Censor a PDF and a video before you send them in 2026
People censor a PDF or a video because the first open is otherwise the whole job. A Spike preview can show part of a document, or the first seconds of a clip. The file you uploaded is still the full one.
Censor a PDF and a video before you send them when the unpaid open would replace the job. A treatment PDF that shows every page is the book. A player that runs to the credits is the film. Spike can show a sample of the document, or the opening seconds of the clip, and keep the rest in the folder.
Spike does not rewrite your master into a tiny file. The preview is a rule on the view. The stored PDF is still the full PDF. The stored video is still the full video. If they should pay, checkout lifts the rule. If they should only look, leave the rule on.
A PDF: page one, or a percent
Page one is the blunt sample. Enough for a cover, a first spread, a contract header. A percent is the other censor: from 10% to 90% of the document visible. If you do not pick a number, the sample sits at 50%. Use a low percent when the later pages are the thing you sell. Use a high percent when they must read almost all of it to decide, and the last slice is the delivery.
- Page one only, when the rest of the book is the product.
- 10% to 90% visible, when a slice is fairer than a single page.
- 50% if you never set a number.
- The download after unlock is the PDF you uploaded, not the sample.
A video: a length, not a crush
Preview length runs from 1 second to 30. The player stops there. If someone seeks past it, they go back to the start. The number cannot outrun the file. A 2 second clip with the slider at 4 becomes 2, because there is no fourth second. That is the file, not a broken slider. On a 10 minute film, 8 seconds means 8 seconds.
Spike does not compress that download. The short play is the censor. The original is what you stored. How to send large video files. Put a watermark on the protected view if a clean frame from the clip would still be the poster.
Stills still want blur or a mark
A PDF and a video do not cover a JPEG. Blur that still from 4 to 48 pixels, or stamp a watermark of up to 48 characters. How to blur, watermark, and censor files. Use censor language for the clip and the document. Use blur when a sharp photo is the leak.
Match the censor to the file type.
Send a censored preview
Upload the full PDF or the full video
Do not pre-cut a worse master. The preview rule does the cutting on the view.
Set the sample
PDF: page one, or a percent. Video: 1 to 30 seconds, inside the length of the file.
Play it as they will
If the free view is the product, shorten it. If they cannot tell what it is, you hid too much.
Share the folder URL
Price it if they should pay. The selling fee is 5% on Free and 1% on Pro and Business, plus Stripe. Minimum £1.
When not to censor
- They already paid and you owe them the full file.
- The PDF is a one-page invoice they must read.
- The video is a 2 second sting and the preview cannot be longer than that.
Show a piece. Keep the work.
Censor a PDF and a video before you send them in 2026 by limiting the unpaid view: a page or a percent, or a handful of seconds. The folder still holds the original. What Spike is is that preview, not a second, worse export. If the pack arrived as a WeTransfer, censor it and sell the copy.
Questions
Good to know
Two shapes. Page one only, or a percent of the document. The percent runs from 10 to 90. The default sample is 50% if you do not set one. They can judge the work. They cannot scroll the whole book for free.
Keep reading
Related articles
Try the workflow in the article.
Upload a folder, protect the preview, share or sell from one link.