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Answered

Mac: Flattening PDF - is it possible?

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
January 14, 2017
6 replies
29030 views

I'm trying to secure and flatten files to be sold on TeachersPayTeachers. They require that PDFs be flattened and secured.

I've been doing research for about two days on this and no one seems to be able to give an answer. It seems to be possible on a PC but not a Mac. There's a lot of discussion about flattening and the different types of flattening and that if someone is determined to 'lift' something from your PDF, they're going to anyway...but no answers on the forums.

The type of flattening I'm after is going to basically create one layer so that when you click on it, it doesn't select the square around an image. Or allow you to highlight text. Basically an image...except if I just save the document as images through PPT, the output quality through Office for Mac is woeful (Microsoft removed the ability to export 300dpi images with the later editions of Office).

I followed this guide, but it didn't flatten anything on my PDF - Teacher Ink: How to Flatten and Secure Adobe PDFs

I have tried Tools > Print Production > Flattener Preview. It does nothing but drastically increase the size of the file (I'm talking at least 100x the size). The images can still be clicked and their outline highlighted and text can still be highlighted. The file is too big to upload to the sites that will shrink the file size of PDFs (and probably also compromises the copyright integrity of the file).

I realise that copying this can be stopped by securing the file against copying and changes and I have done this. However, terms of use say that I must also flatten it so that the images themselves can't be selected.

This similar question didn't get answered. DRM is not needed - just flattening layers.

How do I "flatten" a document in Adobe Acrobat DC?

Hopefully someone can help!

Edit: I should also clarify. I went into the Layers section and there don't appear to be any layers within the document. So I can't just merge them.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Test Screen Name

That link fully answered the question, though I can see it isn't the answer you wanted.

There's lot of terminology in PDF that's different from other apps. In fact what you say you want to do isn't flattening, and doesn't involve layers (though if you were working in Photoshop that's exactly what it would be).

Flattening is mainly used to mean ONE OF

* "flatten transparency so it isn't transparent any more". That's what the flattener preview does.

* "flatten form fields so they are now a regular part of the document"

* "remove all layers". PDF layers are optional and a way to make things visible or invisible. Nothing to do with editability.

What you seem to want is "rasterising". Acrobat has no tools to do this. Consider opening in Photoshop and saving as PDF, if you really must do this terrible thing! Realise that Acrobat continually improves editing. In Acrobat DC, if it finds a page is a single big image, it will recognise the text and make it editable. Making rasterising pretty much pointless, just making a huge file with no protection.

C

Christopher5CD2

Participant

This is an arrogant response and does not answer the question. I think it is clear what the user needs and I have the same trouble. It is a shame that such a simple feature cannot be supported by Adobe. Instead, this company supports a user chastising people like me for trying have our own discretion when using this application.

You do not get to decide what is a best practice for security in my industry. This is a common need and, however insulting it is to your delicate pdf sensibility, it should be addressed.

Dov Isaacs

Legend

We're sorry you think the responses given were arrogant, but they were indeed correct. There are numerous conceptions of what “flattening” is (flattening multiple PDF layers into one, flattening transparency, rasterizing each page such that it is harder to modify, etc.) and a proper response does require knowledge of what the OP (original poster) is really asking such that we don't mislead.

No one is trying to decide what best practice is for your industry, but we certainly can advise those who ask (you didn't participate or ask anything in this over three year old thread) what may or may not work in terms of security.

The fact is that even if you password protect a PDF against modification after rasterizing its contents, you still can retrieve a very accurate screen shot, edit/modify in Photoshop, and regenerate a PDF file with no one the wiser. Fine if you don't want to know that, but it is our responsibility to let participants in the community know this.

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

R

ryanc17618383

Participant

I have also found that if you right click on the comment / text box / edited part / etc and go to properties and select the lock box on the lower left hand corner, it locks the comment from being moved. It still shows up as being edited. However, you cant move it around. This was sufficient for the work I do. Hope it helps someone else.

natural_Skyline0D45

Participant

OK guys i've had the same trouble but have found a solution for flattening a PDF form. Simply open the PDF using Mac Preview, and there it gives the option to Print > Print as PDF.

O

OriginalCynicism

Participant

This just saved me a bunch of hassle, thanks!

J

joes26459673

Participant

I was on the phone with tech support. She hung up on me in the middle of the call.

I did learn that it's almost impossible (or impossible) to flatten a document on MAC. I have to literally print a document (one that is pre-made and I fill in fields), scan the document, save it as a PDF. I have to do all of that to have a flattened PDF.

I cannot understand why it's so easy on a PC - they just hit "print to PDF" and it's impossible on a MAC.

I tried the preflight and it continues to give me error messages.

A workaround is to open the document in Preview and print it to PDF that way. That works sometimes.

try67

Community Expert

What error did you get when you used the Preflight tool?

It can also easily be done with a script.

Karl Heinz Kremer

Community Expert

As you can see, "flattening" can mean different things. Can you share the link to the page that listed the requirements for uploaded files? When you rasterize the document, you will end up with a similar size increase you've seen with transparency flattening - or worse.

T

Test Screen NameCorrect answer

Legend

That link fully answered the question, though I can see it isn't the answer you wanted.

There's lot of terminology in PDF that's different from other apps. In fact what you say you want to do isn't flattening, and doesn't involve layers (though if you were working in Photoshop that's exactly what it would be).

Flattening is mainly used to mean ONE OF

* "flatten transparency so it isn't transparent any more". That's what the flattener preview does.

* "flatten form fields so they are now a regular part of the document"

* "remove all layers". PDF layers are optional and a way to make things visible or invisible. Nothing to do with editability.

What you seem to want is "rasterising". Acrobat has no tools to do this. Consider opening in Photoshop and saving as PDF, if you really must do this terrible thing! Realise that Acrobat continually improves editing. In Acrobat DC, if it finds a page is a single big image, it will recognise the text and make it editable. Making rasterising pretty much pointless, just making a huge file with no protection.

try67

Community Expert

One small correction. You wrote:

What you seem to want is "rasterising". Acrobat has no tools to do this.

Actually, it is. It lets you export the pages of an PDF file as image files, which is basically what the OP needs, if I understood correctly.

You can then re-combine those images into a "flattened" PDF file and add security to prevent it from being edited.

It's bad practice, but it's possible.

Michael J. Hoffman

Community Expert

try67 wrote:
You can then re-combine those images into a "flattened" PDF file and add security to prevent it from being edited.
It's bad practice, but it's possible.

I agree that that it's bad practice, but to the point made by "Test Screen Name" above, even that resulting file will undergo text recognition and yield editable/copyable text when opened with Acrobat DC.

Mike

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