PDF Metadata Viewer — Inspect Title, Author & Producer Online
View PDF metadata online: title, author, subject, producer, creation date, PDF version, page count, encryption status. 100% local — your PDF never leaves your browser.
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Drop a PDF to instantly read its metadata: title, author, producer, creator, creation and modification dates, PDF version, page count, and encryption status. The file is opened in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
What is PDF Metadata Viewer?
Every PDF file carries a metadata block that describes what the document is and how it was produced. The classic Info dictionary stores the fields you see in Acrobat's 'Document Properties' dialog — Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator (the source application), Producer (the PDF library that wrote the file), CreationDate, and ModDate. Modern PDFs may also carry XMP metadata, an XML stream that mirrors the same information plus richer publishing fields. This viewer parses both surfaces and shows the raw values, so you can verify what a document actually says about itself — useful when you're publishing PDFs to the web, auditing a batch of scanned files, or investigating the origin of an unknown document.
How to view PDF metadata online
- 1Drop a PDF onto the drop zone, or click 'Choose file' to pick one.
- 2The file is parsed locally in your browser using pdf.js — nothing is uploaded.
- 3The tool shows the standard Info fields, PDF version, page count, and encryption status.
- 4For files that embed XMP metadata, expand the 'XMP metadata (raw XML)' panel to read the full XML stream.
Use Cases
Audit publishing metadata
Confirm that PDFs on your marketing site have the right Title and Author before they are indexed by search engines.
Detect the source application
The Producer field reveals the library that wrote the PDF (LibreOffice, iText, Skia/PDF, wkhtmltopdf). Handy when reverse-engineering a workflow.
Check if a document is encrypted
See at a glance whether a PDF has any form of encryption — even permissions-only locks show up in the pdf.js report.
Verify export dates
CreationDate and ModDate tell you when the PDF was exported, useful for compliance and archiving.
Key Concepts
- Info dictionary
- The classic /Info entry in a PDF's trailer, a small dictionary with Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, CreationDate, and ModDate. All fields are optional.
- XMP metadata
- An optional XML stream (based on Adobe's Extensible Metadata Platform) that can carry richer and standardized metadata using vocabularies like Dublin Core.
- Creator vs Producer
- Creator names the application the user interacted with (Word, InDesign); Producer names the library that serialized the PDF (Adobe PDF Library, Skia/PDF). They are frequently different.
- PDF format version
- Written in the file header (e.g. '%PDF-1.7'). Newer versions unlock features like transparency, tagged PDFs, and object streams, but the version itself is not a security signal.
Tips & Best Practices
- ▸Metadata fields are optional — an empty Author is normal, not a bug in the file.
- ▸'Print to PDF' from a browser often leaves the Author empty and sets Producer to the rendering engine (e.g. Skia/PDF for Chrome).
- ▸If you need to strip or edit metadata, use `exiftool` locally or wait for our upcoming metadata editor — reading is safe, but writing needs to round-trip the whole file.
- ▸XMP metadata takes precedence in Acrobat's UI when both surfaces disagree — check both before assuming a document is 'anonymous'.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my PDF uploaded when I open it here?
No. The file is opened directly in your browser using pdf.js. No network request is made when you drop a PDF onto the page — you can verify with your browser's DevTools Network tab.
What metadata fields does a PDF actually contain?
The standard Info dictionary defines Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator (the source application), Producer (the PDF library that wrote the file), CreationDate, and ModDate. Modern PDFs may also carry XMP metadata as an XML stream — this tool surfaces both when present.
Why is the author or title empty for some PDFs?
Metadata fields are optional. A PDF exported by a browser 'Print to PDF' typically leaves Author empty and sets Producer to the browser engine (e.g. 'Skia/PDF'). Command-line tools like wkhtmltopdf or LaTeX set fields more consistently.
Can I edit the metadata with this tool?
No, this tool is read-only. Editing metadata requires re-serializing the PDF, which our upcoming pdf-lib based editor will do. For now, use `exiftool` locally or wait for our editor tool.
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