PDF properties and metadata

Last updated on 21 December 2023 | Also applies to Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat 2017

View document properties

When you view a PDF, you can get information about it, such as the title, the fonts used, and security settings. Some of this information is set by the person who created the document, and some is generated automatically.

In Acrobat, you can change any information that can be set by the document creator, unless the file has been saved with security settings that prevent changes.

Choose File > Properties.
Click a tab in the Document Properties dialog box.

Document Properties

Description

Shows basic information about the document. The title, author, subject, and keywords may have been set by the person who created the document in the source application, such as Word or InDesign, or by the person who created the PDF. You can search for these description items to find particular documents. The Keywords section can be particularly useful for narrowing searches.

Note that many search engines use the title to describe the document in their search results list. If a PDF does not have a title, the filename appears in the results list instead. A file’s title is not necessarily the same as its filename.

The Advanced area shows the PDF version, the page size, number of pages, whether the document is tagged, and if it’s enabled for Fast Web View. (The size of the first page is reported in PDFs or PDF Portfolios that contain multiple page sizes.) This information is generated automatically and cannot be modified.

Security

Describes what changes and functionality are allowed within the PDF. If a password, certificate, or security policy has been applied to the PDF, the method is listed here.

Fonts

Lists the fonts and the font types used in the original document, and the fonts, font types, and encoding used to display the original fonts.

If substitute fonts are used and you aren’t satisfied with their appearance, you may want to install the original fonts on your system or ask the document creator to re-create the document with the original fonts embedded in it.

Initial View (Acrobat only)

Describes how the PDF appears when it’s opened. This includes the initial window size, the opening page number and magnification level, and whether bookmarks, thumbnails, the toolbar, and the menu bar are displayed. You can change any of these settings to control how the document appears the next time it is opened. You can also create JavaScript that runs when a page is viewed, a document is opened, and more.

Custom (Acrobat only)

Lets you add document properties to your document.

Advanced

Lists PDF settings, print dialog presets, and reading options for the document.

In the PDF settings for Acrobat, you can set a base Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for web links in the document. Specifying a base URL makes it easy for you to manage web links to other websites. If the URL to the other site changes, you can simply edit the base URL and not have to edit each individual web link that refers to that site. The base URL is not used if a link contains a complete URL address.

You can also associate a catalog index file (PDX) with the PDF. When the PDF is searched with the Search PDF window, all of the PDFs that are indexed by the specified PDX file are also searched.

You can include prepress information, such as trapping, for the document. You can define print presets for a document, which prepopulate the Print dialog box with document-specific values. You can also set reading options that determine how the PDF is read by a screen reader or other assistive device.

Add a description to Document Properties

You can add keywords to the document properties of a PDF that other people might use in a search utility to locate the PDF.

Choose File > Properties.
Click the Description tab, and type the author’s name, subject, and keywords.
(Optional) Click Additional Metadata to add other descriptive information, such as copyright information.

Create document properties

You can add custom document properties that store specific types of metadata, such as the version number or company name, in a PDF. Properties you create appear in the Document Properties dialog box. Properties you create must have unique names that do not appear in the other tabs in the Document Properties dialog box.

Choose File > Properties, and then select Custom.
To add a property, type the name and value, and then click Add.
To change the properties, do any of the following, and then click OK:
- To edit a property, select it, change the Value, and then click Change.
- To delete a property, select it and click Delete.
To change the name of a custom property, delete the property and create a new custom property with the name you want.

Edit document metadata

PDF documents created in Acrobat 5.0 or later contain document metadata in XML format. Metadata includes information about the document and its contents, such as the author’s name, keywords, and copyright information, that can be used by search utilities. The document metadata contains (but is not limited to) information that also appears in the Description tab of the Document Properties dialog box. Document metadata can be extended and modified using third-party products.

The Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) provides Adobe applications with a common XML framework that standardizes the creation, processing, and interchange of document metadata across publishing workflows. You can save and import the document metadata XML source code in XMP format, making it easy to share metadata among different documents. You can also save document metadata to a metadata template that you can reuse in Acrobat.

View document metadata

Choose File > Properties, and click the Additional Metadata button in the Description tab.
Click Advanced to display all the metadata embedded in the document. (Metadata is displayed by schema—that is, in predefined groups of related information.) Display or hide the information in schemas by schema name. If a schema doesn’t have a recognized name, it is listed as Unknown. The XML name space is contained in parentheses after the schema name.

Edit or append document metadata

Choose File > Properties, click the Description tab, and then click Additional Metadata.
Select Advanced from the list on the left.
To edit the metadata, do any of the following, and then click OK.
- To add previously saved information, click Append, select an XMP or FFO file, and click Open.
- To add new information and replace the current metadata with information stored in an XMP file, click Replace, select a saved XMP or FFO file, and click Open. New properties are added, existing properties that are also specified in the new file are replaced, and existing properties that are not in the replacement file remain in the metadata.
- To delete an XML schema, select it and click Delete.
- To append the current metadata with metadata from a template, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) and choose a template name from the dialog box menu in the upper right corner.
Note:

You must save a metadata template before you can import metadata from a template.

To replace the current metadata with a template of metadata, choose a template file (XMP) from the dialog box menu in the upper right corner.

Save metadata as a template or file

Choose File > Properties, click the Description tab, and then click Additional Metadata.
Select Advanced from the list on the left.
Save the document metadata, and then click OK:
- To save the metadata to an external file, click Save and name the file. The metadata is stored as a file in XMP format. (To use the saved metadata in another PDF, open the document and use these instructions to replace or append metadata in the document.)
- To save the metadata as a template, choose Save Metadata Template from the dialog box menu in the upper right corner, and name the file.

View object data and metadata

You can view the metadata information of certain objects, tags, and images within a PDF. You can edit and export metadata for Visio objects only.

Object Data tool in Acrobat — Use the Object Data tool to view object grouping and object data.

View object metadata (Acrobat Pro)

Choose Tools > Edit PDF > Edit Text & Images.
Select an object, right-click the selection, and choose Show Metadata. (If Show Metadata is unavailable, the image has no metadata associated with it.)

View and edit Visio object metadata

Choose Tools > Measure > Object Data Tool.
Double-click an object on the page to show its metadata.

The Model Tree opens and shows a hierarchical list of all structural elements. The selected object’s metadata appears as editable properties and values at the bottom of the Model Tree.

Note:

The selected object is highlighted on the page. Use the Highlight Color menu at the top of the Model Tree to choose a different color.
To edit the metadata, type in the boxes at the bottom of the Model Tree.
To export object metadata, from the options menu, choose Export As XML > Whole Tree to export all objects in the Model Tree, or choose Export As XML > Current Node to export only the selected object and its children. Name and save the file.

Export Visio object metadata

Choose Tools > Measure > Object Data Tool.
Double-click an object on the page to show its metadata.
From the options menu , choose one of the following:
- Choose Export As XML > Whole Tree to export all objects.
- Choose Export As XML > Current Node to export only the selected object and its children.
Name and save the file.

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