A PDF carries the name of the program that made it, usually the name of the person who made it, and the dates it was created and changed. Edited PDFs can also keep earlier versions of their content. If a PDF will leave your hands, it is worth looking at what it says about you.
See the metadata
- Adobe Acrobat or Reader: File, Properties shows the title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer.
- macOS Preview: Tools, Show Inspector (the information icon) shows the same fields.
- Everything, including XMP: the File Metadata Viewer.
Where the details come from
Word and other editors fill in the author from your profile. The Producer names the program that wrote the PDF, for example the print-to-PDF function of your operating system. Scanners record their model. All of it is optional, and none of it is needed to read the pages.
Three ways to remove it
- Acrobat Pro: File, Properties to clear the fields by hand, or Tools, Redact, Remove Hidden Information for a deeper pass. This needs the paid edition.
- Print to a new PDF. Printing the file to PDF with your operating system makes a new file with the printer’s details instead of the original author. The text may no longer be selectable or searchable in some setups.
- The [PDF Metadata Remover](/pdf-metadata-remover). It rewrites the file, deletes the Info fields, the XMP and the document IDs, and keeps only what the current pages need. It runs in your browser.
Images inside a PDF
A photo placed in a PDF can keep its own EXIF block with the camera and the position. If the PDF contains photos, check them too: view the file in the viewer, or clean the original photos with the Image Metadata Remover before you build the PDF.