November 8th, 2023, 20:14 UTC

macOS

Hostile software: In this case, Apple Preview

I opened a PDF of a Renfe train ticket in Preview. I wanted to remove some colourful advertising from it before printing, to avoid wasting ink, but I was prevented from doing so by document permissions:

Apple Preview dialog asking for a password

It was easy to work around though, right within Preview. I went to print the locked PDF, chose the PDF option in the print dialog, then selected “Open in Preview”:

Print > PDF > Open in Preview

An apparently perfect copy of the original opened up, but now I could edit it.