
    _        _      __  __      _        _____ _ _ _
   / \   ___| | __ |  \/  | ___| |_ __ _|  ___(_) | |_ ___ _ __
  / _ \ / __| |/ / | |\/| |/ _ \ __/ _` | |_  | | | __/ _ \ '__|
 / ___ \\__ \   <  | |  | |  __/ || (_| |  _| | | | ||  __/ |   
/_/   \_\___/_|\_\ |_|  |_|\___|\__\__,_|_|   |_|_|\__\___|_|   
querying the hive mind

Flattening a PDF?

I cut-and-pasted some elements into a PDF. Can I flatten them so they aren't moveable any more?

I scanned a few pages of my kid's artwork to make a multi-page PDF. Then I opened the PDF on my Mac using Preview, and did a bit of copy-pasting to clean up a few smudges, by covering them with square "patches" of the background colour that I copy-pasted on the page. I also copy-pasted my kid's name from a different Jpeg drawing they'd made, and stuck it onto this PDF.

I saved this booklet PDF with a new name... but when I open the new version, those patches still show up as moveable elements on top of the PDF - they aren't flattened down as a part of the file. Is that possible?
posted by nouvelle-personne on Nov 14, 2024 at 10:56 AM

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File - Print - PDF button on the bottom left.
posted by ssg at 11:06 AM

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The same menu in the Print dialog that lets you save it as a (new) PDF also lets you save it as a Postscript file. When you double-click that Postscript file it opens in Preview. Hitting save will save it as a new PDF. I seem to recall that being necessary for me at times in the past.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:25 AM

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