Flatten PDF

Flatten PDF rasterizes a document: every page is rendered to a picture at the resolution you choose, and a new PDF is rebuilt with that single image on each page. The picture is all there is, so text can no longer be selected, searched, copied, edited or re-flowed — and for the same reason links, form fields, comments, annotations, layers and hidden text are gone. That is what makes a flattened copy a fixed record of what the page looked like at the moment you flattened it, which is what you want when the recipient must not be able to alter or extract the content.

Because each page becomes an image, the output is normally much larger than the source. Three raster settings control that trade-off: Screen renders at 96 DPI as JPEG for the smallest file, Balanced at 150 DPI JPEG for everyday viewing and email, and Print at 200 DPI as lossless PNG for the sharpest result. Screen and Balanced are lossy, so very small type can show compression artifacts when zoomed in; Print is lossless and the largest file. Page size is preserved and a rotated page comes out in the orientation you see, with the rotation baked into the picture — but the rebuilt file carries none of the source's bookmarks, link targets, form structure or document metadata, and no OCR text layer is added back. Very large pages are rendered below the chosen DPI instead of failing, and the tool tells you when that happens. Files up to 100 MB and 200 pages are supported and everything runs in your browser: your PDF never leaves your device.