Once a form is filled in, flattening bakes the answers into the page so they cannot be edited or accidentally cleared, and so they print reliably everywhere. Choose a light flatten that keeps text selectable, or a full flatten that turns every page into an image.
How to flatten a PDF
- Choose the filled-in PDF.
- Select whether to flatten just form fields or everything.
- Flatten and download.
Good to know
- Form flattening draws each field’s current appearance onto the page and removes the interactive field.
- Full flattening rasterises pages at 200 dpi. Text then cannot be selected – run OCR PDF afterwards if you need searchable text.
Frequently asked questions
Why flatten a PDF?
To stop recipients changing form answers, to make annotations visible in every viewer, and to avoid printing problems.
Can a flattened PDF be unflattened?
No. Keep your original if you might need to edit the form again.
Does it work with signatures?
Visible signature images are kept. Cryptographic digital signatures are invalidated by any change to the file.