User Manual

3.67 Flatten Layers

Updated on

In this article you will learn

  • which requirements must be met for this Fixup and
  • how to apply the Fixup.

1. Introduction

In the Workflow the Fixup Flatten Layers is available. The aim of the Fixup is to flatten the currently visible content on a laye and thus to remove the entire layer structure.

2. General

Use this Fixup when you want to maintain the currently visible content and want to remove all other currently undisplayed objects from the Print Item. Hence, the file size of the PDF can be drastically reduced in some cases and possible errors can be prevented.

You will find the Fixup in the footer of the Document Information and User-defined Fields section in the Fixup group Manage Layers of an Article, Order resp. Production Job or in the Data Preparation tab.

3. Fixup Description

With this Fixup layers that are currently not shown, including the objects on those layers, can be removed from the PDF file. The currently visible content will be reduced to one layer. Therefore, currently hidden layers and their contents will be deleted, the currently visible contents are moved to one layer and all layers are removed.

3.1. Requirements and Functionality

For this Fixup to do what it promises, the following conditions must be met:

  • The Print Item has several layers
  • Individual layers of the Print Item can be shown or hidden.

Figure 1: The Flatten Layers dialog

No other options can be chosen.

3.2. Example File

To experiment with this function, you can refer to the sample file "Layer_Sample.pdf". The sample file contains six layers, two of which are hidden and four of which are shown.

After applying the Fixup, the file "Layer_Sample_End5.pdf" is created, where all objects have been reduced to one layer. However, the file does not change visually.

Figure 2: Left: initial fill; Right: all objects of the initial file reduced to one layer

Article update: Version 1.17.0 - 04/2024

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