Flatten PDF

Burns AcroForm appearances into the page and removes the form. It runs in this tab. The file is not uploaded.

A $6 day pass is 24 hours, charged once, and it does not renew. Pricing

No ad script loads from this choice. It stays in this browser.

What this flatten changes

Flatten PDF takes one PDF and downloads one file named flattened.pdf. The result is still one PDF, not a zip. The worker loads the file with pdf-lib and calls PDFForm.flatten. That call updates each widget appearance, draws the appearance into the page content as an XObject, and then removes the field. pdf-lib tags that XObject FlatWidget and then adds a random suffix, so the key looks like FlatWidget- followed by digits. A Helvetica text field that says Ada Lovelace stays extractable after the burn. Page text that says KEEP stays extractable too. The catalog AcroForm entry is deleted before save. A reloaded file has no AcroForm key. This tool does not rasterize, and the page is not turned into a picture. XFA is not supported. pdf-lib warns and deletes XFA, and this page does not claim an XFA form becomes ordinary page content. Comments and links that are not form fields stay. A link annotation keeps its URI. A text note keeps its contents. This is not redaction. A visible field value stays visible as page content. The document title stays. The info dictionary is not cleared, and image XMP inside a picture is not cleared. Remove PDF metadata is the separate page for those items.

The flatten runs in this tab with the open-source workers. The file is not uploaded. There is no GridFS copy. Open the network panel, drop a PDF, and that file should not appear as an upload. Closing the tab drops the copy. The browser downloads flattened.pdf. The Word page at /pdf-to-word uploads.

There is no page cap on this tool. The tab has to hold the file. There is no account on this page. This page does not need a pass. The day pass is $6, charged once, for 24 hours, and it does not renew. The year is $60 for 365 days. Neither charge is required to flatten a form here. The 20-page server cap is not this tool. That cap belongs to PDF to Word, OCR, and heavy compress.

An empty file fails with "This PDF could not be read." A PDF with no pages fails with "This PDF has no pages." A locked PDF stops with "Expected instance of PDFDict, but got instance of undefined", because the worker cannot read the encrypted page. Unlock PDF is the separate page. This page does not ask for a password and does not guess one.

Steps

Drop the file. It stays in this tab.
Set the one option on the page, if it has one.
Download the result. Closing the tab drops the copy.

Questions

Does flatten keep the typed words and drop the field?

Yes, when the field is an AcroForm text field with an appearance. A Helvetica field that says Ada Lovelace still yields Ada Lovelace, and page text that says KEEP still yields KEEP. The catalog AcroForm key is absent from the saved file. The field can no longer be edited. The tool does not turn the page into a picture.

Does flatten upload the PDF?

No. It runs in this tab. The file is not uploaded. Open the network panel, drop the file, and the PDF should not appear as an upload. Closing the tab drops the copy. You get one file named flattened.pdf. The original file on the computer is not rewritten. PDF to Word is the page that uploads.

Does flatten remove comments and links?

No. Comments and links that are not form fields stay. A link annotation keeps its URI. A text note keeps its contents. Only AcroForm fields are burned into the page and then removed. XFA is not supported. This is not redaction. A visible field value stays visible as page content. The document title stays.

Does this page need a pass?

No. This page does not need a pass. There is no account and no page cap on this local tool. The day pass is $6, charged once, for 24 hours, and it does not renew. The year is $60 for 365 days. Neither charge is required to flatten a form here. The 20-page server cap is not this tool. A pass does not flatten a form by itself.