Tools

Flatten PDF

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Lock form fields and comments into the pages, or make the PDF look scanned.

or paste with CtrlV PDF

Your files never leave your device

About this tool

Flatten a PDF so it can’t be edited

This tool flattens a PDF in your browser. Form fields, comments and highlights are drawn into the pages, so nobody can edit them any more, and the form’s data leaves the file. Or choose Look scanned: every page becomes a picture at the resolution you pick, as if it had been scanned. Your PDF is never sent anywhere.

Fields and comments become part of the page

A filled-in form keeps its answers in fields that anyone can change. Comments, highlights and stamps sit on top of the page and can be moved or deleted. Flattening draws all of them into the page itself, exactly as they look now, so what you see is what everyone gets, in every viewer and on every printer.

The form’s data is taken out of the file too, not just hidden: after flattening, the answers exist only as ink on the page. The text of a field stays text you can select and search.

Bookmarks, tags, the title and author, and every picture and line of text stay as they were. PDFs with nothing to flatten are handed back as they are, and the row says so.

Make a PDF look scanned

Sometimes a PDF has to look like a paper copy: a form that was filled in on a computer but has to go in as a scan, or a document that should not be searched or copied from. Look scanned draws every page at 150, 200 or 300 dpi and keeps it as a picture, in colour, greyscale or black and white. Pages keep their size.

Switch on Scanner look and each page gets a slight skew, the warm tint of paper, soft edges and a little noise, the way a real scan has. It is not random: the same PDF gets the same look every time.

The pages are pictures, so the text can no longer be selected, searched or read aloud. A higher resolution is sharper and makes a bigger file. The file can come out larger or smaller than the PDF you started with: a page of text grows, while a page that was already a photograph can shrink. Black and white is the smallest.

What flattening takes away

Flattening can’t be undone, so keep the original. On pages that had form fields or comments, links stop working, because a link is an annotation too. A digital signature stops checking out, as after any change to a signed PDF.

A PDF protected with a password asks for it on the file before it opens, and the flattened copy has no password. One whose author doesn’t allow changes can’t have its forms flattened: Unlock PDF takes that off first, and the others work as usual. To make the file smaller afterwards, compress it.

How it works

  1. Add your PDFs

    Drop them in or choose them from your device. Each one shows its first page.

  2. Choose how to flatten

    Forms and comments bakes in what was typed or drawn. Look scanned turns the pages into pictures: pick a resolution and a colour mode.

  3. Press Flatten, then save

    You get a copy of each PDF, named after it. Save one file, or all of them as a .zip.

Questions, answered

What does it mean to flatten a PDF?

Flattening turns the parts of a PDF that can be changed, like form fields and comments, into part of the page. They look the same, but they can’t be edited, moved or deleted any more.

Can I still select the text in a flattened form?

Yes. Flattening in the Forms and comments way keeps text as text. Only Look scanned turns pages into pictures, and then the text can’t be selected.

How do I make a PDF look like it was scanned?

Choose Look scanned, pick a resolution, and press Flatten. Switch on Scanner look to add the slight skew, paper tint and noise of a real scan. Black and white gives the plainest copy-machine look.

Why is the scanned PDF bigger than my original?

Every page is now a picture, and a picture of text takes more room than the text itself. Lower the resolution, or choose greyscale or black and white, to make it smaller.

Will flattening remove what someone typed into the form?

It stays visible on the page, but only as part of the page. The fields that held it are taken out of the file, so it can’t be read from them or changed.

Is my PDF sent anywhere when I flatten it?

No. The pages are drawn and saved by engines running in your browser, so the PDF never leaves your device and there’s nothing to sign in to.

Everything happens on your device, so your files never leave your computer or phone.

Form fields, comments and highlights are drawn into the pages and can no longer be edited. Text stays text.Forms and comments

Forms and comments
Flatten PDF settings

Flatten

Form fields, comments and highlights are drawn into the pages and can no longer be edited. Text stays text.

What changes

Everything that was typed, ticked or drawn on top of the pages is drawn into them. The form’s data is taken out of the file. Links stop working on the pages that had fields or comments. Bookmarks, text and pictures stay as they are.

A digital signature stops checking out, as after any change to a signed PDF. A PDF whose author doesn’t allow changes can’t be flattened this way.

Add PDFs to flatten them