ENH: Flatten PDF forms

[OpenNingia]

pdftk provides the feature to embed the form fields' text in the pdf itself.
This is very useful if you want to use an editable pdf as a template to be filled by code.

from the pdftk manual:

[ flatten ]
Use this option to merge an input PDF’s interactive form fields (and their data) with the PDF’s pages. Only one input PDF can be given. Sometimes used with the fill_form operation.

usage example:

    with open(source, 'rb') as source_fp:
        reader = PdfFileReader(source_fp)

        writer.appendPagesFromReader(
            reader, lambda x: writer.updatePageFormFieldValues(x, fields))

        with open(dest, 'wb') as output_fp:
            writer.write(output_fp, flatten_fields=True)

[whitemice]

+1 A way to flatten a form would be excellent. I would like to avoid having another dependency for my code, which uses PyPDF2. But shipping filled in forms around the interwebz creates problems with a variety of vendors and their [I assume not based on PyPDF2] software.

[mertz3hack]

It would be great if PyPDF2 had the ability to fill in forms and flatten them!

[oscardssmith]

I also would really appreciate this

[mstamy2]

(In progress) We can accomplish this by setting Bit Position 1 of the field flags.

Ref: Table 8.70 of PDF 1,7 spec

[OpenNingia]

Setting a field read-only might be a way, however pdftk works differently; afaik it replaces each /Field instance with a simple text object. 😕

[mstamy2]

You're right, that's the better option. Should be able to implement that soon

[nberrios]

I agree. This would be totally awesome!

[jamoham]

Is there any update on this?
I am looking to use an editable pdf as a template which will be filled by code.

[kherrett]

I'm with @jamoham on this... for the same exact use case.

[zhiwehu]

+1

[Rob1080]

Any update on this?

[BeGrimm]

Can you flatten a file with PyPDF2 yet? I've not found anything on this being implemented.

[DrLou]

I do see some code to _flatten in the PdfFileReader, but not in the writer. Will someone be taking a swing at this?