PDF Metadata Editor

About PDF Metadata

Every PDF carries a set of properties that travel with the file and are not visible on any page: title, author, subject, keywords, the application it was written in, the library that produced it, and the dates it was created and last changed.

They are a privacy problem more often than a feature. The author field routinely holds a real full name on a document that was meant to be anonymous; the creator names the internal tool and its version; the creation date is a timestamp of when the work actually happened. None of it is shown when the document is read, and all of it is one click away for anybody who receives the file.

Read them, change the ones you care about, or clear the lot. Clearing is not the same as sanitising, and the tool says so: the document information dictionary is one of several places a PDF can keep history, alongside XMP packets, annotations, embedded files and previous revisions left by incremental saves.

Where it helps

• Reads and writes in one place, so checking and fixing are not two different tools.
• Clears every field in one pass, including the dates.
• Says what the creator and producer fields actually mean, which is where the surprises are.
• Only the fields you fill in are changed; the rest are left alone.
• The document stays in your browser — which matters, since this is exactly the file you did not want to upload.

Limits

• The document information dictionary is not the only place a PDF hides things: XMP metadata, annotation authors, embedded file names and earlier revisions from incremental saves can each carry history this does not touch.
• The producer field is set by whatever writes the file, so it will name this tool after a write.
• Custom metadata keys that some workflows add are not shown or edited.
• It cannot remove the metadata inside embedded images, such as a photograph's EXIF.
• Password-protected files must be unlocked first.

Frequently asked questions

Does clearing the metadata make a document anonymous?

It removes the obvious layer, not every layer. Annotations carry their author, embedded files carry their names, XMP packets can duplicate what was in the info dictionary, and a document saved incrementally may still contain its earlier versions. Treat this as a necessary step rather than a sufficient one.

What is the difference between creator and producer?

The creator is the application the content was authored in — Word, InDesign, a browser. The producer is what wrote the actual PDF file, usually a library, and it often carries a version number that identifies an internal toolchain.

Why does the producer say Techie Utils after I edit?

Because this tool wrote the file, and that is what the field means. Clearing the metadata blanks it instead.

Can I set a custom property?

Not here. The five standard fields plus the dates are what is offered; custom keys belong to particular workflows and would be meaningless to most readers.

Related tools

• Flatten PDF — Make form answers part of the page
• PDF Password & Permissions — Lock a PDF with AES-256, and say what a reader may print, copy or change
• File Checksum — Verify a download, and work out which algorithm made the checksum
• Header & Footer — Put a running head or foot on every page
• Icon Font Generator — Build a web font from SVG icons or an SVG font
• Image Converter — Convert between PNG, JPEG, JFIF, WebP, GIF, HEIC and SVG

More Images & Files tools

• Icon Font Generator — Build a web font from SVG icons or an SVG font
• Image Converter — Convert between PNG, JPEG, JFIF, WebP, GIF, HEIC and SVG
• Image Resizer — Resize to a size, a proportion or a longest side
• Crop Image — Cut a rectangle out, or trim a flat border away
• Rotate Image — Turn by a right angle or any angle, and flip
• Image Base64 Converter — Turn an image into a data URI for CSS or HTML, and read one back
• WebP Converter — To WebP for the web, or back out of it
• SVG Converter — Draw an SVG at any size, or wrap a bitmap in one
• Background Remover — Take a flat background out and keep the subject
• Image Compressor — Resize and re-encode images to save bytes
• Image Optimizer — Strip metadata and redundant markup without touching the picture
• Favicon Generator — Build favicon PNGs and a multi-size .ico
• File Checksum — Verify a download, and work out which algorithm made the checksum
• QR & Barcode Reader — Read a code out of an image, and say what it does before you follow it
• MIME Detector — Identify a file from its magic bytes
• Office Password — Protect a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file with a password
• Office Password Remover — Remove the password from a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file
• Image Editor — Crop, straighten, adjust and cut out, with every step visible and reversible
• Passport Photo Maker — Passport and visa photos at each country's size, with head guides and a print sheet
• PDF Editor — Move and retype what is already on the page, reorder, annotate, stamp and sign, with the document in front of you
• PDF Viewer — Read, search and inspect a PDF without leaving the browser
• PDF Password & Permissions — Lock a PDF with AES-256, and say what a reader may print, copy or change
• PDF Password Remover — Strip the password from a PDF you can already open
• Merge PDF — Join several PDFs into one document
• Split PDF — Cut a PDF into separate documents
• Delete PDF Pages — Remove pages from a PDF and keep the rest
• Rearrange PDF Pages — Put a PDF's pages in a different order
• Rotate PDF — Turn a PDF's pages the right way up
• Compress PDF — Make a PDF smaller, by rebuilding it or redrawing it
• Watermark PDF — Stamp text or a logo across a PDF's pages
• Sign PDF — Put a signature and a date onto a PDF
• Edit PDF — Add text to a PDF page, and hide what is underneath
• PDF to Images — Turn every page into a PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF or JFIF
• OCR PDF — Read the text off a scanned PDF
• PDF to Word — Turn a PDF into an editable .docx that keeps its layout
• PDF to Excel — Pull a PDF's tables into a .xlsx workbook that keeps their formatting
• PDF to PowerPoint — Turn a PDF's pages into editable .pptx slides that look the same
• Word to PDF — Turn a .docx document into a PDF that looks the way it does in Word
• Excel to PDF — Print a .xlsx workbook to PDF with its formatting and page setup
• PowerPoint to PDF — Turn a .pptx deck into a PDF that looks the way the slides do
• Images to PDF — Turn photos or scans into one PDF document
• PDF to Text — Pull the text out of a PDF as plain text
• Crop PDF — Trim the margins off every page
• Page Numbers — Number the pages of a PDF
• Header & Footer — Put a running head or foot on every page
• Bates Numbering — Stamp sequential legal numbers across pages
• Reverse Pages — Flip a PDF's page order end to end
• Add Blank Pages — Insert empty pages anywhere in a PDF
• N-Up PDF — Put several pages on one sheet
• PDF Booklet — Reorder pages for folded booklet printing
• Flatten PDF — Make form answers part of the page
• Alternate & Mix Pages — Interleave two PDFs a page at a time
• PDF Overlay — Draw one PDF over or under another
• Combine to Single Page — Stack every page into one continuous strip
• Divide Pages — Cut every page in half or into quarters
• Posterize PDF — Tile a large page across several printable sheets
• Fix Page Size — Put every page onto one uniform sheet
• Page Dimensions — Measure every page, its rotation and its sheet
• Rotate by Any Angle — Turn pages by a fraction of a degree or more
• Remove Annotations — Strip comments, highlights, links and stamps
• PDF Attachments — List, extract, add or remove embedded files
• PDFs to ZIP — Package several PDFs into one archive
• PDF Bookmarks — Read, write or remove a PDF's outline
• Table of Contents — Build a contents page from the bookmarks
• Page Labels — Number front matter in roman and the body in arabic
• Sanitize PDF — Strip scripts, actions, attachments and metadata
• Extract Images — Pull every embedded picture out of a PDF
• Extract Tables — Turn a PDF's tables into CSV, JSON or Markdown
• PDF to Markdown — Convert a PDF into Markdown with its headings, emphasis, lists, tables and pictures
• PDF to JSON — Export a PDF's text as structured JSON
• Compare PDFs — See which pages of two PDFs differ, and by how much
• Remove Blank Pages — Find the empty pages, and take them out
• Invert PDF Colours — A dark-mode version of a document
• PDF to Greyscale — Convert every page to shades of grey
• Adjust PDF Colours — Brightness, contrast and saturation across a document
• Scanner Effect — Make a clean PDF look like a photocopy
• PDF Background Colour — Tint the paper behind the content
• Rasterize PDF — Flatten every page into a picture of itself
• PDF to CBZ — Turn a PDF into a comic book archive
• CBZ to PDF — Turn a comic book archive into a PDF
• Text to PDF — Set a plain text file as a document
• Markdown to PDF — Set Markdown as it renders: headings, emphasis, lists, code, quotes and tables
• JSON to PDF — Print a JSON file as an indented tree
• CSV to PDF — Set a spreadsheet export as a printed table
• XML to PDF — Print an XML document as an indented tree