The Hidden Information Inside Your PDFs
Every PDF carries metadata — information about the document that's not visible in the content itself. Title, author, creation date, keywords, and more.
Most people never think about this. But sometimes you need to change it.
What PDF Metadata Includes
The standard metadata fields:
Title — The document's name (different from the filename)
Author — Who created it
Subject — What it's about
Keywords — Searchable terms
Creator — The software that made the PDF
Producer — The PDF generator used
Creation date — When the document was originally created
Modification date — When it was last edited
Some of this gets set automatically by whatever software created the PDF. Some might be blank. Some might be wrong.
Editing Metadata
Our Metadata Editor lets you change these fields:
- Upload your PDF
- View current metadata
- Edit whatever needs changing
- Download the updated PDF
The visible content stays unchanged. Only the hidden metadata gets updated.
Why You'd Want to Do This
Professional presentation — A document with proper title and author info looks more polished in file browsers and readers.
Removing identifying info — Maybe the creator's name isn't appropriate for sharing, or software info reveals tools you'd rather not disclose.
Better organization — Consistent metadata helps with searching and filing documents.
SEO for uploaded PDFs — Search engines do read PDF metadata. Proper titles and keywords can help discoverability.
Fixing errors — Import/export processes sometimes scramble metadata. Clean it up.
A Privacy Consideration
Metadata can reveal more than intended. Creating software, author names, revision dates — all potentially sensitive depending on context.
Before sharing documents externally, it's worth checking what metadata is attached. You might want to clear or modify it.
Our editor lets you view what's there and change what needs changing.
What the Editor Can't Do
Metadata editing changes the document properties, not the visible content. Editing actual text, images, or layout within the PDF requires different tools.
Also, some PDFs have restricted editing. If a document is locked, metadata changes might be prevented.
Check Your Documents
Open the metadata editor and see what information your PDFs contain.
You might be surprised what's in there. And now you can fix it.
Need to make other changes to your PDFs? Check out our guides on adding watermarks and compressing files.