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OmniConvert

Flatten PDF

Make the values in a filled PDF form permanent, so they cannot be edited and every reader draws them the same way. Runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Runs on your deviceFree, unlimited

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Accepts .pdf · One file at a time · up to 150 MB each "Upload" and "download" here mean your browser reading a file from this device and writing one back to it. Nothing is sent to a server — open your browser's network panel and watch: no request carries your file.

FAQ

What does flattening actually do?

A filled form stores your answers as live fields sitting on top of the page, and each reader draws them itself. Flattening paints those values into the page and removes the fields, so what you see is what everybody sees — and nobody can change it by clicking in the box.

Why did a form I filled in arrive blank?

Because the reader that opened it did not render the fields, or it saved the file without saving the field values — which several browser PDF viewers do. Flattening before you send removes the question entirely: after it there are no fields left to fail to render.

Does it flatten highlights and comments too?

No. Those are annotations of a different kind and are left exactly as they are. Flattening them would mean rendering them into the page, which is a lossy operation and a different tool. Only form fields are made permanent here.

What happens if the PDF has no form?

It says so, and hands the file back unchanged. Reporting success on a file where nothing happened is how people conclude a tool did something it did not, so a document with nothing to flatten is told apart from one with everything flattened.

Can the values be recovered afterwards?

Not as form data — the fields are gone. The text remains as page content, so it can still be selected and copied like any other text in the document. Flattening makes a form final; it does not hide anything.

Does the rest of the document survive?

Yes. The page content, bookmarks and images are untouched — the file is opened, the form is frozen, and the same document is saved back out. Nothing is re-rendered and no image is re-encoded.

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