SantoshTec PDF

View and edit PDF metadata

See the hidden title, author and producer fields your PDF is carrying, then correct them or strip them out entirely before you share the file.

Drop a PDF here to read its properties

Read locally — nothing is uploaded.

    Nothing is uploaded. This page opens and rewrites your PDF using your own browser's memory, then shows you the finished pages so you can check them before you download.

    Using PDF metadata, step by step

    1. Drop a PDF onto the box above. Whatever metadata it already carries is read out and shown in the fields.
    2. Edit anything you want to change, or press Clear all fields to strip the document bare.
    3. Press Save metadata to write your changes into a new copy of the file.
    4. Download the result. The original is untouched.

    The information you did not know you were sending

    Every PDF carries a small dossier about itself. Open any document's properties dialogue and you will typically find a title, an author, the application that created it, the library that wrote the PDF, and two timestamps. None of it is visible while reading, all of it travels with the file, and almost none of it was chosen deliberately.

    The author field is the one that causes trouble. Word, Excel, LibreOffice and most PDF printers populate it automatically from the operating system's user account. That is why so many documents in circulation are authored by "Administrator", by an IT asset tag, by a former employee who set the machine up, or by someone's full legal name on a document they sent under a business identity. There have been enough newsworthy incidents of this kind — documents whose real origin was revealed by their properties dialogue — that checking before sending is a reasonable habit for anything sensitive.

    The producer field is less risky but often revealing: it names the exact software and version that generated the file. For most documents that is harmless trivia. For a document that is meant to look like it came from somewhere else, it is a giveaway.

    When metadata is worth setting properly

    Stripping is not always the right move. Metadata is genuinely useful in two cases, and both reward a minute's attention.

    Documents published on the web. Search engines read the title field much as they read an HTML page title, and browsers display it in the tab when someone opens the PDF. A file titled Annual Report 2025 — Kathmandu Community Trust presents far better, and ranks better, than one titled Microsoft Word - final_v3_FINAL.docx. The subject and keyword fields play a smaller supporting role.

    Documents entering a filing system. Document management systems, reference managers and enterprise search all index these fields. A consistent title and author across a set of documents is the difference between a searchable archive and a folder of mysteries. If you produce documents in volume, setting them properly at source pays for itself.

    What clearing does and does not achieve

    Clearing every field removes a real and specific risk: the accidental disclosure of a name, an organisation or a piece of software you did not mean to reveal. That is worth doing before sharing anything publicly, and it takes one click here.

    But it is not anonymisation, and treating it as such is dangerous. Identifying information also lives in the visible content of the document, in letterheads and signatures, in the EXIF data of photographs embedded inside the PDF — which can include GPS coordinates — and sometimes in comments or tracked changes that survived the export. If genuine anonymity is the goal, the reliable approach is to rebuild the document from clean content rather than to sanitise an existing one.

    A practical middle path for scanned material: convert the pages to images with PDF to JPG, then rebuild a fresh PDF with JPG to PDF. The new file inherits no metadata from the old one at all, because it is genuinely a new document. You lose the text layer, which is the trade.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is PDF metadata and why should I care?

    It is a set of hidden fields stored inside the file: title, author, subject, keywords, the software that created it, and creation and modification dates. You never see them while reading, but they travel with the document, they are visible in any reader's document properties dialogue, and search engines and document management systems read them. The author field in particular often contains a real name or a computer login that the sender never intended to share.

    Does clearing metadata make a document anonymous?

    No, and it is important not to believe otherwise. Metadata is one of several places identifying information hides. The visible content may include a name or letterhead; a scanned page may carry the scanner's model; tracked changes and comments may survive an export; and an image inside the PDF can carry its own EXIF data including a GPS location. Clearing metadata removes one clear risk, not all of them.

    Why does the author field say something strange?

    Because most software fills it automatically from your operating system account. That is why PDFs are so often authored by "Administrator", by a company asset tag, or by someone's full legal name when they only ever used a nickname professionally. It is set once and then inherited by every document that computer produces.

    Is a good title actually worth setting?

    Yes, in two situations. Browsers show the title in the tab when someone opens your PDF, so a meaningful title beats a filename like scan_0001. And if the PDF is published on a website, search engines use the title much as they use a page title. For a document that will be indexed, it is a genuine ranking signal.

    Can I edit the creation date?

    Not here. Editing timestamps is mostly useful for making a document appear to have been produced at a time it was not, which is a thing this tool declines to make easy. The modification date is updated automatically when you save, which is accurate.

    Related PDF tools

    Most jobs need two or three steps. These pair well with PDF metadata.