Participant

Answered

How to flatten an image in Adobe Acrobat Standard DC

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
February 18, 2016
7 replies
64789 views

Im just trying to flatten an image in Adobe Acrobat and I cant figure out how to do it. This is rediculous. so frustrated. I went to the layers tab and opened the option menu but the is no option to flatten. Please make this easier. Why do I not have an option to do this. or why is it so hidden. stupid!!!!!!!!!! so much easier in Bluebeam.

Correct answer Test Screen Name

Flatten means at least 3 different things in a PDF, and none of them relate to images. So please explain what you want to happen, and we may be able to help you get to your aim.

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staylor.DS.12650

Participant

Its 2024 and this is the only place I found that addressed this question, so I'd like to offer what I figured out after weeks of trying... unless of course, this is addressed somewhere else within the conversation. I currently use Adobe Standard 2020 and if you only need to flatten in order to reduce the file size, here are the steps that worked for me

Step 1 – open Page Thumbnails on the left side toolbar
Step 2 – Choose View > Page Navigation > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Layers (you can right click here and add Layers to the toolbar)
Step 3 – On the left view screen, all of the layers are listed (if there are none, no need to flatten)
Step 4 – At the top, underneath the Layers heading, click the dropdown box and select Collapse All
Leave the original as is and save the Collapsed file separately (for security purposes). Compare the kb/mb size of each, the Collapsed file should be considerably smaller.

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Gerard235806346bqg

Participant

I was equally frustrated. Simple solution (I'm working with Acrobat XI). Go to this page and download: "Flatten Comments and Form Fields" It will add the utility to your Tools/Action Wizard directory. Don't even have to know Javascript. Other great tools are on that website: https://acrobatusers.com/actions-exchange/?trackingid=JZXYQ

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Or one can use File > Save As Other... > Optimized PDF and select Discard Object section and then Flatten Form Fields.

It's been a while since I used XI, but it had the Optimize PDF option (but may not be under Save As Other menu).

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

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Test Screen Name

Legend

To my knowledge they never came with Acrobat. Did you personally install Acrobat on your own computer? Could be a company standard.

jynx4933

Participant

I did do the install, the version that I was running previously was Acrobat 9 Standard and was from a disc. As far as I know I never added any scripts or downloaded any add-ons. Now that doesn't mean that something may not have installed during an update, but I personally never added any scripts. Prior to getting my new PC and installing the the current Pro 2017 software, I had used only that version.

There is a part of me that wants to install it so that I can get a screen grab of the toolbar that I am talking about straight off the factory install or perhaps I can get to it from my older machine. I honestly am not a computer wiz and all the talk about having to add user level folders and changing code for newer versions is off-putting. We paid a lot of money for the software and to have , what we consider, basic functions taken away that everyone in our small office has used regularly seems up until now is disheartening. I know we don't hold several hundred licenses and our contribution is trivial in the grand scheme, but when I can download a free software, or a much less expensive software that has these functions readily available, I feel a bit cheated. I mean, you have my money at this point, so haha, jokes on me I guess, but if the functionality of the new version is too cumbersome, or if we can't find a way past some of the interface issues then I suppose we will have to move on to a different software platform that can give us the tools we need.

I understand that things need to change. I am a creature of habit, and I went and got Adobe because it was familiar (I thought) and I felt I could pick right up and continue working on things right where I left off, but to be honest, the lost productivity from trying to figure out how to do some of the simplest things that had been relatively old hat could have been just as well put towards becoming more familiar with a different software at this point.

I am not the only one in our small office that is having the same issue as we are upgrading several PC's, so I suppose we will just have to find a way to work with the new interface, or we will look for other options. I like adobe and have for years, but jumping to this newer version, I feel like it has been "fixed til it is broke".

Thank you all for your replies, and I hope that I can find a solution to this issue that works for me. If not, I will adapt or move on to something else.

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mattinfll

Participating Frequently

OK, this is insane. I have been using Bluebeam and another program for a few years, and purchased Standard DC with a new computer. We all know what flatten means. The last time I had Acrobat Pro it was a standard menu command. It's easy to find in Bluebeam, etc. You flatten a document so that all the elements and layers become one on the page and uneditable. These responses of "what do you mean by flatten" are maddening. You all know there used to be a "flatten" command in drop down menus.

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gkaiseril

Inspiring

With JavaScript and folder level files one can add custom commands to the Acrobat/Reader menu bar or tool bars. I do not remember seeing this as a provided command in previous versions. But many posters here have provided a JavaScript file that can be used to add such a command with many possible options for the flattening process. With Acrobat Pro there is a Pre-flight tool to flatten a PDF file. For versions prior to the introduction of the Acrobat Pro variation, the Pre-Flight processing was part of Acrobat.

Dov Isaacs

Legend

You are reading way too much into my comments, but nonetheless, I stand by them. "flatten" is and has been a standard menu item across most pdf editing platforms (including Acrobat Pro). And most of the people, like me, who replied here looking for an answer, were also dumbfounded that our use of the term would be a mystery. I was not rude and I think you missed the part where I said "thank you for your reply" .

At any rate, my frustration is ultimately with Adobe. I am upset I paid for a program that is really no better to me than their free Reader, and now I will have to spend another $150 for Nitro or Foxit to get a function that should be pretty basic.

@Matthew Moore,

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated and as a member of Acrobat development organization, I feel that it is important to clean the air here:

(1) Adobe endorses the comments of others on this thread that there isn't a single meaning to the word “flattening” when it comes to PDF! Regrettably, there are at least three separate meanings to the word “flattening.”

The first relates to “transparency flattening” in which all objects that are not 100% opaque are “flattened” / blended into totally opaque objects.

The second relates to reducing the number of “layers” defined in a PDF file to a single layer.

The third relates to taking annotations including forms fields (forms fields are actually PDF annotations) and merging (i.e., “flattening”) them into the PDF file's content streams — such “flattened” content no longer are editable as annotations or fillable/selectable as form fields.

A fourth, much less common use of the term “flattening” is to convert all content on each page of a PDF file into one, big honk'in raster image in the mistaken belief that this somehow provides more “protection” to the PDF file (it doesn't but does significantly increase file size and decrease rendering quality). There was never a drop down menu in any Acrobat version to do this!!

(2) Each of these three functions can be accessed from functions from within Acrobat DC Pro. Transparency flattening is a function within the Print Production Tools. The layer flattening capability is found in the left hand pane's layer's palette drop down menu and is only active if your PDF file has more than one layer. The flattening of annotations (including form fields) into the PDF content stream is available as a fixup under Preflight or alternatively can be performed via JavaScript. These options are not and have never been to my knowledge part of Acrobat Standard, a product aimed at the more simple needs of office workers and casual users.

(3) In terms of what you describe, You flatten a document so that all the elements and layers become one on the page and uneditable sounds like a combination of the third and fourth interpretations of “flattening” per above, except that even if you “flatten” annotations and form fields into the content stream and then convert the page into a raster image within the PDF file, the content is still editable via Photoshop.

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

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TallPaulThatsAll

Participant

I am a lawyer who files documents on the websites for the US courts, particularly the US bankruptcy court. I use Acrobat Professional XI. From time to time I file a PDF court form with fillable fields which I have filled in. I used to "flatten" these particular docs by printing the PDF to PDF.

There has either been an update to the US courts system, to Adobe Acrobat, or maybe my Word program. In any event, I only have the choice "Microsoft Print to PDF" when I print inside the Acrobat program, and I cannot form a "flattened" image.

Last week I tried again to "flatten" the image, but could not and I filed the doc with the courts without flattening. The court called and pointed out the problem is that without flattening, the fillable fields in the doc I filed can be further edited by anyone.

So, how do I flatten, or what more info do you need to know.

Karl Heinz Kremer

Community Expert

As you’ve probably read, flattening a file can mean a number of different things. Because you are specifically referring to form fields, I assume that flattening interactive content is all you need to do. There should be no need to actually print the document to PDF (or, what we usually refer to as "refrying" the PDF file). You can install a free flattening tool that allows you to convert interactive content to static PDF content (and then it's indistinguishable from any non-forms related PDF content). You can find such a tool here for example:

Free Acrobat Automation Tools

Look for the "Flatten Page Content Tool" on that page.

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defaultw0c0813hy387

Participant

It's been five years since you posted. But thank you and thank Google for finding this link for me.

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Test Screen NameCorrect answer

Legend

Flatten means at least 3 different things in a PDF, and none of them relate to images. So please explain what you want to happen, and we may be able to help you get to your aim.

trevorc26844455Author

Participant

I have a PDF with a image that I can select and move around within the PDF, I want this image to be flattened onto the document so when I click on the image it wont select the image. Or when I add a comment to a PDF and then I want to flatten it so nobody can alter my comment.

It is a simple button 'Flatten' on other programs I have used. With Adobe Acrobat its like I have to know how to write code in order for it to do what I want.

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gkaiseril

Inspiring

One needs Acrobat Professional to have access to the Prefight flatten feature or one needs to use the JavaScript "this.flattenPages()".. Flattening only flattens annotations (comments, text boxes, lines, etc.) and form fields.

You can use preflight to flatten layers, but layers in a PDF is not always like layers in an image. All the layers visisble will flattened to I layer. That includes text content and image content but images will still be images.

trevorc26844455Author

Participant

what is 'preflight flatten feature' and where do I find it. my god this program is confusing. I am not going to use Java script just to flatten a PDF, that's ridiculous. I will switch to a different program before I do that.

Can you just send me a link to the most applicable user guide and I can read that. I have been searching all day and cant find what I need.

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