PDF power tools
Edit PDF metadata
Read, change, or clear the title, author, subject, and keywords. Your document is processed locally and is never uploaded to Novus PDF Studio.
Read, change, or clear the title, author, subject, and keywords.
Drop PDF here
Files stay in this browser session. Maximum 200 MB each.
Loads a sample: 1 page: a short letter ending in a signature block.
Samples contain invented data only and are read from this site, not uploaded.
Your document preview will appear here.
Choose a PDF to begin.
About this tool
Every PDF carries a small block of information about itself: a title, an author, a subject, a keyword list, and the name of whatever application produced it. Most people never look at it, which is exactly why it causes trouble. A document saved from a template can go out to a client carrying a previous client's name, and a file named Draft_final_v3.pdf can announce itself in a reader's title bar as Untitled Document written by somebody who left three years ago.
This tool reads those fields, lets you set or clear them, and then shows you both columns. The after column is read back out of the saved file rather than repeated from the form, so it is evidence that the change landed rather than a restatement of what you asked for.
How to metadata step by step
- 1
Open the PDF
Drop the file onto the drop zone. The current values are read from the document itself, not guessed from the filename.
- 2
Set or clear the fields
Type new values, or tick Clear every field to empty the title, author, subject, and keywords in one go.
- 3
Decide about the date
Leave the modification date alone unless you want it to say the file changed today. The creation date is never touched.
- 4
Save and compare
Download the result, then read the before and after columns. They come from the real file at both ends.
When to use it
- Before sending a document built from a template that still names the previous recipient.
- When a file shows the wrong title in a reader's tab or a document management system.
- When you want a clean, attributable title on something you are publishing.
- Before sharing a PDF whose author field names a person who should not be identified.
Tips
- Read the before column first. It often explains a problem you were about to solve the hard way.
- Keywords are comma separated, and an empty box clears the list rather than leaving it alone.
- If the XMP warning appears and you need true removal, the honest route is to rebuild the document rather than to edit it.
Good to know
- XMP metadata streams are read for their presence and reported, but cannot be edited here.
- Producer is rewritten by the act of saving; Creator is never written.
- The creation date cannot be changed.
- Custom metadata keys beyond the four standard fields are left exactly as they are.
Metadata questions, answered
Does clearing the author remove every trace of who made this?
No, and this is the most important limitation to understand. A PDF can record the same information twice: in the document-information dictionary, which this tool writes, and in an XMP metadata packet, which it cannot edit. Some readers prefer XMP. When your file carries one, the tool says so in a warning rather than letting you believe the job is finished. Treat this as a tidy-up, not as sanitisation.
Why did the Producer field change by itself?
Producer records the software that wrote the file, and rewriting a PDF necessarily makes that this site's PDF library. It is reported rather than hidden. Creator, which records the application that originally authored the document, is read and shown but never written: claiming a document came from somewhere it did not is not a metadata edit.
Can I change the creation date?
No. The modification date can be updated if you ask for it, because saying a file changed today is true when it did. Backdating when a document came into existence is a different thing entirely and this tool will not help with it.
Is the document content changed?
No. Nothing printed on the page is touched. Text, images, form fields, links, and page order come out exactly as they went in; only what the document says about itself changes.
Privacy note: like every Novus PDF Studio tool, metadataruns entirely in your browser. Files, passwords, and settings stay in this tab's memory and are discarded when you close it. There is no upload, no queue, and no server-side copy. Read more on the privacy page.