PDF Changer

Flatten to Image PDF — How to

Step-by-step guide for Flatten to Image PDF.

Open tool · How-to · Privacy

How to use Flatten to Image PDF

  1. Choose one PDF to flatten. Every page will be rendered to pixels and re-embedded as an image.
  2. Select DPI: 150 (good for screen sharing, ~0.3-0.8MB/page), 200 (print-quality, ~0.5-1.5MB/page), 300 (archival, ~1-3MB/page).
  3. Select format: PNG (lossless, larger) or JPEG (lossy, smaller). For text-heavy pages, JPEG at 85% quality is usually indistinguishable.
  4. Run flatten. Each page is rendered via PDF.js, drawn to a canvas, and exported. Progress shows per-page status.
  5. Download the output and verify visually. Text is intentionally non-selectable — the entire page is now a single image.

Tips

  • 150 DPI is sufficient for screen viewing and email sharing. Only use 200+ if the document will be printed.
  • JPEG at 85% quality produces files roughly 3x smaller than PNG with no visible difference at normal zoom. Use PNG only when pixel-perfect reproduction matters.
  • Flatten is the nuclear option for metadata removal. It destroys: fonts (preventing font fingerprinting), forms (preventing data extraction), JavaScript (preventing tracking), layers (preventing hidden content), EXIF in embedded images, and all PDF structure. What remains is visual content only.
  • Output file size depends heavily on page content. Text-only pages compress well (~0.3MB at 150 DPI JPEG). Full-color photos expand significantly (~1-2MB per page).
  • For maximum privacy, chain: Paranoid Scrub → Flatten → Compress. The scrub removes metadata, flatten destroys structure, compress reduces the inflated file size.
  • If quota is reached, wait for month reset or upgrade for unlimited usage.

What this does not protect

  • Text becomes non-selectable. Recipients cannot copy-paste, search, or index the text. If they need searchable text, they would need to OCR the result.
  • Output file size is almost always larger than the original for text-heavy documents. A 500KB text PDF may become 3-5MB after flatten at 150 DPI.
  • 200-page cap exists because each page requires ~50-100MB of RAM for canvas rendering. For longer documents, split first and flatten sections.
  • Transparent elements and blend modes may render differently than in specialized PDF viewers. Always verify the output.
  • It does not replace legal, compliance, or incident-response workflows.