Clean the metadata of a PDF
Strips author, software, dates and the hidden XMP stream from your PDF. It runs in your browser: the file is never uploaded.
The metadata of a PDF is the record the program writes without asking: author, title, subject, which software generated it, the creation date and the date of the last change. Almost nobody fills that in by hand, and almost nobody knows it travels with the file. Opening the document properties is enough to see it, and it is the first thing anyone checks when they receive a filing and want to know where it came from.
The typical case in a law firm: the filing sent to court came out of another client's template, and the PDF title still names that other matter. This tool empties the whole record, including the XMP block hidden in the document catalogue and the private notes layout programs leave behind. The text, the pages and the images are left untouched.
FAQ
Does it change the content of the PDF?
No. Only the data record and the XMP block are emptied. The pages, the text and the images come out exactly as they went in.
Does it work on digitally signed PDFs?
Touching a signed PDF breaks the signature, here and in any other program: that is what a signature is for. Clean the metadata before signing, not after.
Does it remove comments too?
Comments are not metadata: they live on the page. For those, use analyse a file, which finds them and removes them, or redact what should not be there.