What this tool does
PDF Metadata Editor changes the four document-info fields that live inside every PDF — Title, Author, Subject, Keywords — without touching a single byte of the page content. The form pre-fills with whatever metadata is already in your file, so you're editing existing values, not starting from scratch. Save, download, done. The whole edit runs in your browser via pdf-lib; the file never uploads.
The most common reason someone shows up here: their PDF says "Microsoft Word - Untitled.docx" in the browser tab whenever anyone opens it, because that's what Word filled in when it exported the PDF, and nobody fixed it. That string follows the file around — into email previews, into document management systems, into the title bar of every PDF reader. This tool fixes it in about ten seconds.
Why PDF metadata actually matters
It's easy to dismiss metadata as decorative. It isn't, for four concrete reasons:
- Browser tabs and PDF reader title bars. When someone opens your PDF in Chrome, Safari, or Adobe Reader, the title bar shows the PDF's Title field, not the filename. A file called
Q3-2026-investor-update.pdfwith Title = "Microsoft Word - Untitled.docx" opens in a tab labeled "Untitled" — bad signal from the first second. - Email previews. Outlook, Gmail, and most enterprise email clients show the PDF title (not the filename) in attachment previews. A well-titled PDF looks intentional in the inbox; a default-titled one looks like a draft someone forgot to clean up.
- Document management systems. SharePoint, Google Drive, Notion, Confluence — they all index PDF metadata when you upload. A PDF tagged with a real author, subject, and keywords is findable by all three. A PDF with default metadata is findable only by exact filename.
- Archives. If you're storing PDFs for the long term — legal records, research papers, internal documentation — consistent metadata is what makes the archive sortable. Five hundred PDFs all titled "Untitled" are just five hundred opaque blobs.
None of this requires editing tools. PDF metadata can be set at export time in Word, InDesign, Pages, or any halfway-decent PDF generator. The problem is that most PDFs are exported in a hurry, by people who don't think about metadata, using tools whose defaults are bad. This tool exists to clean up after that.
The 30-second test: open one of your most-shared PDFs in a browser, glance at the tab name. If it says "Microsoft Word - Something.docx" or "untitled" or the file path on someone's laptop, it's leaking unprofessionalism every time anyone opens it. Five PDFs fixed today is five recurring micro-impressions improved forever.
The four fields, and what to put in each
The PDF spec defines a document-info dictionary with quite a few possible entries. This tool exposes the four that are actually user-facing. Here's what each one is for, and what good values look like:
| Field | What it controls | Good value | Bad value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Browser tab name, PDF reader title bar, email-preview heading | "Q3 2026 Investor Update" | "Microsoft Word - Q3-2026-investor-update.docx" |
| Author | Shown in PDF properties dialog; indexed by DMS as the document owner | "Acme Capital" or your name | "daniel" (the OS username your laptop happens to be set to) |
| Subject | One-line description; shown alongside Title in many readers | "Quarterly portfolio performance and outlook" | "Document" or blank |
| Keywords | Comma-separated tags indexed by some readers and most DMS systems for search | "investor update, Q3 2026, portfolio, Acme Capital" | Empty, or a single word that duplicates the title |
Two fields are deliberately not exposed: Creator and Producer. Creator records which app authored the source document ("Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365"); Producer records which PDF library wrote the bytes ("pdf-lib", "Adobe PDF Library 15.0"). Both reflect provenance — they're not user input. Editing them by hand can mislead readers about where the file actually came from. If you have a real reason to set them — usually to standardize an archive's apparent provenance — use ExifTool from a terminal.
How to edit metadata
- Drop or pick your PDF. Up to 100 MB. The form below pre-fills with the existing values of Title, Author, Subject, and Keywords pulled from the file. If the fields look empty, that's because the PDF doesn't have any metadata at all — common for old scans and command-line-generated PDFs.
- Edit any field. Plain text everywhere. Keywords are comma-separated by convention but readers treat the whole field as a single string, so any separator works.
- Click Save metadata. The page content isn't touched — only the document-info catalog is updated. Modification date is automatically set to the current time, which is normal behavior for any PDF edit.
- Click Download. Output is named after the input plus
-tagged— e.g.,proposal.pdfbecomesproposal-tagged.pdf. Rename to whatever you want.
A worked example
You have a file called 2026-04-board-deck.pdf that you're about to email to fifteen investors. You open it in Chrome to spot-check, and the tab title reads "Microsoft Word - Slide-Deck-FINAL-v7.docx" — Word filled that in when your CFO exported the deck two months ago, and nobody touched it since. You drop the file into PDF Metadata Editor. The form populates:
- Title:
Microsoft Word - Slide-Deck-FINAL-v7.docx - Author:
cfo-laptop - Subject: (blank)
- Keywords: (blank)
You edit:
- Title:
Acme Capital — April 2026 Board Update - Author:
Acme Capital - Subject:
Quarterly board deck covering portfolio, runway, hiring plan - Keywords:
Acme Capital, board update, April 2026, portfolio, runway
Click Save metadata, click Download. You rename the output from 2026-04-board-deck-tagged.pdf back to 2026-04-board-deck.pdf and send it. Every recipient who opens it in Chrome sees a tab labeled "Acme Capital — April 2026 Board Update." Every email client that shows attachment previews shows the same. SharePoint indexes it as authored by Acme Capital, tagged with the right keywords. Total time: about ninety seconds. Total improvement to how the company appears, every time anyone opens that PDF: meaningful.
What this tool does not change
Worth being explicit, because metadata edits feel more invasive than they are:
- Page content. Every page, every paragraph, every image, every form field, every link — byte-identical to the input.
- Page count, page order, page sizes. Unchanged. If you also need to remove or reorder pages, use Delete PDF Pages or Reorder PDF Pages first.
- Fonts and embedded resources. Untouched. The output renders identically to the input on every reader.
- Bookmarks, hyperlinks, attachments. All preserved.
- Page-level metadata (form-field defaults, annotations). Not touched. This tool only edits the document-level info dictionary.
The one byte-level change you should expect: the ModificationDate field is auto-updated to the current time, which is correct behavior for any PDF edit and matches what every other PDF tool does.
Where to verify the changes
Different readers expose metadata in different places. After saving, you can confirm the change in any of these:
- Adobe Acrobat / Reader: File → Properties → Description tab.
- macOS Preview: Tools → Show Inspector → ⓘ tab.
- Chrome / Edge / Firefox built-in PDF viewer: the browser tab title shows the Title field directly.
- Document management systems: usually visible as document properties once the file is re-uploaded. Many DMS systems re-index on upload.
- Our own PDF Page Counter, which prints every metadata field alongside the page count if you want a quick text-only view.
What about XMP metadata?
PDFs have two parallel metadata systems: the legacy Info dictionary (the four fields this tool edits) and a newer XMP packet — an embedded XML document, more expressive, capable of holding nested structures like rights, language tags, and arbitrary custom schemas. Most readers prefer XMP when both are present and fall back to Info when only Info exists. Roughly 95% of PDFs in the wild rely on the Info dictionary, which is why we started there.
If you need XMP specifically — usually because your enterprise DMS ignores Info — this tool isn't enough. ExifTool from a terminal is the right answer today; XMP support is on the v2 roadmap if there's demand. For the everyday case (fixing Word's defaults, branding an archive, making investor decks look intentional), Info is what matters.
Why not iLovePDF or SmallPDF?
Both have metadata-editing features. Both upload your PDF to a server, edit there, and give you back a download link. Their privacy policies promise to delete the file within an hour. That's reasonable for a 60-page PDF that contains no sensitive information. It's less reasonable for the internal compensation report whose metadata you're cleaning up before archiving — you've just sent that document to a third-party server you don't control.
PDF Metadata Editor runs entirely in your browser. pdf-lib reads the file from your file system into JavaScript memory, edits the info dictionary, writes the new PDF, and the result downloads as a Blob. There is no server in the path. Open the network tab during a save and confirm: zero outbound requests.
Related PDF tools
- PDF Page Counter — verify your metadata changes (it prints Title, Author, Subject, Keywords alongside the page count).
- Extract Text from PDF — if your DMS does full-text indexing, useful for confirming what's actually searchable.
- Add Page Numbers to PDF — pair with metadata when you're prepping an archive document.
- PDF Merger — note that when you merge PDFs, the output usually inherits the metadata of the first input; you'll often want to re-tag the merged result.
- Compress PDF — metadata survives compression in our compressor, but some lossy compressors strip it; re-tag after compression if in doubt.
Frequently asked questions
Why bother editing PDF metadata?
Four reasons. Branding — a PDF titled "Microsoft Word - Untitled.docx" looks unfinished, one titled "Q3 2026 Investor Update" looks intentional. Searchability — DMS systems like SharePoint, Google Drive, and Notion index PDF metadata, so a tagged PDF is findable by author and subject. Email previews — many clients show the PDF title in attachment previews; "Untitled" is bad signal. Archive — consistent metadata makes long-term collections sortable.
Does this change the actual content of the PDF?
No. The tool only edits the document-info dictionary (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, plus the auto-updated ModificationDate). Page content, fonts, images, form fields, hyperlinks, bookmarks — all untouched. The output is byte-identical to the input except for the metadata fields.
How do I see the metadata after saving?
Adobe Acrobat: File → Properties → Description. macOS Preview: Tools → Show Inspector → ⓘ. Most browsers' built-in PDF viewers show Title directly in the tab. Document management systems index automatically on upload. Our PDF Page Counter also prints every metadata field if you want a text-only verification.
What about XMP metadata?
PDFs have two metadata layers: the legacy Info dictionary (this tool) and the newer XMP XML packet. Most readers prefer XMP when both are present and fall back to Info. We edit Info today, which is what 95% of readers rely on. If you specifically need XMP for an enterprise DMS that ignores Info, use ExifTool from a terminal — XMP support is on the v2 roadmap.
Is my PDF really not uploaded?
Correct. The edit runs entirely in your browser via pdf-lib. PDF bytes go from your file system to browser memory to the output PDF — never to a server. Check the network tab during save: zero outbound requests.
Can I batch-edit many PDFs at once?
Not in v1 — one PDF at a time. For batch operations, like setting the same author on fifty archive PDFs, a CLI tool like ExifTool is faster. Batch mode is on the roadmap if there's demand.
What about password-protected PDFs?
pdf-lib refuses to open encrypted PDFs. Unlock first in a desktop reader, then bring the unlocked version here.
Why isn't there a field for Creator or Producer?
Deliberately. Creator and Producer record which source app and PDF library wrote the file ("Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365", "pdf-lib"). They're provenance fields, not user input — editing them by hand can mislead readers about where a PDF actually came from. If you have a real reason to change them, ExifTool is the right tool.