PDF files store a surprising amount of information beyond what appears on the page. This hidden data, metadata, can reveal details about who created the document, which software was used, when it was edited, and sometimes who last had access to it. Most of the time this does not matter, but for documents shared externally, disclosed in legal proceedings, or submitted for professional purposes, understanding what metadata your PDF contains is useful.
What PDF metadata contains
Standard PDF metadata includes:
- Title, the document title, often taken from the application's document name rather than the filename
- Author, the name of the person who created the document, usually pulled from the operating system's registered user profile
- Subject, a description field that is often blank but may contain data from certain applications
- Keywords, tags that some applications add automatically or that the author entered
- Creator, the application that created the original document (Word 2021, Google Chrome, InDesign 2025, etc.)
- Producer, the tool that generated the PDF file (often the same as Creator, or a PDF conversion library)
- Created date, when the document was first created
- Modified date, when the PDF was last saved or modified
Some PDFs also contain XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) data, which is a more detailed metadata format used by Adobe applications and some design tools. XMP can include additional fields, revision history, and rights management information.
Why metadata matters for professional documents
The Author field is the one most people would want to be aware of. If you use a personal laptop to create a work document, the Author field may contain your personal name rather than a work identity. For documents submitted for professional purposes, proposals, tenders, legal evidence, this can be an inadvertent disclosure.
The Creator field reveals which software was used. A proposal submitted as a PDF that shows "Microsoft Word 2019" as the creator might prompt questions if the client expected it to be created in specialised software. More seriously, revealing that a "final" contract was last modified an hour before signing can raise awkward questions in a legal context.
Modified dates are particularly relevant in document discovery proceedings, where the timeline of document creation and editing can be significant evidence. PDFs that have been modified after the date stated in the body of the document may flag inconsistencies that require explanation.
How to view PDF metadata
In Adobe Acrobat Reader (free): go to File → Properties. The Description tab shows the standard metadata fields. The Custom tab shows any additional XMP data. On a Mac, this is Command+D.
In macOS Preview: open the PDF, go to Tools → Show Inspector (or press Command+I). The PDF tab shows the document properties including creation and modification dates.
In Chrome or Edge's PDF viewer: there is no built-in metadata viewer. You need to open the file in a dedicated tool to see the full metadata.
How to edit or remove PDF metadata
Adobe Acrobat Pro (paid) allows full metadata editing: File → Properties, then edit the fields in the Description tab. This is the most comprehensive option, including the ability to strip XMP metadata.
ExifTool is a free, open-source command-line tool that can read and write metadata in almost any file format including PDFs. It is powerful but requires comfort with the command line. For anyone who regularly needs to clean metadata from large batches of files, ExifTool is the most efficient free option.
PDF compressors often strip some metadata as part of the compression process. PDFWhisk's compressor removes redundant metadata during optimisation, this clears much of the identifying information without requiring a separate metadata editing step. It is not guaranteed to remove every metadata field, but for most practical purposes, a compressed version of a document will contain significantly less metadata than the original export.
Metadata in collaborative documents
PDFs created from Word documents that have been through multiple rounds of tracked changes and revisions may retain information about all contributors in the Author and revision history fields. Before sharing externally, review the metadata and consider using "Accept all changes" in Word before the final PDF export to produce a clean document without revision history artefacts.
For documents exported from Google Docs, the metadata typically shows the Google account email of the exporter in the Author field. If you are submitting pseudonymous work or maintaining a separation between your Google account identity and your professional identity, this is worth checking before sharing.