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Flatten a PDF

Make filled form fields, comments and stamps part of the page, so they print as shown and can’t be changed.

Your files never leave your device. Everything happens in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded, and closing the tab erases it.

How it works

  1. Drop the filled-in PDF.
  2. Press Flatten and download.
  3. Send the flattened copy. Your original stays as it was.

Questions

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. It’s flattened in your browser with qpdf, a long-standing open-source PDF tool. Nothing is sent anywhere.

What does flattening do?

Form fields, check boxes, comments, highlights and stamps stop being separate layers and become part of the page. They look the same, but nobody can edit or remove them.

Why flatten a form before sending it?

So the answers show the same in every app and printer, and the person who gets it can’t change them. Some offices ask for flattened forms for that reason.

Can I undo it?

Not in the flattened copy. Keep the original if you may need to change the answers later.

Is the text still searchable?

Yes, by default: the answers are drawn into the page as text. Pick “Pages as images” if you want every page turned into a picture instead, so nothing can be copied or edited.

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