF files to edit. With the help of Adobe Acrobat, you can easily access and view PDFs both offline and online. Besides, it allows you to create, edit, manage, and print PDF files.

So, how to convert read only PDF to edit Adobe? Follow the steps below:

Step 1. Navigate to Adobe's official website > Download and install the latest version of Adobe Acrobat on your PC.

Step 2. Launch the Adobe Acrobat app > Upload your read only PDF file for editing > Decrypt your PDF file by clicking Tools > Protect > Encrypt > Remove Security.

Step 3. After removing the password, locate and click Edit PDF on the right sidebar. Here you can modify text, images, links, and other content as needed.

Main Features:

• View, edit, and generate PDFs with just a few clicks

• Transform your PDFs into various formats such as Excel, Word, and JPG

• Merge and reorganize your PDF files to ensure document management

Sejda is an online PDF editor that offers a wide range of features to work efficiently with PDF documents and lets you view, edit, create PDF forms, or compress PDF online. Most importantly, Sejda PDF editor is completely web-based, so you don't need to download it to your computer.

Now follow the instructions below to convert PDF into editable PDF using Sejda:

Step 1. Go to the Sejda PDF editor online website > Click the Edit a PDF document – it's free option > Click the Upload PDF file button to upload your PDF > Enter the password of your PDF and click Continue.

Step 2. Then, a window will appear, and you need to select the desired PDF file from your device > Choose the file you wish to edit and click Open to upload it to the Sejda website.

Step 3. Once uploaded successfully, an array of editing options will appear on the screen, such as Text, Links, Forms, Images, Signs, and more.

Main Features:

• User-friendly and easy-to-use interface

• Wide compatibility with Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone, and Tablet

• Sign in using popular cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive

Google Docs is one free software offered by Google, which offers 15GB of free storage space to manage your files including PDFs. With this online PDF to Word tool, you can access and edit your documents from any location and at any convenient moment.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to edit a read only PDF with Google Docs:

Step 1. Sign into Google Drive account using your Gmail account and then click New > File upload to upload your PDF file to Google Drive.

Step 2. Locate your PDF file and double-click it > Click Open with Google Docs at the top of the screen.

Step 3. On this page, you can edit read only file by changing the font, font size, adding images, inserting links, etc.

Main features:

• Seamlessly connect to other Google apps

• Experience collaboration from any location

• The utmost privacy safeguards for your data

If you are using a Mac, Apple Preview is also a free PDF editor which is an integral part of every macOS version, offering a comprehensive set of tools to effortlessly handle PDFs. Apple Preview seems to be a simple image editor, but the search bar hides a plethora of powerful markup tools such as adding text and shapes, editing content, hand sketching, inserting sticky notes, and more.

Here is a full guide on how to edit a read only PDF with Apple Preview:

Step 1. Open your read only PDF file in Preview on Mac.

Step 2. Locate the editing tools on the toolbar, and you can modify your PDF file as you need.

Main features:

• Easily add annotations, highlights, shapes, and comments

• Allows basic image editing, such as rotating, cropping, etc.

• Extract specific pages or content from a PDF and export it to other formats

1. Why is PDF non editable?

To preserve the document's formatting, layout, and content across different platforms and devices, PDF files are non-editable by default. If you need to edit a PDF file, you can make use of PDF editors to convert the PDF to edit.

2. How do I remove protection from a PDF?

The way to remove password protection from a PDF is different depending on different tools. If you use the iTop PDF editor, you can go to the Protect section to decrypt your PDF file by entering the password.

3. Are there any restrictions or risks in editing read-only PDF files?

Editing read-only PDF files may have certain limitations and risks, depending on the specific tool used for editing. If you are concerned about the risk of compromising the integrity of your document, you could consider using a secure and professional PDF editor to convert read only PDF to edit.

The Bottom Line

After reading this blog, you may know how to edit a read only PDF. There are five useful PDF editors that can help you convert read only PDF to edit. If you find yourself working with PDF files on a regular basis, iTop PDF is an excellent choice. With this PDF editor, you can convert between PDFs and other files, edit PDFs easily, or even reduce PDF size without losing quality, etc. Try it out!

What makes iTop PDF a must-have software?

• Edit PDF smoothly without hassle
• Convert PDF to any format in high quality
• Split and Merge PDF files easily and quickly
• Add e-signature effortlessly to your PDF

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