Initializing secure environment…
Initializing secure environment…
Bake a PDF into a single fixed layer so nothing in it can be changed. Form fields become page content, annotations are drawn in, JavaScript is removed, embedded files go, and the metadata is cleared. The result opens identically in every reader, prints identically, and can no longer be edited without a raster-level attack. This is the honest way to lock a filled form, to neutralise a document carrying a script, and to hand someone a file that cannot be modified. No upload, no watermark.
To flatten a PDF free, add the file and flatten it. Form fields, annotations, scripts, embedded files and metadata are all removed and the answers become permanent page content. No upload, no watermark, works offline.
Fill the form, then flatten. The values become page content, so they print, they display in every reader, and they cannot be changed by whoever receives the file. This is the fix for a form that rendered correctly on your machine and arrived blank everywhere else.
Scripts in PDFs run in the reader, not the browser, but they can still open dialogs, submit data or change the document. Flattening removes them entirely. It does not make a malicious file safe to open — a known-exploit chain in the reader itself is beyond what any file operation can fix — but it removes the scripted behaviour that a file carries.
Flatten removes the editable layer and the metadata, so the recipient gets a document that is what it appears to be and nothing more. For a signed agreement, a completed application or anything with personal data in it, that is a sensible default rather than a precaution.
It cannot remove what is visible. If a page shows a social security number, flattening bakes the number in permanently. Redact first, flatten second. Reversing the order gives you a flat document you can no longer redact cleanly.
At the level a PDF editor works, yes. There is no form field, no annotation and no text object to select, so there is nothing to change with an editor. A determined attacker can still rasterise and retype, as they can with any printed document. Flattening raises the effort from trivial to pointless, which is what you want.
They are drawn into the page as ordinary content, so the answers stay visible and printable — and can no longer be changed. That is the point: a filled form that arrives blank for the recipient is fixed by flattening.
Yes. Document-level and action-level scripts are stripped. This is the standard mitigation for a PDF that opens and runs something, and it is why flattening is a reasonable step before sending a form from an untrusted source.
Yes. Comments, highlights, stamps and notes are drawn into the page so they look the same and cannot be opened or dismissed. If you would rather lose them, that is a feature here too.
Yes — title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer and the timestamps are cleared, which removes the trail of which machine produced the file and when. Edit PDF Metadata does the same job and lets you set replacement values instead.
It often does, because removing the interactive layer and unused resources drops real data. It can also grow a file, if flattening required rasterising an annotation at print resolution. The result size is shown so you know before you download.
Yes. Flattening does not rasterise page content — it flattens the interactive layer. Text stays selectable and searchable. Only the annotations and field widgets are baked in.
Yes. Free, no account, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded — which is the only acceptable way to flatten a document you are not permitted to send anywhere.
More edit & annotate — all free, no upload.