Content disappears when I flatten a pdf

[jmt111]

Content disappears when I flatten certain pdfs. Specifically, I have noted that Text Boxes vanish in some of my PDFs when I flatten them. How do I prevent this from happening? 

[Dave__M]

That's certainly not supposed to happen!  Can you share some more information?  What program/version/OS?  And what technique are you using to flatten the PDF?  You mentioned "certain PDFs" are affected.  Are they related?  Created from the same source application? Same person?  Have you had a chance to try to flatten them on another computer?

Anything you can provide might help troubleshoot this issue.

My best,

Dave

[Thom Parker]

How are you flattening and why?  

What type of thing are these text boxes? Are they form fields? Do they contain text?

[Luke Jennings]

I suspect the vanishing text boxes are annotations or form fields. If so, you can run preflight fixups (Tools> Print Production> Preflight> Fixups) to flatten the annotations or form fields into the page content. 

[jmt111]

Dave_M: I am using Version 10.1.16 of Adobe Acrobat X on Windows 10 Pro. To flatten a PDF, I go to:

Print Production | Preflight | Flatten annotations and form fields | Analyze and fix | Save as a new version.

I have not found a relationship between PDFs in which this occurs. It appears to be random. I have not tried to flatten them on another computer. I am not even sure if my license allows me to install Acrobat X on another computer.

Luke_Jennings: The vanishing text boxes are text boxes that I add to my PDFs by going to Tools | Content | Add or Edit Text Box.

You said to “run preflight fixups (Tools> Print Production> Preflight> Fixups) to flatten the annotations or form fields into the page content.” I believe this refers to the same steps that I am following, which I referred to above.

[Luke Jennings]

I don't have Acrobat X (or a windows machine) but I can't replicate your issue with Acrobat DC.

Are you fully updated? Are you viewing the PDF in Acrobat or Reader, with Output Preview showing all colors? (the added text may be RGB). In Acrobat X, Do you see a preflight named "Discard hidden content and flatten visible layers"? Try that.

[Thom Parker]

Do these text boxes contain text?  

If they do, then what are the visibility settings? Flattening may remove items that are set to be visible on the page, but not print. 

Have you considered using the JavaScript Flatten? This is much more convenient and controllable option than the preflight tool.

[jmt111]

• I am using viewing the PDF in Acrobat.
• I am not sure whether Output Preview is showing all colors.
• In Acrobat X, I do not see a preflight named "Discard hidden content and flatten visible layers.” Is that under PDF fixups in Preflight?
• The text boxes contain text. I am not sure of the visibility settings. I assume they are set to be visible, but I am not sure how to check.
• Is Javascript flatten a tool in Acrobat X?
• The reason I am flattening is I want to embedd text boxes and images that I have added to PDFs into the PDF so that users cannot select them and delete them or enter the text boxes and change the text. 

[Luke Jennings]

Output preview can be found under Print production tools. It is a very useful tool.

If you are not ready to upgrade to Acrobat DC, you can download the free Acrobat Reader, which is an excellent PDF viewer. Set the page display overprint preview preference to Always for reliable, accurate viewing.

The Discard hidden content preflight can be found under Fixups> Layers.

Flattening your PDF will not prevent someone from editing your PDF. There are several ways to make a PDF harder to edit, the best is probably password protection to prevent editing. Other methods include outlining all of the type (makes the type slightly less attractive on-screen due to loss of type hinting) or rasterizing the PDF (converting it to an image by opening it in Photoshop and saving as a Photoshop PDF, which will make a much larger PDF.

[Thom Parker]

You've got the right idea for adding an sort of protecting the content. 

You can download a free flatten tool here:

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/Free_Acrobat_Automation_Tools.cfm

Unfortunately the visibility settings for a text box annotation can only be found/set from a script.

I would first try the JavaScript flatten tool. It acts slightly differently from the preflight flatten, and once it's installed it's much more convenient than using preflight.