Level 1

102 points

How to edit PDF METADATA

I tried a brief search on this but I'd love to make sure I understand if there are multiple ways of doing this and most posts seemed to revolve around how to post a pdf anonymously.

Can anyone help me understand how many ways i can EDIT pdf metadata? I am posting docs to Google and while these come up listed with the correct file name the display at the top seems to be pulling some kind of legacy file name which I assume is in the file metadata somewhere. I need to edit this to fix the issue.

I tried Inspector in Preview but it did not seem to allow me to edit this info. Also, I assume (?) that I can see and edit this info in Aperture but Aperture is not a normal workflow for me with PDF and I'd love to do this quickly in something like Preview.

TIA for any help.

Posted on Dec 24, 2011 10:47 AM

Top-ranking reply

fane_j

Level 4

3,704 points

Posted on Dec 25, 2011 3:44 AM

I hate being disagreeable on such a day as this, but I have to say it. I disagree with kurt188 in the strongest possible terms.

(1) Of course PDF metadata is easily editable. (I use "PDF metadata" in the same sense as hotwheels 22, which is the common usage. Whether it is also the correct usage is a different matter.) Maybe it wasn't intended to be editable originally, I don't know; but the point is moot anyway, as Adobe, originator of PDF, has been for some time providing this capability with Adobe Acrobat (not the free Acrobat Reader, though). (The exception is the password-protected PDF, which is supposed not to be editable. The stress is on "supposed" -- and that's all this forum's terms of use allow me to say.)

(2) Using BBEdit or another text editor to edit PDF metadata is a seriously bad idea. That's because (by contrast with, for instance, HTML) PDF is not "text under the hood". If one thinks one really knows the PDF format (which is what I suppose kurt188 meant by "syntax"), and one really wants to do things the hard way, then one should use a hex editor.

(3) There is a plethora of tools with PDF metadata editing capabilities out there. One can easily find them in the usual way (Google, MacUpdate, etc). Hence, I'll mention only two. PDFInfo is free and works on a single file or a folder of files. And the other one is ye olde Automator, which has a whole bunch of PDF-related actions, including Get PDF Metadata and Set PDF Metadata.

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25 replies

May 7, 2014 12:16 AM in response to hotwheels22

MetaClean is a graphical tool for managing the Metadata from Microsoft Office, OpenOffice and PDF files to Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac platforms.

MetaClean is specially designed to efficiently support and manage very large files and to batch process many files at the same time.

Supports versions of Microsoft Office 97, 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013.

Download URL:

http://www.adarsus.com/en/metaclean.html

Aug 10, 2015 11:22 PM in response to _daniel_

_daniel_ wrote:

I came across this thread by searching for a way to edit metadata of PDFs on a Mac.

As I have Acrobat, I did it with Acrobat:

Acrobat: File > Properties > allows you to edit Title, Author, Subject, Keywords > further options under "Additional Metadata" (< spot Adobe's use of the word "metadata" here)

If I would not have had Acrobat, I would have used Preview, printing the PDF into a new PDF

Preview: File > Print > PDF > Save as PDF... > allows you to edit Title, Author, Subject, Keywords

Just thought to come back here and share this.

I just also got Acrobat, your guide is of great help for me to edit PDF metadata.

Thank you a lot!

DavidG74

Level 1

79 points

Aug 16, 2015 4:55 PM in response to DavidG74

You definitely don't need any 3rd party program for editing PDF metadata.

I have just used Automator and it worked like a charm. What a wonderful and powerful tool!

Look at here for some basics on how this can be done.

I decided to create a service for doing this and now it sits on my Services menu:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/106067/can-i-add-or-change-the-author-o f-a-pdf-file-in-ibooks

Dec 13, 2016 10:15 AM in response to hotwheels22

Old question, old answer but I found an easy fix to re-naming a "Title" with existing Mac tools: Open the PDF file with Preview or other file reader, and print it to a PDF file with the desired name. You can fill in the metadata for the new file and I did not notice any deterioration or change in file size on the re-printed version.

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

102 points

Dec 25, 2011 9:01 AM in response to fane_j

Thanks for the great info fj.

Regards to all and happy holidays to all.

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

102 points

Dec 26, 2011 10:42 AM in response to fane_j

Thank you for some really great help.

Regards.

DavidG74

Level 1

79 points

Aug 12, 2015 1:37 PM in response to fane_j

I have downloaded PDFInfo and it appears to have problems on Yosemite because it cannot change the title on a PDF file. The log just says that the program cannot open the file.

Alterfix

Level 1

9 points

Sep 14, 2016 11:48 PM in response to hotwheels22

A good basic work around is to use the "Save as PDF ..." option in Mac OS X print dialog window. This gives you the option to set the document Title, Author, Subject and Keywords to whatever suits.

Mar 13, 2017 3:36 AM in response to hotwheels22

maybe this could help.
It's for editing exif/xmp metadata for photos by an automator action.

https://www.qxm.de/fotos/3008/das-gute-bild-metadata-ueberarbeitet

LShark

Level 1

9 points

Apr 20, 2017 11:39 AM in response to fane_j

Thanks for this! I used Automator to change a PDF title, and it worked like a charm!

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How to edit PDF METADATA