So you would like to create a printable/resource for commercial purposes, however the artist terms state that you must “flatten” their graphics… huh? … What does that even mean!?
Well, it’s not too hard to understand when you use my “laminator” analogy.
Let me explain.
You have printed off 5 photos of you and your gorgeous new born baby. Granny would absolutely love to have a collage of the photos on her fridge.
These are your options:
- Use blu-tack to secure them to card stock… Hopefully the other grand kids won’t walk by and remove them!
- You place them in a laminator pouch and laminate. They are now “flattened” into 1 layer, the other kids have no hope of removing any of the photos now
And that’s basically the idea of it.
Flattening means that you have merged all your layers, all your items into 1 layer. It is a critical step in protecting your work, as well as the artists work.
So how exactly is it done digitally?
You won’t need anything fancy. As a matter of fact, this can be done using the free software you’ve probably already got on your computer.
All you need to do is create your page/slide using a program such as Publisher or PowerPoint.
Then save as JPEG. This will automatically “flatten” all the elements on your page/slide.
Once you have saved all your pages/slides as a JPEG you need to open up the program again, and insert each of the JPEG images, then you will be able to save as a PDF.
This is the free way of doing it. If you invest in Acrobat DC, the process is simpler again 
I hope you have found this helpful, and if you have any questions, please leave a comment.
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RamonaM xo
