PDF Tools

PDF Form Flatten

Flatten a PDF form: bake field values into static content so the result is non-editable

file· File resultOpen tool

Quick start

Call this tool from your code in three languages.

cURL

# 1) Upload each file first → returns { filePath }
curl -X POST 'https://api.elysiatools.com/upload/pdf-form-flatten' \
  -F 'file=@/path/to/pdfFile.ext'

# 2) Call the tool with the returned filePath values
curl -X POST 'https://api.elysiatools.com/en/api/tools/pdf-form-flatten' \
  -F 'pdfFile=/public/samples/pdf/form-sample-filled.pdf' \
  -F 'updateAppearancesFirst=true' \
  -F 'removeNeedAppearances=true' \
  -F 'keepFormStructure=false'

API reference

Send a POST request with your inputs as JSON. File parameters require a separate upload first.

Endpoint

HTTP

POST https://api.elysiatools.com/en/api/tools/pdf-form-flatten

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
pdfFile	fileupload required	Yes	—
updateAppearancesFirst	checkbox	No	Regenerate appearance streams before flattening so values render correctly
removeNeedAppearances	checkbox	No	Clear the NeedAppearances flag so viewers don't regenerate appearances
keepFormStructure	checkbox	No	Only update appearances but keep the AcroForm shell (rare)

File-type parameters must be uploaded first via POST /upload/pdf-form-flatten, then the returned filePath is passed to the corresponding file field.

MCP integration

Add this tool to your Model Context Protocol server so AI agents can list and call it.

Server configuration

Add this block to your MCP client configuration:

mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elysiatools-pdf-form-flatten": {
      "name": "pdf-form-flatten",
      "description": "Flatten a PDF form: bake field values into static content so the result is non-editable",
      "baseUrl": "https://api.elysiatools.com/mcp/sse?toolId=pdf-form-flatten",
      "command": "",
      "args": [],
      "env": {},
      "isActive": true,
      "type": "sse"
    }
  }
}

List available tools

After connecting to the SSE endpoint, list the exposed tools:

tools/list

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/list"
}

Call this tool

Invoke the tool by its id, passing arguments built from its parameters:

tools/call

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "pdf-form-flatten",
    "arguments": {
  "pdfFile": "/public/samples/pdf/form-sample-filled.pdf",
  "updateAppearancesFirst": true,
  "removeNeedAppearances": true,
  "keepFormStructure": false
}
  }
}

Chain multiple tools in one session with a comma-separated toolId list, e.g. /mcp/sse?toolId=png-to-webp,jpg-to-webp,gif-to-webp (max 20).

Browse tools Open tool