# Flatten PDF

Flatten a PDF so form fields, annotations, stamps and layers become part of the page and cannot be edited. Free, and the file never leaves your device.

Canonical page: https://filetity.com/flatten-pdf

## Capabilities

- Free: Yes, with no watermark and no page limit.
- Account required: No. There is no account system.
- Processed on device: Yes. The file is read by your browser and never uploaded. There is no server to send it to.
- Formats: Any PDF in. PDF out, with the fields gone and, if you pick the wider route, every annotation and layer fixed in place too.
- Limits: Flattening the fields needs a PDF that has them; without them the page offers to redraw the pages instead. Redrawing turns text into pixels, so nothing is selectable, searchable or readable by a screen reader afterwards, and the file usually grows. Neither can be undone from the result, so keep the original.
- Mobile: Yes, on any modern mobile browser. Large files are limited by the memory the phone gives the browser.
- Offline: Yes, after you have used it once. Your browser keeps what the tool needs, so it then works with no network connection.

## Questions

### Does it flatten annotations and layers, or only form fields?

Both, by two different routes, and they are not interchangeable. Flattening the fields is precise: the values become page content, the fields disappear, and the text stays text you can select, search and copy. It cannot touch an annotation, a highlight, a stamp or a layer, because those are not fields. For those, the page redraws every sheet and rebuilds the PDF from the pictures, which fixes absolutely everything in place. The cost is worth knowing before you press it: the text becomes pixels, so nothing is selectable or readable by a screen reader afterwards, and the file usually gets bigger rather than smaller.

### What does flattening a PDF actually mean?

A filled form stores your answers in editable field objects that sit on top of the page. Flattening draws those answers into the page and deletes the fields, so the result is one ordinary document. The words look identical; the difference is that they can no longer be clicked into and changed.

### Why would I want to?

So the recipient cannot alter what you sent, and so it renders the same everywhere. Editable fields are drawn by the reader, and readers disagree, which is why a form can look right on your machine and empty on theirs. Flattened text is just text.

### Can I undo it?

No. The fields are gone. Keep the unflattened original if there is any chance you will need to change an answer.

### Does it flatten annotations and highlights too?

It flattens form fields. Comments, highlights and sticky notes are annotations rather than fields and are left as they are.

### Why does it say the form is XFA?

Because it is an XFA form, an older Adobe technology that stores the form as XML inside the PDF. The engine here cannot read those fields, and most PDF readers cannot fill them either. The refusal happens as soon as the file is opened, before any flattening. Open it in Adobe Acrobat, or print it and fill it by hand.

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