Keep a pdf form editable after filling it with pdftk

Question

I'm using pdftk to fill a form but the output form isn't editable, when I open it on acrobat reader I'm getting an error message: "This document enabled extended features in Adobe Reader, The document has been changes since it was created and use of extended features is no longer available."

is it possible to keep the document editable?

Answer 1

No. AFAIK for a PDF to be editable in Adobe Reader it has to be digitally signed by Adobe Acrobat. Obviously manipulating a PDF with pdftk changes the PDF so the signature is no longer valid.

Answer 2

To get rid of the Adobe digital signuture, just "cat" the signature out of the PDF.

pdftk signed.pdf cat output notsigned.pdf

Answer 3

I had a pdf document that would generate this error whether or not I would use the "flatten" command when adding the form data.

I loaded the pdf document into Adobe Acrobat (version 9, don't know if that's relevant) and selected File | Save a Copy. With the new copy I was able to use pdftk to add form fields without the error.

Using flatten would produce text. Without flatten I got an editable form in Adobe Reader with data filled in.

Answer 4

Removing flatten will make the form editable.

With flatten Only one input PDF can be given, and it just flattens the output pdf file which makes it uneditable.

syntax :

For editable pdf as output - "passthru("<dir> $pdf_fill $fdf output - "); "

With flatten - passthru("<dir> $pdf_fill $fdf output - flatten ");