I must send contract drafts containing tax ID numbers to our external accountant. Encrypt the PDF so only the accounta…
Open Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Go to the Tools pane and select Action Wizard.
Click New Action to create a new batch process.
In the action builder, under Choose tools to add, expand Protect and double-click Encrypt with Certificate to add it to your action steps.
Optional: Add any additional steps (such as Save or Move) if needed.
Click Save, name your action, and click Save again.
Run your new action by clicking its name in the Action Wizard list.
When prompted, select all the PDF files you want to encrypt and click Open.
Follow the prompts to select the certificate(s) to use for encryption and configure the encryption settings as needed.
CautionAll selected PDFs will be encrypted with the chosen certificate(s); ensure you have access to the correct public keys.
Complete the action and verify that all PDFs have been encrypted with certificate security.
Best practiceIf you frequently batch-encrypt PDFs, save your action for future use to streamline your workflow.
You can automate certificate encryption for multiple PDFs by creating and running a custom Action in the Action Wizard.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
Certificate encryption is stronger because it uses unique keys for each recipient, meaning no shared secret like a password. If a password is leaked, anyone can open the PDF. With certificates, only the specific recipient with their private key can open it, even if the encrypted file is shared widely. This makes it much more secure for sensitive, targeted sharing.
You must add your own certificate to the list of recipients. If you do not, you will lock yourself out and cannot open the PDF again. This ensures you always have access to your own encrypted documents.
Trusted identities are a list of people whose digital certificates you trust. For certificate encryption to work, you need to have the public key of each recipient. These public keys come from their certificates, which you manage in your trusted identities list. This ensures you are encrypting for the correct, verified individuals.
Certificate encryption is perfect for this. You would get the public certificate for each of the five recipients. When you encrypt the PDF, you select all five of their public keys, plus your own. This way, only those five people (and you) can decrypt and read the document using their unique private keys. No one else, even if they get the file, can open it without a matching private key.