Flattening turns a PDF's interactive parts into plain page content. Courts ask for it because form fields can change or vanish after filing, and scripts, layers and attachments can be rejected outright.
What courts on this site reject
- Unflattened form fields: U.S. District Court, District of Oregon, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Nevada
- JavaScript: New York State courts, Texas: Harris County District Courts, U.S. District Court, District of Oregon, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Nevada, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
- Embedded files: New York State courts, Texas: Harris County District Courts, U.S. District Court, District of Oregon, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Nevada, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
- Comments and layers: New York State courts
The fast way: print to a new PDF
- Windows: choose Print, pick "Microsoft Print to PDF" as the printer, and save.
- Mac: choose Print, open the PDF menu at the bottom of the dialog, and choose Save as PDF.
- Adobe Acrobat: choose Print and pick "Adobe PDF" as the printer.
- Google Chrome: open the PDF, choose Print, and set the destination to Save as PDF.
Printing removes bookmarks and links. California requires bookmarks for electronic exhibits, so add them back afterwards, or use the targeted fixes below. Run the checker on the result to confirm the text is still searchable.
Targeted fixes in Acrobat Pro
- Comments: open the Comments pane, select all comments and delete them.
- Attachments: open the Attachments pane and delete each file. File it as its own exhibit instead.
- Layers: open the Layers pane and choose Flatten Layers from its options menu.
- Links: in Edit PDF, open the Link menu and choose Remove Web Links.
Last updated October 18, 2026. Menu names can vary by software version.