PDF Metadata Viewer

What PDFs record about their origin

Every PDF carries a document information dictionary and often an XMP metadata block. Between them they typically record the title, author, subject, keywords, the creating application, the PDF producer library, and creation and modification timestamps. None of this is visible on the page, and most people never look at it before sending a document out.

Why it matters before you share

The author field usually contains a real name or a corporate username, taken automatically from the operating system account. The creator field names the software and often its version, which tells a recipient what you use and, if it is out of date, what vulnerabilities you may carry. Timestamps reveal when a document was actually produced, which occasionally contradicts what the document says about itself. Documents converted from a template sometimes retain the original author from whoever built the template years earlier.

This information has repeatedly identified the source of leaked and anonymously published documents. Check it before publishing anything you intend to be unattributed.

Two metadata stores that can disagree

The older information dictionary and the newer XMP block are separate, and editing one does not necessarily update the other. A tool that clears the visible author may leave the XMP copy intact, so the name persists in the file while the properties dialog shows nothing. A thorough inspection reads both.

Page-level properties

Beyond document metadata, each page carries its own dimensions, rotation and box definitions. Mixed page sizes within one document cause unpredictable printing, and a MediaBox that differs from the CropBox means content exists outside the visible area, which occasionally hides material the author believed was cropped away.

Read locally

The file is parsed in your browser. Checking what a confidential document reveals about itself does not require uploading it to find out.

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