Edit PDF Metadata
PDFs leak more than their content — author names, software fingerprints, exact timestamps.
Edit any of 8 fields, or clear them all at once. Files never leave your device.
Current metadata
Edit metadata
Fields are pre-populated from your PDF. Blank a field to remove it. Toggle Clear all metadata to wipe everything.
Shown in the PDF reader's window title bar.
A one-line description of the document.
Separate with commas. Press Enter to add. Paste a comma-separated list to add many at once.
The software that originally exported the PDF.
The software that last wrote the PDF to disk.
yyyy-mm-dd. Time component is set to 00:00 UTC on save.
yyyy-mm-dd. Time component is set to 00:00 UTC on save.
Deletes every field plus any custom non-standard entries. The form fields below will be ignored.
About PDF metadata editing
What PDFs leak about you
Open any PDF you didn't deliberately scrub and check the Author field — it's almost always your OS user account ("Sarah Chen", "john.doe", or whatever the machine's owner named themselves on first boot). The Creator field reveals which software produced the file ("Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365", "Pages 13.2", "LibreOffice 24.2"). The Producer field shows what last wrote it to disk, sometimes a different program ("macOS Quartz PDFContext"). The Modification Date shows the exact second you last touched it, in your local timezone. None of this is content — it's residue. A contract draft sent to a client carries your name and your software version. A privacy submission carries the same. Edit Metadata strips it before sharing.
The 8 standard PDF metadata fields
PDFs store metadata in two places: the legacy Info Dictionary (8 standard fields) and an XMP packet (richer XML). pdfmundo v1 edits the Info Dictionary because that's what readers display first. The 8 fields are: Title (shown in the reader's window bar), Author (typically your OS user name), Subject (a one-line description), Keywords (a list — chips below), Creator (the program that originally exported), Producer (the program that last wrote), CreationDate, and ModDate. Edit any of them; leave a field blank to remove it from the document entirely so readers fall back to defaults like the filename.
Edit individual fields vs clear all metadata
Toggle Clear all metadata in the form below to delete every standard field plus any custom non-standard entries — the privacy-mode nuclear option, useful before publishing a document on a public website or attaching one to a privacy submission. Leave the toggle off and you can edit fields surgically: blank out Author while keeping Title, or fix a Subject typo without touching anything else. Custom non-standard fields (Adobe-specific entries, enterprise tagging) are preserved during normal edit and only wiped by Clear all.
How browser-based metadata editing compares
Server-based metadata editors upload your PDF, edit it on remote infrastructure, and return a link. For a public marketing PDF that's fine; for an unfiled tax return or a draft contract, the metadata itself can identify the author — your OS user name, your work laptop's serial-number-derived UUID baked into a Creator string. pdfmundo edits entirely in your browser; the file doesn't leave your device, so the original metadata never reaches anyone else's server. After editing, the natural next step is Protect PDF to add a password, or Compress PDF if size matters before sharing. The pre-distribution chain is: edit metadata → compress → protect → share.
Common mistakes
Trying to edit a password-protected PDF — the tool can't read encrypted Info Dictionaries, so remove the password in your PDF software first, then upload. Expecting Keywords to round-trip exactly — the underlying PDF format stores keywords as a single string, so a list like "privacy, gdpr, draft" becomes "privacy gdpr draft" on save; the chip UI matches the user intent even though the on-disk representation is lossy. Expecting XMP edits in v1 — pdfmundo edits the legacy Info Dictionary, which is what readers display preferentially. XMP support is on the roadmap. Expecting custom non-standard fields to be cleared by a per-field blank — only the 8 standard fields are exposed in the UI; custom entries survive normal edit and only Clear all metadata removes them.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does my PDF have my real name in it?
- The Author field defaults to your operating system user account. Word, Pages, LibreOffice, and most other PDF exporters populate it from the system on export — usually without asking. The Creator and Producer fields similarly leak the exact software you used. Edit Metadata clears or rewrites any of these before sharing.
- Can I clear all metadata in one step?
- Yes. Toggle "Clear all metadata" in the form below and click Apply. This deletes the entire Info Dictionary including any custom non-standard fields the producing software may have added. The downloaded PDF will have no embedded author, software fingerprint, dates, or keywords.
- Will editing metadata change the document content?
- No. Only the metadata block changes. Page content, fonts, images, page layout, embedded files, signatures — all preserved exactly. Edit Metadata is metadata-only; a re-export is not involved.
- What about XMP metadata?
- v1 edits the legacy Info Dictionary only. XMP is a richer XML-based metadata format that some PDFs embed alongside the Info Dictionary. Most readers display the Info Dictionary preferentially when both are present, so your edits appear correctly in viewers, but the XMP packet may carry stale duplicates. XMP support is a v1.1 enhancement.
- What if my PDF is password-protected?
- Edit Metadata can't read the Info Dictionary of an encrypted PDF. When it detects encryption, it asks you to remove the password first. Remove it in your PDF software, then come back and edit metadata.
- Does this preserve non-standard custom metadata fields?
- Yes, during normal edit. Custom enterprise tags, Adobe-specific entries, and producer-specific identifiers round-trip unchanged when you edit individual fields. The "Clear all metadata" toggle is the only path that deletes custom fields — an explicit, deliberate action.
- What happens when I clear a field — does it become empty or disappear?
- It disappears. Clearing a field deletes the corresponding key from the Info Dictionary entirely. PDF readers then fall back to defaults — for example, displaying the filename instead of an empty title. This matches the privacy intent of clearing: the field is gone, not blank.
- What's the maximum file size?
- 50 MB on the free tier. The same cap applies to Crop PDF, Reorder Pages, Rotate, Delete Pages, Extract Pages, Page Numbers, and Watermark. Metadata editing itself is metadata-only at save time (sub-100ms even on large files), so the cap is bounded by typical browser memory rather than processing cost.
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