PDF Metadata Editor
View, edit, or strip hidden metadata — title, author, dates, producer, and more.
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View and edit the metadata embedded in a PDF — title, author, subject, keywords, creator software, creation and modification timestamps. Useful before sharing a PDF that was created from a personal-name template, or for cleaning author info on documents that get reused across clients. Metadata edits use pdf-lib locally, so the PDF itself is never uploaded — which matters specifically when the metadata you're rewriting is the very thing you don't want a third party to log.
Runs right inside your browser tab. No uploads. Your files stay private.
What PDF Metadata Is — and Why Cleaning It Matters
Every PDF carries an Info dictionary at the document root that stores Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator (the source application like Word or InDesign), Producer (the library that wrote the file, e.g., Adobe PDF Library, pdf-lib, ReportLab), CreationDate, and ModDate. Modern PDFs may additionally carry an XMP metadata stream — an XML packet with the same fields plus extensions for Dublin Core, IPTC, and tool-specific data. Both are invisible in the main view but exposed by every PDF reader's Properties dialog and by command-line tools like pdfinfo.
PDF Metadata reads and rewrites the document Info dictionary using pdf-lib, in the page itself, never on a server. The fields are surfaced in a form, edits are written back into the dictionary, and the file is re-serialized — page content, fonts, vector graphics, and images are not touched. Whatever you type into the Producer and Creator fields is written verbatim, so you stay in control of those values. Note that the separate XMP metadata stream some PDFs carry is preserved as-is and is not edited here — if a file was authored in Office, InDesign, or Acrobat, identifying data in its XMP packet will survive these edits.
Stripping metadata is a privacy hygiene step before publishing. Author fields often contain real names, Creator fields can leak internal tooling (e.g., "Confidential Internal Build"), and timestamps reveal when a document was prepared. The Clear All button blanks every field at once. To go further, the PDF Flatten tool can also remove embedded annotations and form data that may carry comments or filled-in personal information.
Conversely, accurate metadata makes PDFs findable. Document management systems (SharePoint, M-Files, Box) and search platforms (Google Scholar, internal Confluence search) rely on Title and Keywords for indexing. A PDF with no Title falls back to its filename, which is often unhelpful ("final-v3.pdf").
Dates are picked with a calendar-and-time control and written in the PDF's standard date format (D:YYYYMMDDHHmmSS) on save. Leaving CreationDate empty is allowed; some archival systems treat that as a flag that the document is metadata-cleansed.
There are limits: encrypted PDFs cannot be parsed by pdf-lib until they are unlocked, so password-protected files must be cleared with the PDF Password tool first. Existing digital signatures will be invalidated by any modification, including metadata edits — this is part of the PDF signing standard. And custom metadata schemas embedded in the XMP packet are preserved on read but not exposed for editing in this UI.
All processing is local. The file is loaded into a Blob in your tab's memory, parsed by pdf-lib, modified, and offered as a download. There is no upload endpoint behind this tool.
Common Use Cases
01
Strip author identity before publishing
Remove your name, internal username, or company-issued license details from a PDF before publishing it to a public website or sending to outside counsel.
02
Fix titles for DMS indexing
Set a clean Title so SharePoint, M-Files, or Confluence index the PDF under the right name instead of falling back to the filename.
03
Clear timestamps for confidentiality
Remove CreationDate and ModDate so external parties cannot infer when the document was drafted or last edited.
04
Add keywords for searchability
Tag a research paper or product spec with keywords so internal full-text search and external indexers like Google Scholar surface it correctly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, CreationDate, and ModDate — every field in the standard PDF Info dictionary. The separate XMP metadata stream is left untouched, so it is not edited here.
No. Metadata sits in the Info dictionary and the XMP stream, which are separate from page content streams. Text, images, fonts, and vector graphics are untouched.
Yes — Clear All blanks every Info dictionary field in one click, including Producer, and the file is re-saved with those fields empty. The separate XMP metadata stream is not cleared, so PDFs authored in Office, InDesign, or Acrobat may still carry identifying data in their XMP packet; use a dedicated XMP stripper if you need to remove that too.
Whatever you leave in the Producer field is written to the file verbatim — this tool does not overwrite it with its own identifier. To change it, type a new value (or clear it) before downloading.
No — this tool only edits the Info dictionary. To strip annotations and form data, run the file through PDF Flatten afterwards, then return here for a final metadata wipe.
No. pdf-lib refuses to parse encrypted streams. Use the PDF Password tool to remove protection first, then edit metadata.
Yes. Any modification to a signed PDF — including metadata edits — invalidates existing signatures. This is a property of the PDF signing standard, not a tool limitation.
Pick a date and time with the calendar control on each date field. The value is converted to the PDF's standard date format and written back on save.
No. Reading and writing happen without ever leaving your tab via pdf-lib. The PDF stays in tab memory and never reaches a server.
Not in this UI — each file is handled individually so you can review the metadata before saving. For programmatic batch wipes across hundreds of PDFs, a desktop tool like exiftool or qpdf is more efficient.
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