Definition
What is the difference between flatten, compress, and print to PDF?
Flattening stores form fields or annotations as ordinary page content. Compressing rebuilds pages as images to shrink the file and drops selectable text, links, and form fields. Print to PDF makes a new file from a printer’s view of the page. None of these removes hidden content. Cover boxes are not content removal, and covered text can remain extractable.
What EditPDF AI does
Flatten PDF turns form-field values and annotations into ordinary page content in a new copy, in the browser, with no account. Files can be up to 100 MB. Form Fields Only keeps selectable text. Full Visual Flatten renders each visible page into a high-resolution single layer. PDF Compressor rebuilds each page as a JPEG, up to 150 MB, in the browser. There is no print-to-PDF command. PDF Redactor places opaque rectangles and does not delete the underlying text, images, or metadata.