What is PDF Metadata?
PDF metadata is information stored inside the file that isn't visible on the page itself. It includes: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator (the app that generated the file), Producer (the PDF library used), and timestamps for creation and modification. This data is readable by search engines, document management systems, and anyone who checks the file properties.
Why Edit PDF Metadata?
There are three main reasons. Privacy: a PDF exported from Word often contains the author's full name, computer username, and company name — information you may not want to share with external recipients. Professionalism: setting a proper Title and Author makes documents look polished in document management systems and search results. Discoverability: adding relevant Keywords to a PDF published on your website helps search engines index and rank the document correctly.
- Check the Author field before sending contracts — it often shows your Windows username
- Set Title to the document's official name for better display in PDF viewers
- Add Keywords for PDFs you publish online to improve search engine indexing
Step-by-Step: Edit PDF Metadata
1. Open the Edit Metadata tool and upload your PDF. 2. The current metadata values are loaded into editable fields. 3. Update any fields you want to change — leave others as-is. 4. Click Apply to save the changes. 5. Download the updated PDF.
What Metadata Can and Can't Be Removed
Our tool can edit the standard document information dictionary (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer). It also strips the XMP metadata packet, which is a secondary XML-based metadata store used by Adobe products. Hidden revision history and embedded file streams are not part of the standard metadata fields and require specialised tools to remove.