Flattening Markups

Flattening markups moves the markup from the annotations layer to the content layer. Markups can be flattened individually or all at once. The Flatten Markups dialog box provides additional controls over how markups are Flattened.

ClosedFlattening Individual or Selected Markups
ClosedTo flatten with configurable flattening settings
  1. Select one or more markups in the main workspace or in the Markups list.

  2. Go to Document > Flatten Markups or press ⌘+SHIFT+M. The Flatten Markups dialog box appears.

  3. Select the desired flattening settings.

    ClosedFlattening Settings

    Page Range: Defines the page range that will be flattened. Options are:

    • 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 Range : Sets the range to a custom value. 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.

    Markup Types: Choose specific markup types to flatten or not flatten: checked types will be flattened, unchecked types will not.

    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 checked.

    Flatten 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.

    Only Flatten 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.

  4. Click OK.
ClosedTo flatten with default flattening settings
  1. Select one or more markups in the main workspace or in the Markups list.
  2. CTRL-click a markup and select  Flatten. The selected markup(s) are automatically flattened using the current default flatten settings (usually the last settings used).
ClosedFlattening All Markups

To flatten all markups on selected pages (including all pages) of a PDF at once:

  1. Go to Document > Flatten Markups or press ⌘+SHIFT+M. The Flatten Markups dialog box appears.

  2. Select Flatten All Markups and any other desired flattening settings.

    ClosedFlattening Settings

    Page Range: Defines the page range that will be flattened. Options are:

    • 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 Range : Sets the range to a custom value. 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.

    Markup Types: Choose specific markup types to flatten or not flatten: checked types will be flattened, unchecked types will not.

    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 checked.

    Flatten 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.

    Only Flatten 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.

  3. To flatten the markups on specific pages of the PDF, choose one of the followingPage Range options:

    • 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 Range : Sets the range to a custom value. 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.

  4. Click OK.
ClosedFlatten Settings

The Flatten Markups dialog box contains several settings for customizing how Revu flattens markups.

Page Range: Defines the page range that will be flattened. Options are:

Markup Types: Choose specific markup types to flatten or not flatten: checked types will be flattened, unchecked types will not.

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 checked.

Flatten 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.

Only Flatten 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.

ClosedUnflattening Markups

If the Allow Markup Recovery setting was enabled when a markup was originally flattened (see Flatten Settings above) and no other action has been taken on the page that would result in the markup being irretrievable (see Warning below), it can be unflattened.

To unflatten markups, go to Document > Flatten > Unflatten. All markups in the document are automatically unflattened.

Warning: 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.