Remove 'active contents' from PDF file that was converted from LaTeX?

In pretty much the same situation you described, I was able to "clean up" the PDF using GhostScript:

gs -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOUTPUTFILE=clean.pdf dirty.pdf

The company website accepted clean.pdf without complaints.


There are many embedded objects that can be flagged in a pdf with active content that may be seen by others as a threat in a pdf.

The simplest way to restructure to a dumbed down pdf is to use "windows print to pdf" to "reprint" as a simplified pdf much the same as you did for outputting word to pdf.


A quick and easy solution can be

  1. Simply open your pdf file in any modern web browser, say Google Chrome.
  2. Select 'Print' option to bring up the print menu.
  3. Change the Destination as 'Save as pdf' (in Google Chrome)
  4. Save the pdf in a new location on your system.

This uses Chrome's pdf wrapper which kind of repacks the pdf without any hyperlinks or Macros or perhaps any other active content.

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