PDF Metadata
Viewer
Drop a PDF.
The tool reads the Info dictionary (Title, Author, Creator, Producer, dates), surfaces the XMP packet when it's uncompressed, and reports page count, PDF version, linearization, and encryption status.
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Any PDF version. Encrypted PDFs may show garbled Info strings (we don't decrypt).
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PDF Metadata
About PDF metadata
Every PDF carries metadata in two places: the Info dictionary, a small set of named fields in the file's trailer (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, CreationDate, ModDate), and the optional XMP packet, an XML metadata stream the catalog can point to. Most PDFs use one or both. This tool reads them both.
The Info dictionary tells you which application built the PDF (Creator) and which library wrote the actual bytes (Producer). Those two are often different — for example, a Word document exported to PDF will list Word as Creator and Microsoft's PDF writer as Producer. The dates are encoded in PDF's quirky D:YYYYMMDDHHmmSSOHH'mm' format; the tool unpacks them into plain timestamps.
The XMP packet is verbose XML that often duplicates the Info dictionary fields and adds revision history, derived-from references, and software-specific extensions. When the XMP packet is stored uncompressed (the common case), the tool prints it verbatim. When it's compressed inside a stream object, the tool flags it and reports the byte length without decoding (we don't ship a zlib decoder).
Common questions
Why does the Producer field name software I don't use?
Producer is the library that actually serialized the PDF bytes, not the application you used. Word uses Microsoft's PDF writer; Chrome uses Skia/PDF; Google Docs uses an internal Google library. The Creator field is the application closer to what you opened.
What does "encrypted" mean here?
A PDF with an /Encrypt entry in its trailer has its content streams (and often its Info strings) scrambled with a password-derived key. The tool flags these and warns you that the Info strings may read as garbled bytes. We don't decrypt — that requires the password or owner key.
Can metadata reveal who last edited a PDF?
Often yes — the XMP packet usually contains a revision history with timestamps, and the Info dictionary's ModDate is the last save time. Some XMP fields also record the Document ID, which stays stable across edits and ties versions together.
What's a linearized PDF?
Linearization (sometimes called "Fast Web View") reorganizes the file so the first page can render before the rest of the file finishes downloading. The first object in a linearized PDF has a /Linearized entry. It doesn't change what metadata is present, just where it sits in the byte stream.