Flattening a pdf combines all of the layers into a single layer, making your document easier to print and share. flattening a pdf or making a pdf read- only means you make the entire document uneditable. things you should know. there are different ways to flatten a pdf but the most comprehensive way is to use the tools in adobe acrobat pro. follow these steps to use pdf optimizer to reduce the size of heavy pdf files in adobe acrobat. in nuance power pdf, we would just hit the " flatten file" button, how do we go about flattening it in dc? with acrobat pro, follow the flatten pdf acrobat steps below to flatten your pdf: make a copy of your pdf. or try the compress pdf tool for free to get started. adjust the raster/ vector balance. 1 flattening a pdf gatortrainlady explorer, in adobe acrobat dc, how do we flatten a pdf file? we often have stamps, signatures, highlighting, etc. trapping color preflight ( acrobat pro) color management about flattening if your document or artwork contains transparency, to be output it usually needs to undergo a process called flattening. flattening divides transparent artwork into vector- based areas and rasterized areas. it also makes the file size smaller and prevents changes from being made to variable fields. topics general troubleshooting 9. no one can edit it, and it' s beneficial to print a pdf file. audit the space used by the components in the pdf, and then apply optimization settings on the images, fonts, transparency, objects, and user data. as there could be various layers in an unflattened pdf, making it read- only can lead to a single layer. 7k translate report. forms, images, and text fields are fixed. this wikihow shows you how to flatten a pdf on windows or mac. choose advanced > print production > flattener preview.