Where people have found a problem is with the “copy text, images or other content” setting: they have opened a PDF that can be printed without a password, but Big Sur prevents them from choose Save as PDF-in fact, many options are grayed out in the PDF menu. However, there was an exemption of sorts prior to Big Sur that Apple appears to have closed.
If the password option is set for printing, then when you attempt to print, you must enter a password ditto, copying is locked down. PDF files can be protected in various ways, and when using the Print function in macOS and choose the pop-up menu item PDF > Save as PDF, you can click Security Options and set one password for opening the document at all, and another password for either or both restricting the ability to “copy text, images and other content” or to print the document.
The Save as PDF option in Print lets you set granular security on a created document. Users who rely on the Preview app in macOS for viewing PDFs report that a minor change is causing major headaches.
