Document Expiry
Safeguard’s PDF expiry options enables document publishers to automatically expire PDF files so they can no longer be used after a certain amount of time. The following options are available:
- expire documents on a specific date
- expire documents after a number of days
- expire documents after a number of views
- expire documents after a number of prints
These options can also be used together so that you can enter say a number of days/views/prints and a fixed date and whatever occurs first causes the document to expire. You might for example want a user to be able to use your documents for a 15 day trial period but those documents will expire on a fixed date regardless if the trial period is used or not.
Expiry dates can be changed on the administration system at any time and you can increase the number of views/prints available for each user.
How to set an expiration date on a PDF
To create a PDF file that expires on a date:
In the Safeguard Writer Expiry tab, select ‘Document Expires at” and then from the date selection dialog, select an expiry date (the date the PDF will expire on).

The PDF document will expire on this date for all users.
You can edit the PDF expiration date in the Safeguard Admin system if you want to change it at any stage.
How to set a PDF expiration date for individual user access
You can set an expiration date on a PDF for individual users – in this case, access to the PDF can be set to expire at different dates for each user.
This is done from the Safeguard Adminstration system when granting user access to a PDF document:
- Grant Limited Access
Grants access to the document with specific start and end dates. The dates you select will determine the time frame that the PDF document is made available to the user.

You can use this method to control PDF expiration regardless of whether you have set an expiration date on a PDF or not.
If a document also has a fixed expiry date then the Until date cannot exceed that – in other words you cannot extend access beyond a document’s expiry date.
How to set PDF expiry in days
To create a PDF file that expires after a number of days from first use:
In the Safeguard Writer Expiry tab, select ‘Document Expires after” and then enter the number of days after which the PDF will expire.

The PDF document will expire after the number of days you enter here from when it was first opened. This will be different for each user if they first open the document on different dates.
How to make a PDF expire after a number of opens (views) or prints
You can make a PDF expire after a number of opens or prints – this is allocated to each user, so each user is given the number of opens or prints you set here.
In the Safeguard Writer Printing & Viewing tab, select the number of print copies and views allowed.

If you set both a view and print limit then expiry of the document will occur when whatever is reached first.