: How to flatten pdf when exporting in Illustrator I need to flatten my PDFs when I export illustrator files. I don't want to do it manually selecting every item, but I would like the export

@Eichhorn212

In case Photoshop is an option: You can open any Adobe Illustrator file with Photoshop and then save that as a Photoshop PDF, JPEG or whatever you need. This instantly and completely flattens the document where any text or object will no longer be selectable or editable.

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@Nimeshi706

If you want to save it as a flattened file, i.e. a file that no longer contains layers, then you just need to uncheck the 'Create Acrobat Layers from Top-Level Layers' option in the save as PDF dialogue...



N.B. This may have a slightly different name or location depending on your version of Illustrator, Adobe have a habit of moving these things around.

An alternative approach would be to flatten your artwork via the layers palette before saving, but that would create a PDF with one layer rather than a flat PDF.

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