Edit PDF Metadata

Where a PDF keeps its properties

The Document Properties panel in any PDF reader is showing you metadata stored in the file. Most of it lives in the document information dictionary: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, the creation date and the modification date. Creator is the program the document was written in — Word, InDesign, LibreOffice — and Producer is the software that turned it into a PDF.

Many files also carry an XMP packet: a block of XML that can repeat all of those values and add more, such as unique document IDs and a history of edits. XMP is the format PDF 2.0 prefers, and Acrobat shows XMP values when a file has both. That is the trap with simple metadata editors: change the title in the information dictionary alone and Acrobat may go on showing the old title from the XMP.

So this tool offers three choices for XMP. Rewrite it to match writes a fresh packet with exactly your values, keeping the PDF/A conformance claim and the permanent document ID while dropping the old editing history. Remove it leaves only the information dictionary. Leave it unchanged is there for the rare case you need the original packet byte for byte. A file without XMP gets none added.

Why the title field matters more than it looks

The title is what a reader shows when the file is set to display its title, what many document managers list, and what search engines can use as the heading of a PDF in their results. A report whose title property still says “Microsoft Word - Draft3 FINAL v2.docx” looks careless in all of those places, and a filename is no substitute, because the filename changes every time someone saves a copy.

Keywords and subject are read by desktop search, reference managers and document management systems. Author is used by many of those for sorting and attribution — and, as below, it often says something you did not intend.

Dates, and software that writes over your values

PDF dates are stored as text such as D:20250203091500+05'30', with the time zone included. The date fields here use your computer's local time and are converted when saved, so setting 3 February at 09:15 means 09:15 where you are. Leave a date empty to remove it, or press Now to set the current time.

Many PDF libraries quietly overwrite the Producer and the modification date with their own values every time they save a file — which makes a metadata editor built on them unable to save the values you typed. This tool opens the document with that behaviour switched off, so what you see after saving is exactly what you entered, and the panel under the download reads the values back out of the saved file to prove it.

Custom properties and what else is in there

Programs add their own entries to the information dictionary: Company, SourceModified, a document number, a template name. They are listed separately and kept unless you tick them for removal.

If the aim is privacy rather than tidiness — getting names, software versions and dates out of a file before you share it — use Remove PDF Metadata instead. It removes far more than these fields: the XMP history, metadata inside embedded photos including GPS coordinates, comment authors, and leftovers from earlier saves.

Changing metadata does not touch the pages. Text, images, fonts and layout are copied through untouched, and a digitally signed document will show its signature as invalid afterwards, because any change to the file — even to its title — is a change.

Archival files: PDF/A

PDF/A is the ISO standard for long-term archiving, and many courts, universities and government portals require it. One of its rules is that the information dictionary and the XMP metadata must say the same thing — a PDF/A file whose title differs between the two fails validation.

That is why Rewrite it to match is the default. It writes the XMP from the same values as the document properties and keeps the packet's PDF/A identification, so an archival file stays consistent after its title or author changes. Removing the XMP from a PDF/A file, by contrast, removes the very declaration that it is PDF/A; do that only if you know the file no longer needs to conform.