Flatten PDF Forms – Free, No Upload

On your device · nothing is uploaded
No account, no email
Keeps what you filled in
Free

How to flatten a PDF form

Add your PDF
Drop it above or choose it.
Press Flatten
Each field is drawn into its page as it looks now, and then removed. A PDF without form fields comes back unchanged.
Download the flat copy
Save the new file. Your original stays as it was.

What stays and what doesn't

What is filled in stays on the page. These are the things that go with the fields:

XFA form data
form fields (they stay on the page but can no longer be filled in)

A digital signature is removed, only after you say so: any change to a signed file breaks the signature, so the file is held back until you choose to continue.

Print, copy and edit restrictions are removed, only after you say so: the file is held back until you choose to continue.

When it won't run

Five things stop a run before it writes anything, and each is said on the file's row. A PDF that needs a password asks for it there, and a wrong password is refused with a sentence that says so. A digitally signed PDF is held back until you choose to continue, because flattening it would break the signature. A file that cannot be read is reported as damaged. A job too large for this device says so, and in every case nothing is changed and your original stays as it was.

The PDF opens, but its owner has switched off printing, copying or editing. Flattening it would remove those restrictions.Remove the restrictions and continue
The PDF has form fields that don't carry a picture of how they look, so flattening would have to invent one. Nothing was changed.
This PDF has no form fields, so there is nothing to flatten. Your file is unchanged.

Flattening a PDF: what to expect

A fillable PDF keeps what you typed in separate fields that sit on top of the page. Flattening copies how each field looks into the page itself and then removes the field. Typed text, ticks and chosen options stay visible, print, and can be sent on, but nobody can type in them or tick them again.

The tool never redraws a field from its value. It copies the picture the file already holds for each field, the one a viewer shows, so the page looks as it did. A form whose fields have no such picture, or whose pictures are out of date, is refused with a sentence and nothing is changed, because the only way forward would be to invent a look.

Comments can go into the page too: tick Also flatten comments, and highlights, drawings, stamps and notes are drawn in as they look and stop being comments. The text inside a note's pop-up and its replies are not kept. A comment with no picture of its own stays a comment, and the result line counts it.

Some forms also carry XFA data for a dynamic viewer; that part is dropped and the result line says so. Links on the page stay. Text that was in a field is page text afterwards, so it can still be selected and searched. A signed form is held back first, and the new file is named after the original with -flattened added.

Questions

Are my PDFs uploaded?

No. Your PDFs are processed inside your browser, on your own phone or computer, and saved straight from this page. The reading at the top of the page counts every byte sent, and it stays at 0 B.

Will the form look the same afterwards?

It should. The file's own picture of each field is copied into the page, and the result is checked against how a reference viewer draws the original. If that cannot be done faithfully, the file is refused instead.

Can I fill it in again afterwards?

No. That is what flattening takes away. Keep your original if you need the form.

What if my PDF has no form?

It comes back unchanged, with a line saying why. If it has comments, tick Also flatten comments to draw them into the page.

Can it flatten comments and highlights too?

Yes, when you tick Also flatten comments. Each one is drawn into the page from the picture the file holds for it. Links are never touched.

Other things to do with a PDF

All tools

Flatten PDF, without the upload.