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Flaxseed soluble dietary fiber (fSDF), one of the main components of flaxseed meal, a by-product of flaxseed, exhibits film-forming ability. However, single-component fSDF film has poor mechanical properties. Based on this, the preparation parameters of fSDF-chitosan composite films were optimized using the response surface method to improve mechanical properties of the films. The fSDF, glycerol, acetic acid, and chitosan concentrations were used as variables in single-factor experiments. Except for the acetic acid concentration, the other three factors were adopted as variables in the response surface experiments. The tensile strength and elongation at break of the films were used as the response values. The results showed that the optimal parameters were 20.7 g/L of chitosan, 7.8 g/L of fSDF, 7.4 g/L of glycerol, and 12 g/L of acetic acid. The tensile strength and elongation at break of the composite film prepared with the optimal parameters were 26.14 MPa and 210.89% respectively. These results indicate conclusively that the composite film has markedly improved mechanical properties compared to the single-component film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]