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Delete Image Metadata

PDF Metadata Remover

Check the document properties your PDF is carrying, remove them, and confirm the result — without the file leaving your device.

  • .pdf
Free
No account, no limit on files
0
Files uploaded — processing is local
PDF
Rewritten, not re-rendered
Processed in your browser

What the properties dialog is actually showing you

Open a PDF in Acrobat or Preview, look at Document Properties, and you are reading the information dictionary: eight or so standard entries that every PDF producer fills in differently.

Two of them give away more than people expect. Producer names the library that generated the file — which often identifies the exact software and version in use, down to a build number. Creator names the application the content came from, so a PDF exported from Word says so, as does one exported from InDesign or LaTeX.

The timestamps are the other half. CreationDate and ModDate are recorded to the second with a time-zone offset, so a document's properties reveal when it was written and when it was last touched, in your local time.

Where each producer leaves its fingerprint

The pattern tells you what to expect before you even open the file:

  • Word and LibreOffice: Author taken from the account name, Creator naming the application, Title often taken from the first heading
  • Acrobat Distiller and Ghostscript: a detailed Producer string including the exact version
  • InDesign and Illustrator: an XMP packet with document and instance identifiers, plus per-page application data
  • Scanners: Creator naming the scanner driver, sometimes the device model
  • LaTeX: a Producer string naming the engine, and occasionally the source filename

Inspect first, then decide

The tool lists everything it finds before offering to remove anything, because the useful question is usually not 'is it gone' but 'what was in there'. Seeing a colleague's name or an internal project title in a document you were about to publish is the point at which this stops being abstract.

What this tool does

  • Full property listing before removal, not just a count
  • Reads XMP entries as well as the info dictionary
  • Reports how many revisions the file contains

What it does not do

  • Cannot decrypt password-protected documents
  • Does not edit individual properties — removal is per document

PDF Metadata Remover

Check the document properties your PDF is carrying, remove them, and confirm the result — without the file leaving your device.

Open the tool

Reviewed and updated . Behaviour described on this page is covered by the project’s automated tests.

Frequently asked questions

How do I see a PDF's properties without special software?

Load it here — the entries are listed in a table. Acrobat and macOS Preview also show them under Document Properties or the Inspector.

Why does my PDF list a producer I have never used?

Producer names the library that wrote the file, which is often embedded inside another application. A PDF exported from Word may name a Microsoft rendering library rather than Word itself.

Does removing the properties break anything?

No. They are descriptive. Nothing in the rendering, text extraction or printing of a PDF depends on the information dictionary.

What about the file's own timestamps?

Those belong to your filesystem rather than the document, so they are outside what any in-file cleaner can change. Copying or re-saving a file usually resets them.

Does the tool show metadata for each page?

It reports page-level application data when present, but the properties themselves are document-wide rather than per page.

Why does my PDF have two different creation dates?

The info dictionary and the XMP packet each carry their own timestamps, and they can disagree when a file has been edited by different tools. Both are removed.

Can I edit a property instead of deleting it?

Not here — removal is per document. A desktop tool such as ExifTool can set individual fields.

Does cleaning affect PDF/A compliance?

It can. PDF/A requires specific XMP metadata, so a cleaned file may no longer validate as PDF/A. Keep the original if you need that compliance.

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