About the properties inside a PDF
Every PDF carries a small block of text that is not part of any page: a title, an author, a subject, some keywords, and the names of the programs that made it. Readers show it as "Document Properties". Search engines read it. Some document systems file by it.
Most people never see it, which is exactly the problem. Word puts your account name in the Author field of every PDF it exports. So does Pages, so does LibreOffice. That CV, that quote, that letter of complaint — each one is quietly carrying the name on your computer account, and often the name of the template file it started from.
This shows you what is in there and lets you change it or empty it.
What you can change
- Title — what a reader shows in its window and tab, which is often not the filename
- Author — the one that catches people out
- Subject — a one-line description
- Keywords — a comma-separated list, used by search and by document management systems
- Created with and Produced by — the programs that made and wrote the file
The page also shows the created and modified dates, the page count and the PDF version. The dates can be cleared along with everything else.
Emptying it
Empty every field clears all of them at once. It is the reason most people arrive here: before a CV goes to a stranger, before a quote goes to a client, before a document goes on a public website.
Bear in mind what this does and does not do. It clears the document properties. It does not remove text hidden under a redaction rectangle, comments, form data, or anything visible on the page itself. If your concern is what is *on* the pages, use Redact PDF — a black rectangle drawn over text leaves the text underneath.
The pages are not touched
Only the properties block is rewritten. Nothing is re-compressed, no image is re-encoded, no font is re-embedded: the document that comes out looks exactly like the one that went in, at the same quality and roughly the same size.
That also means it is safe to run on a signed or carefully typeset document — though note that changing anything in a file will invalidate a cryptographic signature, which is what a signature is for.
Nothing is uploaded
The PDF is read and rewritten inside your browser. It never reaches a server — which matters more here than for most tools, because the people who want to strip an author name are usually doing it precisely because the document is sensitive.
What people use it for
- Taking a personal name out of a CV, quote or letter before sending it
- Giving a PDF a proper title so readers stop showing a filename like doc1.pdf
- Adding keywords to a document going into a shared drive or a website
- Correcting an author on a document inherited from a colleague
- Cleaning the producer string out of a file that will be published
- Checking what a PDF someone sent you is carrying
Good to know
- A password-protected PDF has to be unlocked first — use Unlock PDF
- Some PDFs also carry an XMP metadata packet; the fields here are the standard document properties, which is what readers and most systems display
- Saving always writes the Produced by field you can see, rather than quietly stamping the tool's own name on your file
- Your original is never modified — you download a new copy
- For the same job on photos, use Image Metadata; on MP3s, use MP3 Tag Editor
- To remove content rather than properties, use Redact PDF
How to use it
- Click Click to upload, or drop a PDF onto the box
- The fields fill in with whatever the file is carrying
- Change anything you want, or press Empty every field to clear them all
- Tick Clear the created and modified dates too if the dates matter
- Press Save the PDF
Related tools
- Image Metadata — the same idea, for photos
- MP3 Tag Editor — the same idea, for audio
- Redact PDF — remove what is on the pages
- Unlock PDF — take a password off first
- Protect PDF — put a password on afterwards
- Compress PDF — make the file smaller
