Flatten a PDF
Fix completed form answers, highlights, stamps and drawings into the page itself. The document then looks and prints the same in any reader, and nobody can alter the answers just by clicking into the form.
How to use it
- Pick your PDF, or drop it onto the box.
- TeddyPDF shows what the file contains. Choose to flatten the form fields, the comments and markup, or both.
- Press Flatten and save, then look through the copy before you send it.
What is fixed into the page
Form fields: typed answers, ticks and selected options are drawn onto the page just as they appear now, and the fillable boxes are removed.
Comments and markup: highlights, underlines, stamps, drawings, text boxes and sticky-note icons become part of the page. Words that only show in a note's pop-up window are not carried over, so TeddyPDF asks you to confirm you have read them before it goes ahead.
Links, attached files and layers are not changed. Neither are proposed redaction marks: flattening one would make the page look blacked out while the words remained underneath, so TeddyPDF leaves them in place and says so. Redact PDF takes words out properly.
What flattening cannot promise
A flattened PDF is not locked. Nobody can change the answers by typing into the form any more, but a PDF editor can still alter the page. To decide who can open the document, password-protect access, bearing in mind that a password is not a guarantee against editing either; to take details out for good, redact them.
Why people flatten
Some upload forms and case systems turn away PDFs that still contain fillable fields, and some readers display answers or comments differently, or leave them out. A flattened copy avoids both.
Questions and answers
Can flattening be undone?
Not in the flattened copy, so hold on to the original if the answers may need to change.
What about a digitally signed PDF?
TeddyPDF will not flatten or crop it. A digital signature shows the document is unchanged since signing, and any change would break it.
Is my document uploaded?
No. Flattening happens in your own browser, and the page locks itself before your file is opened.
Does TeddyPDF upload my file?
No. Your browser does all the work, on your own device. Before it opens your file, this page shuts off its own ability to send or fetch anything, and your browser holds it to that. Once the software a tool needs has loaded and the privacy lock is on, the work carries on even with your Wi-Fi off. How the lock works.