Form Flattening

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The easiest way to flatten an Acro Form is to mark it as read only and use Security to prevent the modification of the form field values.

This example shows how to mark form fields as read only and encrypt the document to prevent modification.

[Java]
    MergeDocument document = new MergeDocument("[PhysicalPath]/MyDocument.pdf");
    // Set the field values
    document.getForm().getFields().getFormField("TextBox1").setValue("My Text"); // TextBox field
    // Make the form read only
    document.getForm().setReadOnly(true);
    // Encrypt and Secure the document
    document.setSecurity(new HighSecurity());
    // Save the PDF
    document.draw("[PhysicalPath]/MyDocument.pdf");

Replace Acro Form Fields with Text

If you would prefer to remove the form fields entirely and place text at their coordinates, this can be done using the createLabel method of the PdfFormField class. The coordinates of the form field can also be read if other PageElements are required.

[Java]
    // Input Document
    PdfDocument pdfDocument = new PdfDocument("[PhysicalPath]/Temp/DynamicPDF/Import/fw9_03_AcroForm.pdf");
    // Merged Document
    MergeDocument document = new MergeDocument(pdfDocument);    
    // Add the labels to the first page
    Page page = document.getPages().getPage(0);
    pdfDocument.getForm().getFields().getPdfFormField("f1-1").createLabel(page, "Acme Corp.", com.cete.dynamicpdf.Font.getCourier(), 12);
    pdfDocument.getForm().getFields().getPdfFormField("c1-2").createLabel(page, 2.5f, -2.5f, "3", com.cete.dynamicpdf.Font.getZapfDingbats(), 12);
    pdfDocument.getForm().getFields().getPdfFormField("f1-4").createLabel(page, "123 Main Street", com.cete.dynamicpdf.Font.getCourier(), 12);
    pdfDocument.getForm().getFields().getPdfFormField("f1-5").createLabel(page, "Anytown, DC  12345", com.cete.dynamicpdf.Font.getCourier(), 12);
    // Save the PDF
    document.draw("[PhysicalPath]/MyDoc.pdf");

If the page that the original form field was located on is not known ahead of time it can be read using the form fields getOriginalPageNumber() method. Note that this information is not required by the PDF spec and the method will return a value of -1 if this information is not provided in the import document.

[Java]
    // Input Document
    PdfDocument pdfDocument = new PdfDocument("[PhysicalPath]/Temp/DynamicPDF/Import/fw9_03_AcroForm.pdf");
    // Merged Document
    MergeDocument document = new MergeDocument();    
    // Append the input document and return a Pages array
    Page[] pages = document.append(pdfDocument);
    // Retrieve the form fields
    PdfFormField f1_1 = pdfDocument.getForm().getFields().getPdfFormField("f1-1");
    PdfFormField c1_2 = pdfDocument.getForm().getFields().getPdfFormField("c1-2");
    PdfFormField f1_4 = pdfDocument.getForm().getFields().getPdfFormField("f1-4");
    PdfFormField f1_5 = pdfDocument.getForm().getFields().getPdfFormField("f1-5");
    // Add the labels
    f1_1.createLabel(pages[f1_1.getOriginalPageNumber() - 1], "Acme Corp.", com.cete.dynamicpdf.Font.getCourier(), 12);
    c1_2.createLabel(pages[c1_2.getOriginalPageNumber() - 1], 2.5f, -2.5f, "3", com.cete.dynamicpdf.Font.getZapfDingbats(), 12);
    f1_4.createLabel(pages[f1_4.getOriginalPageNumber() - 1], "123 Main Street", com.cete.dynamicpdf.Font.getCourier(), 12);
    f1_5.createLabel(pages[f1_5.getOriginalPageNumber() - 1], "Anytown, DC  12345", com.cete.dynamicpdf.Font.getCourier(), 12);
    // Save the PDF
    document.draw("[PhysicalPath]/MyDoc.pdf");

Form Flattening

Replace Acro Form Fields with Text

See Also