Flatten markups

Flattening in Revu is somewhat different than flattening in other applications that also utilize layers. In Revu, flattening involves moving markups from the PDF's annotations layer to the content layer, effectively making them part of the drawing. Once flattened, markups cannot be edited without first unflattening them. Markups can be flattened individually or all at once. The Flatten Markups dialog provides additional controls over how markups are Flattened.

PDFs do not need to be open in Revu when the process is run; this is particularly common when the flatten process is run on multiple PDFs. If a document is open in Revu, any changes resulting from the process will be made to the document, but the document will not be saved or checked in (if relevant); you will need to save and check in the document manually. If a document is not open in Revu, and it is not checked out or locked by another user, changes will be applied and saved to the document automatically (without opening the document in Revu).

The following commands, if executed on a page containing flattened markups, will prevent all markups on the page from being unflattened:

If you intend to use these commands to edit the content of a PDF with flattened markups that you want to remain recoverable, unflatten all the markups before you execute these commands.

  1. Select one or more markups in the main workspace or in the Markups list.
  2. Right-click a markup and select  Flatten. The selected markup(s) are automatically flattened using the default flatten settings (including retaining the ability to be unflattened).
  1. Select one or more markups in the main workspace or in the Markups list.

  2. Go to Document > Flatten Markups. 

  3. Select Currently Selected Markups and any other desired flattening settings, which are described below.

    Type list: Choose specific markup types to flatten or not flatten: checked types will be flattened; unchecked types will not.

    Flatten: Select one of the following options:

    • All Markups: All markups matching the types selected in the Flatten Markup Types list, filtered or not, will be flattened.
    • Exclude Filtered Markups: Markups that are currently unavailable because of a Filter in the Markups list will not be flattened. All other markups matching the types selected in the Flatten Markup Types list below will be flattened.
    • Currently Selected Markups: Flattens only the markups that were selected prior to opening this dialog box, if any. This option is not available if no markups were selected.

    Allow Markup Recovery (Unflatten): Enables unflattening of the PDF if any markups need to be edited in the future. Flattening is irreversible if the PDF is flattened without this option selected.

    Flatten to Layer: Flattens the markups to a Layer name as specified in the field next to this option. Enter a name to create a new layer or select an existing layer from the dropdown list.

    Options: Select to enable any of the following related options:

    Leave Markups on Existing Layer:

    Overlay Text: When enabled, markups flattened to a layer show the name of the layer next to them.

    Overlay Font and Overlay Position: Determines the font, size, and position of the overlay text.

    Show Properties in Popup: When enabled, selected properties will appear in a popup when the flattened markup is selected. If not enabled, markup properties are lost.

    Options: Select to choose which properties will appear in the popup.

    Flatten Capture Media as Attachment: When enabled, Capture media embedded in the markup will be flattened to a summary report (similar to the Capture Summary available from the Markups list) as an attachment.

    Options: Select to enable any of the following related options:

    Attach Media as Linked Files: Select to attach images and videos embedded with Capture to the summary report as linked files. Selecting a preview image in the Capture Media Addendum will open the image or video in the device's default viewer.

    Title: Enter the name of the summary and/or the summary PDF file.

    Padding: Enter the amount of surrounding context shown around the preview image included in the Markup Summary. Setting a higher value provides more surrounding context.

    Page Size: Select the page size and orientation (Portrait or Landscape) of the PDF output.

  4. Click Flatten.

To flatten all markups that meet selected criteria on some or all pages of one or more PDFs at once, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Document > Flatten Markups. Or, go to Batch > Flatten Markups.

  2. Add PDFs to this process by selecting one of the following options from the Add menu:
    • Files: Adds individual files from a network or local drive. Selecting this option causes the Open dialog to appear. Navigate to the appropriate location and select the desired files.
    • Open Files: Adds all files currently open in Revu.
    • Open Set: Adds all files contained in the current Set.
    • Folder: Adds all files in a selected folder on a network or local drive, but not files contained in any of its subfolders. Selecting this option causes the Select Folder dialog to appear. Navigate to the desired folder and select it.
    • Folder and Subfolders: Adds all files in a selected folder on a network or local drive as well as all files within any of its subfolders. Selecting this option causes the Select Folder dialog to appear. Navigate to the desired folder and select it.
  3. PDFs are flattened in the order they appear in the Files list. Drag and drop files to change the order.

  4. Select All Markups and any other desired flattening settings, which are described below.

    Type list: Choose specific markup types to flatten or not flatten: checked types will be flattened; unchecked types will not.

    Flatten: Select one of the following options:

    • All Markups: All markups matching the types selected in the Flatten Markup Types list, filtered or not, will be flattened.
    • Exclude Filtered Markups: Markups that are currently unavailable because of a Filter in the Markups list will not be flattened. All other markups matching the types selected in the Flatten Markup Types list below will be flattened.
    • Currently Selected Markups: Flattens only the markups that were selected prior to opening this dialog box, if any. This option is not available if no markups were selected.

    Allow Markup Recovery (Unflatten): Enables unflattening of the PDF if any markups need to be edited in the future. Flattening is irreversible if the PDF is flattened without this option selected.

    Flatten to Layer: Flattens the markups to a Layer name as specified in the field next to this option. Enter a name to create a new layer or select an existing layer from the dropdown list.

    Options: Select to enable any of the following related options:

    Leave Markups on Existing Layer:

    Overlay Text: When enabled, markups flattened to a layer show the name of the layer next to them.

    Overlay Font and Overlay Position: Determines the font, size, and position of the overlay text.

    Show Properties in Popup: When enabled, selected properties will appear in a popup when the flattened markup is selected. If not enabled, markup properties are lost.

    Options: Select to choose which properties will appear in the popup.

    Flatten Capture Media as Attachment: When enabled, Capture media embedded in the markup will be flattened to a summary report (similar to the Capture Summary available from the Markups list) as an attachment.

    Options: Select to enable any of the following related options:

    Attach Media as Linked Files: Select to attach images and videos embedded with Capture to the summary report as linked files. Selecting a preview image in the Capture Media Addendum will open the image or video in the device's default viewer.

    Title: Enter the name of the summary and/or the summary PDF file.

    Padding: Enter the amount of surrounding context shown around the preview image included in the Markup Summary. Setting a higher value provides more surrounding context.

    Page Size: Select the page size and orientation (Portrait or Landscape) of the PDF output.

  5. To flatten the markups on specific pages of a PDF, choose one of the following from its associated Pages dropdown list:

    • All Pages: Sets the range to all pages.
    • Current: Sets the range to the current page only. The current page number will appear in parentheses, for example, Current (2) if page 2 is the current page.
    • Selected: Sets the range to the current selection. This option only appears if pages were selected prior to invoking the command.
    • Custom: Sets the range to a custom value. When you select this option, replace any text left in the field with the page or pages to be printed directly. To enter a custom range:
      • Use a dash between page numbers to define those two pages and all pages in between.
      • Use a comma to define pages that are separated.

      For example: 1-3, 5, 9 will include pages 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9.

  6. Click Flatten.

If the Allow Markup Recovery setting was selected when a markup was originally flattened and no other action has been taken on the page that would result in the markup being irretrievable, it can be unflattened.

To unflatten all markups in the current document, go to Document > Unflatten.

To unflatten only markups on selected pages of one or more documents, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Document > Flatten Markups. Or, go to Batch > Flatten Markups.

  2. To add PDFs to this process, select one of the following options from the Add menu:
    • Files: Adds individual files from a network or local drive. Selecting this option causes the Open dialog to appear. Navigate to the appropriate location and select the desired files.
    • Open Files: Adds all files currently open in Revu.
    • Open Set: Adds all files contained in the current Set.
    • Folder: Adds all files in a selected folder on a network or local drive, but not files contained in any of its subfolders. Selecting this option causes the Select Folder dialog to appear. Navigate to the desired folder and select it.
    • Folder and Subfolders: Adds all files in a selected folder on a network or local drive as well as all files within any of its subfolders. Selecting this option causes the Select Folder dialog to appear. Navigate to the desired folder and select it.
  3. PDFs are unflattened in the order they appear in the Files list. Drag and drop files to change the order.

  4. To unflatten just the markups on specific pages of a PDF, select one of the following options from its Pages menu:

    • All Pages: Sets the range to all pages.
    • Current: Sets the range to the current page only. The current page number will appear in parentheses, for example, Current (2) if page 2 is the current page.
    • Selected: Sets the range to the current selection. This option only appears if pages were selected prior to invoking the command.
    • Custom: Sets the range to a custom value. When you select this option, replace any text left in the field with the page or pages to be printed directly. To enter a custom range:
      • Use a dash between page numbers to define those two pages and all pages in between.
      • Use a comma to define pages that are separated.

      For example: 1-3, 5, 9 will include pages 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9.

  5. Select Unflatten.

Related topics

Markups Introduction

Working with Layers