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S
SashaDB
Participant
February 1, 2016
Answered

Stamps not printing on .pdf (have used the 'flatten' feature)

  • February 1, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 4189 views

In our office, we use Adobe 9 Standard.  We use custom stamps on documents (our letterhead and signatures) and 'flatten' the document before putting password protection security on them (password protected from editing, but we do allow printing).  When we email the document to a client, they see the letterhead and signature, but when they print it out, those 'stamps' do not print.  Is there a way to ensure those stamps print on the client's copy of the document, other than policing the client's print settings on their end?  We though 'flatten' would do it, but it's not working like we thought.  We have several thousand clients that receive emailed documents from us with those stamps, and won't be able to check each of their print settings...

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Correct answer Dov Isaacs

We did solve the problem, off-forum.

Although in fact the stamps were being properly flattened into the pages content, the stamps were created using a spot color for which there was either no or an improper alternate color specified. Using Acrobat Pro's convert colors tool, the content in that Pantone Black 6C color were converted to grayscale after which, the document printed as expected.

           - Dov

2 replies

Dov Isaacs
Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
Legend
February 5, 2016

We did solve the problem, off-forum.

Although in fact the stamps were being properly flattened into the pages content, the stamps were created using a spot color for which there was either no or an improper alternate color specified. Using Acrobat Pro's convert colors tool, the content in that Pantone Black 6C color were converted to grayscale after which, the document printed as expected.

           - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
February 2, 2016

Exactly how are you “flattening” the stamps into the document?

And how do you know that this “flattening” has succeeded?

Depending upon how this is being done, they still might be seen as annotations, subject to print settings for printing annotations or not. (Note: Flattening transparency is not flattening annotations!)

            - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
February 2, 2016

Further thought since I realize you are using Acrobat 9 Standard.

With Acrobat 9 Standard, the only possibilities for “flattening” occur in the Save as Optimized PDF option.

There is an option to flatten transparency as part of the Transparency tab. That does not flatten stamps into the underlying document. Transparency is a totally separate dimension than stamps and other annotations.

There is an option to Flatten form field as part of the Discard Objects tab. This will take PDF forms objects and flatten them into the underlying document including their current values. Although both PDF forms objects and stamps are PDF annotations, stamps are distinctly different than PDF forms fields. The Flatten form field option only flattens PDF forms objects into the underlying document and not other annotations including stamps, highlights, cross-outs, stick-on notes, etc.

Only in Acrobat Pro do you have Preflight Profiles that are capable of generic flattening of all annotations into the underlying document.

However, if you know how to access JavaScript, a script with the single line

       this.flattenPages()

will flatten all annotations into the underlying stream including stamps, comments, forms, etc. Saving the PDF file after running this JavaScript would yield what you are looking for.

        - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
S
SashaDBAuthor
Participant
February 2, 2016

Good morning!  Thanks for your response.  We are currently running that JavaScript command on our documents.  After running that, we save the doc, then are not able to click on and move around the letterhead and signatures, so I'm pretty sure that works.  We then secure the doc from being able to be edited, then save.  When our clients receive the emailed document, they see the letterhead and signature on their screen, but when they print the document, neither is printing out on the document on their end.  We were fairly sure that the 'flatten pages' command was working until we received an emailed copy of a document back from a client with no letterhead and signature (and we're sure it was there when we sent to them; they confirmed seeing it on screen.)

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