The Part of a PDF Nobody Looks At
Every PDF carries a small set of fields describing itself: a title, an author, the application it came from. They are filled in automatically, they are rarely checked, and they travel with the file, which is how a proposal sent to a client ends up naming an internal template, or a document shared anonymously ends up naming its owner in the properties panel.
This tool shows you exactly what your file is carrying and lets you rewrite or empty it. The document is loaded, its information dictionary is replaced, and the pages are saved back untouched.
How to Edit or Remove PDF Metadata
The current values are read from the file the moment it loads, so you can see what is there before deciding what to do about it.
- Open the PDF you want to inspect. The six fields fill in with whatever the document currently holds.
- Read what is there. The creation and modification dates are shown underneath, though those are not editable here.
- Edit any field by typing over it. A field left empty will be written as empty rather than left at its old value.
- Or press Clear every field to blank all six at once, the usual choice before sharing a document publicly.
- Press Restore original values if you change your mind; it puts back everything the file arrived with.
- Press Save metadata and download the result. The pages themselves are identical to the original.
What Each Field Means
Title and Subject are descriptive, and some readers show the title in the window bar or browser tab in place of the filename, which is why an unedited title from a template can be surprisingly visible. Author names a person, and is usually filled in from the account name of whoever created the file. Keywords is a list that some document management systems index.
Creator and Producer are the pair that reveals the most. Creator is the application the document was written in, such as a word processor or a design tool. Producer is the software that turned it into a PDF, a print driver, an export library, an online converter. Together they often describe a workflow more precisely than anyone intended, including which tools an organisation uses and which version.
PDF Metadata Fields
What each field is for, where it typically comes from, and where it shows up.
| Field | Usually set by | Where it is visible |
|---|---|---|
| Title | The authoring application or template | Window title, browser tab, search results |
| Author | The account name of the file creator | Properties dialog, file manager columns |
| Subject | Set manually, often left empty | Properties dialog |
| Keywords | Set manually or by a document system | Document management search indexes |
| Creator | The application the document was written in | Properties dialog |
| Producer | The library or driver that wrote the PDF | Properties dialog |
| Created / Modified | Automatically, by the writing software | Properties dialog, file listings |
Creation and modification dates are shown here for reference but are not editable. Most PDF writers, including the one behind this tool, set the modification date when they save, so it will reflect the moment you pressed Save rather than the original.
Metadata Is Not the Whole Story
Clearing these fields is worth doing before sharing a document, but it is not anonymisation. A PDF can also carry annotations and their authors, form data, attached files, layers, and content that is present in the file while hidden from view. Photographs placed in the document may still hold their own EXIF data, including camera model and sometimes GPS coordinates.
If a document is genuinely sensitive, treat metadata as one item on a longer list. Exporting only the pages you need with Split PDF is a firmer starting point than editing properties, because it produces a new file containing nothing but those pages, and pairs well with clearing the metadata afterwards.
Checking Your Own File Without Showing It to Anyone
There is something self-defeating about uploading a document to a website in order to find out what personal information it contains. The inspection itself becomes a disclosure, and you learn what the author field said only after a third party has learned it too.
Here the file is read in your browser, the fields are shown to you and nobody else, and the rewritten document is handed straight back. Nothing is transmitted at any point, so you can safely check a file you are not yet sure you want to share.