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Need to check who created a PDF, when it was last modified, or which software generated it? Upload any PDF to instantly extract and display all internal metadata fields — the file never leaves your browser.
Last Updated: April 14, 2025Privacy: 100% Local Browser Processing
What is the Pdf Metadata Extractor?
The PDF Metadata Extractor parses the internal header information of a PDF file to reveal its hidden properties. Every PDF file contains metadata fields like the creator software, author name, document title, creation and modification dates, PDF version, and page count. This information is useful for verifying document authenticity, auditing document origins, and understanding the tools used to create a file.
How to Use
- 1Upload the PDF you want to inspect.
- 2The tool instantly extracts and displays all metadata fields.
- 3Copy the information as JSON or plain text.
- 4Works entirely offline for maximum privacy.
Real-World Use Cases
- Document authenticity verification — check creation dates, author names, and creator software to verify that a document is genuine.
- Forensic analysis — examine metadata to determine when and how a document was created, modified, or converted.
- Compliance auditing — verify that documents meet organizational metadata requirements (author attribution, subject classification).
- Migration planning — identify which software tools generated a set of PDF documents to plan migration strategies.
Technical Deep Dive
PDF files contain a metadata dictionary (the Info dictionary) stored in the file's trailer or cross-reference stream. This dictionary holds key-value pairs defined by the PDF specification: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator (the application that created the original document), Producer (the application that converted it to PDF), CreationDate, and ModDate. Some PDFs also include XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) metadata in XML format, which can contain additional fields like copyright information, rights management, and Dublin Core metadata. This tool uses pdf-lib to parse the PDF structure and extract both the Info dictionary and any available XMP data. The extracted metadata is displayed in a clean, structured table format and can be exported as JSON for programmatic processing. This is a read-only operation — the tool never modifies the source PDF.
Pro Tips & Best Practices
- Some PDF creators strip metadata for privacy. If the tool shows empty fields, the creator intentionally removed that information.
- The 'Creator' field shows the original authoring application (e.g., Microsoft Word, LaTeX), while 'Producer' shows the PDF conversion tool (e.g., Adobe PDF Library, wkhtmltopdf).
- Creation dates can be spoofed — they reflect what the creator software reported, which can be manipulated.
- Export the metadata as JSON if you need to process it programmatically or store it in a database.