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How to 'Flatten' in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

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We recently purchased Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and I'm trying to figure out how to take a document that I added a stamp to and flatten it so our users cannot delete the stamp from it. I have found the 'Flatten' option but it is greyed out. The only option in the menu available is 'Import as Layer'. How do I enable the 'Flatten' feature? In previous versions, I used a java script to flatten when the option was not available.

Edit and convert PDFs

Thom ParkerCorrect answer

Community Expert

The easy thing to do would be to download the free flatten tool linked above. It includes a page range.

Or the next easiest method is to run this code in the Console Window:

this.flattenPages(nPage);

where you replace "nPage" with the page number minus 1, because page numbers in the JavaScript model start at 0.

Here's a video turorial on the Console:

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/images/video/AcroJSIntro/AcroJSIntro_ConsoleWindow.cfm

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

Thom Parker

Community Expert

The flattening feature mentioned by kima74036004 is not for flattening annotations (i.e. stamps) into the page content. It is for something entirely different.

To preform real flattening you'd have to do one of three things.

1. Use the Preflight flattening mentioned in the previous post

2. Print to PDF or PS. This technique literally destroys the current struture of the PDF and rebuilds it. All non-visual data is lost. But it works. And it works with Reader.

3. Use the JavaScript flatten function. This is the easiest and most flexible flattening method. You'll find a free Add-in tool that uses this method here:

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

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Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

K

Kelly5EB6

Participant

I have several documents that need to be flattened, is there a way to flatten them all at once or do you have to do each one individually?

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Thom Parker

Community Expert

Use an Acrobat Action. Find the "Action Wizard" in the Acrobat Tool listing

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Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

K

Kristy5C7E

Participant

I have pdfs that have linked email addresses in them. Using the Preflight fix-up above does not remove the links and saving as an optimized pdf is not working either. Am I missing something or is there another way to remove the email links? Thanks

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Dorel

Participant

in the windows version you got to print, and save as a pdf, and that flattens the file, in the mac version there is some blockage that does not allow you to do this

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JR Boulay

Community Expert

This book explains why you never never never should refry a PDF:

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A68be905e-5698-4cd4-9a87-61e7ab9ba3fe

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Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Thom Parker

Community Expert

JR, I have to disagree with you on this point. As anti-refry as Leonard is (and I know this personally from all the conferences and events we used to attend. He's quite animated on the topic), even he admits in the article that refrying may be unavoidable, so use EPS, not PS.

However, all of the arguments in the article revolve around visual fidelity. In nearly all of the cases for my clients, visual fidelity is a very low level consideration. And I would say the same for nearly all the members of the Acrobat Forums. The top priority for these users is the usability of their workflow. I know that in every case Adobe will claim there is a solution that doesn't require refrying, and they are correct. However, I have dealt with very few individuals who would ever consider an AEM solution, on cost alone. Refrying is simple and effective for these users, who I think represent the vast majority. Is it ideal? absolutely not, but it's cheap and accessible, which is way more important.

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Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

M

mbmast

Known Participant

I ran this tool and it did not work for me. I have a PDF document with a single image "floating" over the document. If you click on it, only the image is selected. not the entire page. I want the image "flattened" so that the page appears the same, but if you click on what was the image, the page is selected. That's a pretty simple request, but this tool won't do that. I runs, it saves a new file, but the new file is identical to the old file; click on the image and only the image is selected.

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Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

Export the file as TIFF images.

Combine the images as a new PDF file.

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Luisito77

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the info.

However, using this method still leaves the resulting PDF file "editable" and NOT entirely flatten.

The script suggested works much better.

Cheers!

STAY SAFE

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wsyneswhirld

Participating Frequently

If the goal of flattening is to make the pdf text unselctable to edit, which was my goal, the simple way is to save it as a jpeg, then open it in an application like Photoshop and Save As a PDF. Flattened and uneditable.

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Scott Contracting

Participating Frequently

This worked perfectly to flatten form fields. Thank you!

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parkanian

Participant

Best flattening tool out there is UVSAR's selective flattener. It's a Creative Commons Share-alike license, so free to use and install, and it's an open source JS file: UVSAR : Selective Flattener tool for Adobe Acrobat 8, 9 and X

Places a menu item in the Edit menu called "Flatten" - WAY WAY WAY faster than any of the built-in options.

Alternatively, Foxit Phantom PDF has a nice implementation of Flatten, but they haven't implemented the full Adobe standard yet, so it may not be the best option if you need to do things like use digital signatures and/or view 3D PDFs.

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