Every PDF carries a little passport you can't see in normal reading: the document-information dictionary. It records what the creating application knew or guessed — the title (often "Untitled"), the author (often your operating-system login name), the software and version that generated it, and timestamps. It's how a polished client proposal ends up labeled "Microsoft Word - Document1" in the tab bar, or how a report quietly announces it was authored by a specific employee on a specific machine. Our free PDF Metadata Editor lets you see those hidden properties — title, author, subject, keywords, creator app, producer and both dates — then fix or strip them before sharing. Everything runs on your device with pdf-lib: your documents never leave it, which matters precisely because metadata often contains names and company details. This guide explains what to check, what to fix, and what to strip before a PDF goes anywhere public.
Step one: open a PDF. Drop in any PDF and the tool reads its properties instantly — title, author, subject, keywords, creator app, producer and both dates — right on your device. Step two: edit or strip. Type corrections into the fields (fix that "Untitled" title), or hit "Strip identifying info" to wipe author, creator and company details in one click — stripping clears author, subject, keywords, creator and producer. Step three: download the updated PDF. A fresh file is saved with your new properties; the pages themselves are untouched, and your original stays exactly as it was. A new file is saved; your original is never modified.
That matters in two opposite directions. Professionally, wrong metadata is just sloppy: when someone opens your PDF, the viewer tab shows the title field, not the filename. A proper title, author and subject make your documents look finished and searchable in document libraries. The other direction is privacy: before posting a PDF publicly — a resume, a sample contract, a scanned record — the author and creator fields are worth clearing. They routinely contain real names, company names and software fingerprints that nobody intended to publish. This editor handles the fields that matter and nothing exotic: title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer, plus read-only views of the creation and modification dates. It won't touch the page content, and because everything runs locally, you can inspect sensitive documents without the irony of uploading them to a metadata-editing website.
The audit takes a minute and follows the fields in order. Title first: if it says "Untitled" or "Microsoft Word - Document1", replace it with the real title — it is what shows in the viewer tab and in search results for the document. Author second: make it a deliberate choice, your name or your organisation, not the operating-system login the creating app guessed. Subject and keywords third: a one-line subject and a few accurate keywords make the document findable in libraries and inboxes, and they cost nothing to write. Creator and producer fourth: if they name software or a company you would rather not advertise, strip them — they add nothing for the reader. Dates last: creation and modification dates are read-only in this tool, so if a date itself leaks something (a draft date you would rather not show), the fix is to re-export the document, not to edit the field. Run the same check on every PDF that leaves your organisation, and the embarrassing leaks stop being a matter of luck.
Sharing without checking. The classic leak is a resume or proposal whose author field still holds a real name or a company login nobody meant to publish. Stripping metadata you actually wanted. Keywords and a good subject help document libraries and recipients find the file — strip the identifying fields, keep the descriptive ones. Assuming editing changes the content. It doesn't: the pages, text and images are copied over untouched; only the properties change. Editing the original in place. This tool always saves a new file, which is the safe behaviour — the original stays exactly as it was, so a mistake costs nothing. Trying to batch dozens of PDFs in one click. The tool processes one PDF at a time, which keeps everything private in your browser; for a handful of files it is fast — open, edit, download, repeat. If you routinely publish dozens of PDFs, the consistent move is to set clean metadata in your authoring tool (Word, InDesign, Google Docs export settings) before the PDF is even created, and use this editor for one-off fixes and audits.
The honest limits are four. First, the tool processes one PDF at a time — there is no batch mode, by design, because everything stays in your browser. Second, the creation and modification dates are read-only views; the tool does not rewrite them. Third, it covers the core fields — title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer — and nothing exotic, so unusual custom properties stay as they are. Fourth, it works like Acrobat Pro's Document Properties for the same core fields, and Acrobat Pro charges about $240 a year for access to features like this; here they are free, in your browser, with no account. Within those limits, the tool does one job completely: it shows you what your PDF says about itself and lets you fix it before anyone else reads it. Metadata is only half of a PDF audit — the links inside the document matter too. The PDF Link Extractor pulls every embedded hyperlink into a list you can review before sharing. The companion guides are our PDF compression guide, for shrinking the file after fixing its properties, our PDF signing guide, for signing the cleaned PDF in the browser, and our PDF to PNG guide, for turning the fixed pages into crisp images.
Shrink the file after fixing its properties — the three strengths and the trade-offs.
Sign the cleaned PDF in the browser — no watermark, no account.
Turn the fixed pages into crisp images at 72, 150 or 300 DPI.