What a PDF says about you: metadata, and how to remove it

PDF metadata is the description stored inside a PDF: its title, the author's name, the program that made it, and the dates it was created and changed. Most readers show it under File → Properties, and it often includes your name even if you never typed it. A metadata remover can give you a copy without those fields in a few seconds. It does not change what the pages show, and it does not make the document anonymous.

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What metadata is

A PDF has a standard set of document properties:

• Title and Subject: what the document says it is about.
• Author: the person named as the creator.
• Keywords: words chosen for search.
• Creator: the application that made the original document, such as a word processor.
• Producer: the software that wrote the PDF file, which can differ from the creator.
• Creation date and modification date.

Where it is stored

Most of these fields live in the document information dictionary, a small set of name and value pairs inside the file. Many PDFs also contain an XMP metadata stream: a block of XML that holds similar information in a more structured form, which other software reads too. The same value can appear in both places, so check a cleaned file again afterwards.

Where the author name comes from

The author field is usually filled from the user name set in the office program or the operating system. It is often added automatically when the file is created, so a PDF made on a work laptop may carry the account name or the company name, without anyone choosing to add it. Software differs. Some programs fill the field and some leave it empty.

How to see it

Open the PDF in a reader and look for File → Properties or Document properties. Most desktop readers have a panel like this, and many browser viewers do too. The remover shows the same fields directly, so you can read them before you save anything.

When it matters

Metadata matters when a file leaves your hands. Common cases are a CV or portfolio sent to a recruiter, a quote or invoice sent to a client, a report published online, and a draft shared with people who should not know who wrote it or where it was made. The author name and the dates together can say more than the page does.

What removing metadata does not do

Removing the fields is narrow. It does not remove:

• text or images on the pages;
• comments and annotations;
• entries in form fields;
• files attached inside the PDF;
• content you hid in layers or made invisible.

It also does not make a document anonymous. Your writing style, the content, the file name you send, and your other files can all identify you.

Covering is not redacting

A black box drawn over a sentence is a shape on top of the page. The text underneath can remain in the file, and a reader can still select it, copy it or search for it. To test a file, open it, try to select the covered text, and search for a word you hid. If the word is found, the text is still there.

To remove content rather than cover it, use the redact tool, which is built for removing the material under a mark. Metadata removal and redaction do different jobs: use the first for the properties, and the second for the words and pictures.

Photos carry their own data

A photo has metadata of its own, called EXIF. It can include the camera model, the date and, when location was switched on, GPS coordinates. A photo placed inside a PDF may keep this data, and removing the PDF's properties does not necessarily remove it. Remove the location from photos before you add them, with the photo location remover.

Steps

1. Open the PDF and check its properties in a reader.
2. Run the metadata remover and read the fields it shows.
3. Save the copy it gives back, and keep the original somewhere separate if you need it.
4. Open the copy and check its properties again.
5. Check the pages separately for covered text, and clean photos before they go in.

Edge cases

• Signed PDFs. Any change after signing breaks the digital signature. Clean the metadata before you sign, not after.
• Scanned pages. A scan has no text layer to remove, but the scanner's software may still add properties. Check them as above.
• Company templates. A file made from a template often keeps the template's author and creator. Check each one you send.