Boneyard Tools

Edit PDF Metadata

Drop in a PDF and the tool reads its document properties into an editable form: title, author, subject, and keywords. Change any field, or clear every field to strip identifying details, then download a fresh copy. All of this runs in your browser with pdf-lib, so the file is never uploaded and the page content is left exactly as it was.

How to edit PDF metadata

  1. Drop a PDF onto the drop zone, or click it to browse; the current title, author, subject, and keywords load into the form.
  2. Edit the Title, Author, and Subject fields to whatever the document should report.
  3. Type keywords in the Keywords box separated by commas; the counter below shows how many will be saved.
  4. To scrub the file instead, click Clear all to empty every field.
  5. Click Save and download to write the changes and get a new PDF named with a -metadata suffix.

Examples

Fix a placeholder title from an export

Title "Document1", Author "user", Subject empty
Title "Q3 Revenue Report", Author "Jane Doe", saved as report-metadata.pdf

Tag an invoice with keywords

Keywords field: invoice, 2024, tax
Three keywords stored on the document: invoice, 2024, tax

Strip identifying metadata before sharing

Click Clear all on a file with a title and author set
Title, author, subject, and keywords saved empty in the Info dictionary

Frequently asked questions

Which metadata fields can I edit?

Four standard document Information dictionary fields: title, author, subject, and keywords. These are the properties most viewers show under document details, and the ones most people need to correct or clear.

Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?

No. The file is read and rewritten entirely in your browser with the pdf-lib library. The bytes never leave your device, so contracts, invoices, and other confidential documents stay private.

How do keywords work?

Type them in one box separated by commas, for example invoice, 2024, tax. Each comma-separated entry is trimmed and saved as its own keyword, and blank entries from stray commas are dropped. The live counter shows how many keywords will be written.

Can I remove or strip metadata from a PDF?

Yes. Click Clear all to blank every field, then Save and download. That writes empty title, author, subject, and keywords into the Info dictionary, which is useful before publishing or sharing a file more widely.

Does editing metadata change the page content?

No. Only the document information fields are rewritten. The pages, text, images, and layout are untouched, so the visible document looks identical to the original.

Why do some values still appear after I clear them?

This tool edits the classic Info dictionary. Many PDFs also embed an XMP metadata packet, and some viewers read title and author from there instead. XMP is not modified here, so a separate inspector may still show those older values.

Can I edit the creation date, producer, or custom properties?

Not with this tool. It focuses on the four common fields. Creation and modification dates, the producer and creator strings, and any custom properties are outside its scope, and note that saving with pdf-lib may refresh some of those automatically.

What if my PDF is password protected?

If the file is encrypted or corrupted the reader shows an error and cannot load it. Remove the password in a PDF reader first, then bring the unlocked copy back here to edit its metadata.

Why is the downloaded file named differently?

To avoid overwriting your original, the tool inserts a -metadata suffix before the extension, so report.pdf downloads as report-metadata.pdf. You can rename it afterward.

Learn more

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