How to Flatten PDF in Python

This basic tutorial explains how to flatten PDF in Python. You can mimic Adobe flattening using Python in your project with a few lines of code to process PDF forms. This feature can be useful to put form values directly on the PDF page.

Steps to Flatten PDF in Python

  1. Configure the system by installing Aspose.PDF for Python via .NET API
  2. Initialize an object of the Form class
  3. Bind the PDF form document with the bind_pdf method
  4. Flatten all the fields in the PDF document using the flatten_all_fields method
  5. Save the PDF form with flattened fields

The steps above elaborate on how using Python flatten PDF Acrobat feature can be integrated into your applications. You just need to bind the PDF file and invoke the method call to flatten the form field values on the page of the document. Finally, export the output PDF form with flattened values.

Code to Flatten PDF in Python

This sample code shows how using Python flatten a PDF in Adobe feature can be implemented with a couple of API calls. PDF forms are commonly used to collect data, which remains editable unless you flatten its fields. So you may choose to flatten only specific form fields or all the form fields at once as per your requirements.

This article has covered the information to flatten PDF file using Python. However, if you want to learn to fill the fields in a PDF form then read the article on How to Fill in a PDF Form using Python.

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