PDF Metadata Viewer
LocalSee every property inside a PDF without uploading it
Drag & drop files here or click to browse
PDF • Max 100 MB
Files are processed in your browser and never uploaded
Processing limits
- Rendered PDFs: up to 500 pages, 8,192 px per side, 32 MP per page, 100 MP in total, and 250 MiB of output.
- These are memory budgets, not upload limits — a large file is only ever read by your own browser.
Nothing is uploaded and nothing is changed — the report is built from the file on your own device, and the original is left exactly as it is.
500 pages · 8,192 px/side · 32 MP/page · 100 MP total · 250 MiB output
Privacy First
Your files are processed entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to any server.
How do I see the metadata and properties of a PDF?
Drop the PDF in and the report appears immediately — no button, no output file, nothing written. It lists the title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer software, creation and modification dates, PDF version, page count and page sizes, every font and whether it is embedded, the permissions the file grants, its bookmarks and attachments, and whether the pages carry real text or are scans.
About the PDF Metadata Viewer
Read a PDF and show what it is carrying: title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer software, creation and modification dates, PDF version, page count and page sizes, whether it is linearized for Fast Web View, whether an XMP packet is present, which of the eight standard permissions the file allows, every font and whether it is embedded or merely referenced, the bookmark outline, any attached files, and whether the pages carry a real text layer or are scanned images. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is written, and the original file is left untouched — which matters here more than anywhere else on the site, because you are inspecting a document precisely when you do not yet know what it reveals.
- Check what a PDF discloses about you before sending it: the author and producer fields routinely carry a real name, an employer, or the exact software version used.
- Find out whether a PDF is searchable or a scan, before wiring it into an extraction pipeline that will silently return nothing.
- See which fonts are embedded and which are only referenced by name — the reason a document looks right on your machine and wrong on the printer.
- Read the permission bits to learn exactly why a file refuses to print or copy, and confirm afterwards that the restrictions are gone.
- Count pages and identify page stock (A4, Letter, Legal) across a mixed document without opening Acrobat.
How to use the View Metadata tool
- 1
Upload PDF file
Select PDF file from your device or drag file into the upload area.
- 2
Read the report
The View Metadata report appears in the page as soon as the file is read.
- 3
Nothing is written
No file is produced and nothing is uploaded — the document is read on your device and the report is discarded when you leave the page.
What does a PDF reveal about you that the page does not show?
Usually a name and a software trail. The Author field is commonly filled from the operating-system account of whoever installed the word processor, so it can carry a real full name. Producer names the exact library and version that wrote the file, which identifies the toolchain and sometimes the employer. Creation and modification timestamps outlive the story around a document — a "final" contract with a 2 a.m. modification date, or a proposal whose creation date predates the brief. None of this appears on any page, and all of it travels with the file.
How can you tell whether a PDF is searchable or a scan?
By whether any text can be extracted at all, which is what the text-layer section reports. A PDF made from a word processor stores positioned glyphs, so characters come out and the count is in the thousands. A PDF made by a scanner or a phone camera stores a photograph of each page and yields zero characters — it looks identical on screen and is invisible to search, to copy-paste, to screen readers, and to any extraction pipeline. Checking this first is the cheapest way to avoid wiring a scanned corpus into a process that will silently return nothing.
Why does "not embedded" matter for a font?
Because an unembedded font is a promise the receiving machine may not keep. When a font is embedded, its glyph outlines are stored inside the PDF and the document renders identically everywhere. When it is only referenced by name, the viewer substitutes whatever it has locally, and line breaks, spacing and page count can all shift — which is why a file that looks correct on the machine that made it comes out wrong at the print shop. The font list marks each one, and strips the six-letter subset tag (the ABCDEF+ prefix) so the names are readable.
What do the eight permission entries mean?
They are the standard security-handler bits: printing, high-quality printing, copying text, copying for accessibility tools, changing content, changing annotations, filling form fields, and assembling pages. A PDF with no security handler grants all of them and the report says so. A PDF that opens without prompting but blocks printing carries an owner password, and the blocked bits are what the restriction remover lifts. Reading them here tells you exactly which operation a stubborn file is refusing, rather than guessing from an error message.
Are my files uploaded when viewing what is inside a PDF?
No, and this is the tool where that matters most. Everywhere else on the site you already know what your file contains; here you are asking precisely because you do not. Uploading a document to find out what it discloses would hand the answer to someone else first. The report is assembled by code running in this tab, the file is only read, and no version of it is written or transmitted.
Frequently Asked Questions
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