BASALT · JOURNAL
Prepare a PDF for court filing on a Mac
Court portals reject PDFs for reasons unrelated to the merits: excessive size, wrong page dimensions, active security, missing text, or a filing assembled in the wrong order. Requirements vary by court, so start with the current local filing guide and standing orders.
Check the source set
Confirm the pleading, declarations, exhibits, proposed orders, and cover material are final and in the required order. Record page counts and remove accidental blanks. Preserve signed originals separately.
Normalize rotation and inspect page size without casually scaling evidence. OCR image-only pages if the court requires searchable text, then check that recognition aligns with the page and does not create duplicate text on already-searchable pages.
Apply privacy review before final assembly
Use the controlling privacy rule and local order to build an identifier list. Redact each component, sanitize hidden data, and verify it before combining. Then assemble the filing and verify the package again. Redacting personal identifiers from a court filing covers that stage.
Flatten only the interactive appearances that the filing guide requires, and clear stored form or annotation data. Do not flatten black rectangles and assume they became redactions.
Meet navigation and size requirements
Add bookmarks for exhibits or sections where required. Compress scans with a measured quality setting, checking small print, signatures, and stamps. If the portal has a size limit, split only under its naming and sequence rules.
Remove passwords or permissions that prevent filing unless the court requires protection. Check the exact filename convention and avoid personal identifiers in it.
Final preflight
Open the exact upload file in a second viewer. Confirm page count, orientation, searchability, bookmarks, signatures or signature notation, file size, metadata, attachments, and every redaction. Record its hash. If the portal produces a filed copy, download and compare it when the procedure allows.
Frequently asked questions
Do all courts require searchable PDFs?
No. Requirements vary, though searchable text is common. Check the specific court's current electronic-filing guide.
Should I flatten the PDF before filing?
Only as required and after understanding what will happen to forms, annotations, and signatures. Flattening is not redaction.
What should I do if the filing is over the size limit?
Compress scans carefully or split the filing under the court's rules. Verify readability and redactions again after either operation.
Doing it in Basalt
Basalt combines OCR, page organization, true redaction, sanitization, bookmarks, forms, signatures, compression, splitting, and verification in one native Mac workflow. The document engine cannot upload or transmit filing material. Get Basalt.
Redaction that proves itself
Basalt destroys the content you mark, then re-opens the file it wrote and proves the content is gone before it saves anything. Your documents never leave your Mac.