Every PDF carries a title and an author field, and they are almost never right. A file exported from Word inherits whatever the document was first called — frequently something like Untitled1 or the name of a template — and the author field carries the account name of whoever installed the software, which may not be you and may not be anyone you want named.
These fields are not cosmetic. The title is what a PDF reader shows in its window and tab, what a browser displays when the file is opened online, and what many document management systems index and sort by. The author is visible in the document properties dialog of every reader.
This tool sets both fields directly with pdf-lib, leaving all page content untouched.
The metadata is rewritten inside your browser. Removing a colleague’s name from a document you are about to publish does not require handing that document to a third party.
-edited suffix. Leave a field blank to keep its existing value.| Where | What is shown |
|---|---|
| PDF reader window or tab | The title field, falling back to the file name if empty |
| Browser tab, when opened online | The title field |
| Document properties dialog | Title, author, and the modification date |
| Search results and DMS listings | Frequently the title rather than the file name |
| Search engines, for public PDFs | Often the title, as the result heading |
Setting the title and author updates those two fields and the modification date. It does not strip everything a PDF can carry. Producer and creator strings naming the software that made the file, creation timestamps, and any XMP metadata block may still be present, and text hidden behind images or in annotations is unaffected.
If your goal is to publish a document with no trace of its origin, treat this as one step rather than the whole job. The thorough approach is to convert the pages to images with PDF to JPG and rebuild the document from those, which leaves nothing but pixels.
No. The title is metadata stored inside the PDF; the file name is a property of your file system. They are independent, and it is common for them to differ.
Leaving a field blank keeps the existing value rather than clearing it. To replace a name, type the new value; to make it meaningless, enter a single space or a placeholder.
No. It sets the title and author and updates the modification date. Producer and creator strings and any XMP block may remain. For a complete strip, rebuild the document from images.
No. Only the document information dictionary changes. Text, images, fonts, links and form fields are all left exactly as they were.
Because the field is usually filled in automatically from the account name registered in whatever software created the file. It frequently names a colleague, a template author, or an old machine owner.
No. pdf-lib edits the metadata inside your browser and writes the file straight to your downloads.