CLI · ONE DEPENDENCY · MIT

fuckadobe

A small, dependency-light CLI that strips Adobe's security theater out of PDFs — locked form fields, post-signature locks, usage-rights restrictions, and portfolio wrapping — so any other program (or person) can actually use the file.

View on GitHub Usage

Two modes

normal (default)

Keeps every field, value, and signature exactly as-is. Strips encryption, owner-password permissions, field & signature locks, and Adobe's usage-rights/certification extensions.

nuclear -m nuclear

For files too mangled to trust: rasterizes every page, discards every original PDF object, and rebuilds a fresh AcroForm on top — same fields, same positions, pre-filled with the original values, but unsigned.

portfolios

Any PDF portfolio is automatically collapsed into one conjoined PDF: cover pages plus every embedded file, appended in order.

Usage

# install
pip install .

# unlock a signed, field-locked form in place
fuckadobe locked-contract.pdf
# -> locked-contract_deadobe.pdf

# nuke a file that's beyond trusting; get a clean, refillable copy with the original values intact
fuckadobe mangled-form.pdf -m nuclear --dpi 300
# -> mangled-form_nuked.pdf

# collapse a portfolio and merge in a cover sheet
fuckadobe cover.pdf case-portfolio.pdf -o case-combined.pdf

# open a PDF that needs a password first
fuckadobe encrypted.pdf -p correct-horse-battery-staple

What normal mode actually removes

/Lock

Field lock dictionaries, cleared up the /Parent chain so shared/radio-group locks go too.

ReadOnly flag

The bit Adobe sets on fields after a signature "locks" them.

AppendOnly

AcroForm SigFlags bit that forces incremental-only updates.

/Perms & /Extensions

UR3 usage rights, DocMDP certification, Reader-extension markers.

Limitations

Doesn't crack passwords you don't know — a PDF that needs a password to open still needs -p.
Nuclear mode is intentionally lossy: a page raster plus a freshly built form layer, not a byte-faithful copy.
Dynamic XFA forms are refused outright — their real content is XML only Adobe's renderer turns into pages, so there's nothing real to unlock or rasterize. Hybrid XFA forms (with a real static fallback) are unaffected.
Non-PDF, non-image portfolio attachments get a placeholder page rather than inline rendering.