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What is Image Flattening?

Image flattening combines layers, masks, transparency, and rendered effects into a single raster layer. The result preserves the composite appearance but no longer retains the original elements as independently editable structures.

How Image Flattening works

Flattening asks the compositor to evaluate a document’s layer order, blending modes, masks, text, adjustment layers, and effects into final pixel values. The destination may retain an alpha channel, but it loses the separate objects and parameters used to produce the appearance. This is typically an export or interchange step after editorial approval and color setup. A versioned working document remains necessary when later localization, retouching, or alternate layouts are expected.

Key facts

  1. Transparency must be composited against an explicit backdrop when the destination has no alpha support; otherwise edge pixels can acquire an unintended matte color.
  2. Flattening in a different working color space or bit depth can change gradients and blend results, because layer arithmetic and clipping occur in that processing space.
  3. A flattened preview is not necessarily sanitized: the container may still carry thumbnails, metadata, paths, or other payloads unless export removes them separately.

When Image Flattening matters

Flatten a working document before export when the destination format or renderer cannot preserve its layer model. Keep the layered source separately because flattening makes later text, mask, and effect adjustments difficult or impossible.

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