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PDF Forms Flattener

PDF Forms Flattener Release Notes

PDF Forms Flattener Release Notes

PDF Forms Flattener v4.6.2 (September 1, 2026)

New Features:

  • Built with APDFL v21.0.0PlusP1e
  • Linux compatibility is now glibc 2.34+ (e.g Rocky Linux v9, Ubuntu v22, etc.)

Problem Corrections:

  • SF45180 - This improves support for Flattening XFA documents where a Button field doesn't have a Caption but a Text Label overlayed on top of it.
  • SF47401 - This corrects an issue where content could be clipped unexpectedly when Flattening a XFA document.
  • SF47402 - This addresses a problem Flattening a XFA document where a field could have the improper formatting when flattened.
  • SF47460 - This corrects an issue where some Static XFA documents would not be Flattened AsIfPrinted correctly in some cases.
  • SF47461 - This corrects an issue where the Caption of a Text Field shared across pages of an XFA document could end up being placed multiple times on the Flattened document. This corrects an issue where a largely crowded Text Field shared across pages of an XFA document could end up being clipped by a minimal amount when Flattened.
  • SF47462 - This corrects an issue where some Static XFA documents would not be Flattened correctly in some cases.
  • SF47463 - This addresses a problem where XFA Text fields using Javascript could have new lines removed in the Flattened output unexpectedly. This corrects a Stack Overflow that could occur flattening some documents using Javascript in rare scenarios using Forms Extension.
  • SF47466 - This corrects a problem where Flattening a XFA document with a ChoiceList field with a null picture clause could mishandle the data in the Flattened output.
  • SF47468 - This improves output for Flattening a XFA Text Field using RichText where the text uses multiple different spacing attributes spanning multiple pages.
  • SF47479 - This corrects a problem where XFA Static Text elements using a Processing Instruction could be ignored in the Flattened output.
  • SF47486 - This improves support for Flattening XFA documents where a Button field doesn't have a Caption but a Text Label overlayed on top of it.
  • SF47543 - This fixed a problem flattening a XFA document where text could be in the output unexpectedly.
  • SF47562 - This corrects an issue with the preservation of a grouping symbol of a decimal value used for a numericEdit field when Flattening a XFA document.
  • SF47687 - This corrects a problem with some XFA documents when Flattening AsIfPrinted where content expected to included/excluded when Printed was not as expected.

PDF Forms Flattener 4.4.0 (September 17, 2025)

Released with APDFL18.0.5+P1t

PDF Forms Flattener 4.3.1 (May 22, 2025)

New Features:

  • SF46825 - Add ability to import Markup annotation XFDF into non-form PDFs.

Problem Corrections:

  • SF#46745 - Corrects an issue Flattening a XFA document with a shared Text Field across pages when RichText was in use.
  • SF#46799 - Importing of XFDF annotations has been fixed for Annotations that are in-reply-to another Annotation using Forms Extension.
  • SF#46807 - Corrects an issue Flattening a XFA document with a shared Text Field across pages when RichText was in use and the text was very long using Forms Extension.

PDF Forms Flattener 4.2.0 (February 14, 2025)

  • Corrects a problem Flattening some XFA documents where a TextEdit field was shared across pages.
  • Corrects an erroneous error that could occur attempting to export form data from an AcroForms document in some cases.
  • Corrects a crash that could occur due to corrupted memory when flattening a XFA document in rare cases.
  • Support for Flattening AcroForms as if printed has been added.

PDF Forms Flattener 4.1.0 (August 26, 2024)

Problem Corrections:

  • This addresses a DLL signing problem

PDF Forms Flattener 4.0.0 (July 22, 2024)

New Features:

  • Built with APDFL v18.0.4PlusP3a
  • Adds support for Linux x64
  • Adds support for Linux ARM64

PDF Forms Flattener 3.1.0 (March 07, 2024)

New Features:

  • Updates Forms Extension to version 2.3.0.

Problem Corrections:

  • SF#45662 - This corrects an issue where a DateTimeEdit field with improper formatting could be dropped from the Flattened result. This corrects an issue where Text underneath a barcode could be slightly cropped in the Flattened result.
  • SF#45892 – Corrects a problem where Flattening a XFA document could result in a Signature being dropped.
  • SF#46015 – This corrects a problem flattening a XFA document with a shared Text Field intended for displaying content on different pages.

PDF Forms Flattener 3.0.0 (April 17, 2023)

New Features:

  • Adds the ability to Export data from XFA PDF files to disk as .xdp, .xfd, or .xml file.
  • Adds new parameter "flatten, -f" with value "skip" to import data from disk to XFA without Flattening.
  • Adds new parameter "flatten, -f" with value "skip" to Import data from disk to AcroForms without Flattening.
  • Adds the ability to export data from Acroform PDF files to disk as .xfdf, .fdf, or .xml files.
  • Adds new option "--convert, -c" to convert XFA to AcroForms.
  • Drops support for positional parameters.\* Arguments must be passed using the existing -h, -i, -o, -d delineators.
    • "-asprinted was removed and refactored into the new "flatten, -f" parameter. It can be used as "-f asprinted".
    • Adds new parameter "flatten, -f" with value "skip" to generate missing annotation appearance without flattening.

Pre-2023 Release Notes

PDF Forms Flattener 2.3.0 (December 15, 2022)

Problem Corrections:

  • SF45276 – This corrects a problem with preserving the formatting of XFA fields when a document is Flattened.

PDF Forms Flattener 2.2.0 (August 11, 2022)

Problem Corrections:

  • SF#45182 – Corrects an issue in which the formatting of a XFA fields was not preserved when Flattened.
  • SF#45186 – Corrects an issue in which Flattening an XFA document could result in a blank document.

PDF Forms Flattener 2.1.0 (April 1, 2022)

New Features:

  • Uses new API for Forms Types provided in Forms Extension release 2.1.0.

Problem Corrections:

  • SF#44687 – Corrects an issue in which a Dynamic XFA document using JavaScript to define its layout of elements could fail to be converted to PDF as expected.

PDF Forms Flattener 2.0.2(August 4, 2021)

New Features:

  • SF#44445 – Corrects an issue in which flattening an XFA document with a shared Text Field using Rich Text could result in missing elements after flattening.

PDF Forms Flattener 2.0.1 (July 7, 2021)

New Features:

  • Adds a new optional command line argument --asPrinted or -p, which will flatten an XFA document as if it was printed.

Problem Corrections:

  • SF#44011 – Corrects an issue which could result in an exception being raised when flattening an XFA document.
  • SF#44292 – Corrects an issue that could result in a duplicated text when flattening an XFA document with a shared text field using Rich Text intended to display content on different pages.

PDF Forms Flattener 1.0.0 (May 4, 2020)

Initial release of a simple command line application.

  • Flattens both XFA and AcroForm PDF form documents to standard PDF format
  • Optionally imports data into PDF form documents before flattening
  • Generates appearances for annotations in PDF documents

PDF Forms Flattener

Command Line Syntax