PDF Info
Reads the document properties without uploading it.
What a PDF is carrying
Alongside the pages, a PDF stores a set of properties that are not visible when you read it. Some are useful; some you might rather not send to strangers.
The metadata worth knowing about
- Author — often your real name, taken from your operating system account or your word processor settings, without you ever typing it.
- Title — frequently the original filename, which may be more revealing than the one you renamed it to.
- Creator and Producer — the software and version used. This tells a recipient what you work with.
- Creation and modification dates — to the second, including when it was last changed.
None of this appears on any page. Renaming the file does not change it, and emailing it carries all of it along.
Page sizes
Dimensions are reported in millimetres, with the standard paper size named where it matches. A4 is 210 × 297 mm; US Letter is 216 × 279. A document mixing the two will print with inconsistent margins, which is worth catching before you send it to a printer.
PDF measures in points, at 72 to the inch, which is why the underlying numbers are 595 × 842 for A4 rather than anything recognisable.
Before you send a document
Check what is in here. If the author field carries your full legal name and you are sending an anonymous submission, that is worth knowing beforehand rather than afterwards.
Common uses
- Checking the page count against a limit.
- Confirming the paper size before printing.
- Seeing what metadata a document will reveal.
- Working out why a file is unexpectedly large — usually far more pages, or much larger pages, than you thought.
Questions people ask
What metadata does a PDF carry?
Typically author, title, subject, the software that created it, and creation and modification dates. None of it is visible on the page.
Where does the author name come from?
Usually your operating system account or your word processor settings. It is filled in automatically, often with your real name.
Why are page sizes given in odd numbers?
PDF measures in points, 72 to the inch. A4 is 595 × 842 points, which is 210 × 297 mm.
Can I remove the metadata?
Not with this tool, which only reads it. Most PDF editors let you clear the document properties before saving.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. It is read and rewritten in your browser. This site has no server that could receive it.
Does it work with a password-protected PDF?
Not reliably. An encrypted file has to be unlocked before it can be changed. Open it in a reader, enter the password, and save an unprotected copy first.
Is there a file size limit?
Only your device's memory. There is no server limit and no queue, though very large files will take a moment and use a fair amount of RAM.
Your file is not uploaded
This is the whole point of the page, so it is worth being exact about it.
Every well-known site offering these tools works by sending your PDF to their servers, processing it there, and sending a result back. For a holiday itinerary that is merely unnecessary. For a contract, a payslip, a medical letter, a bank statement or a scan of your passport, it means handing a private document to a company you have never dealt with, to be held for an unspecified time on infrastructure you cannot inspect.
Nothing here is uploaded. Your browser reads the file from your disk, rewrites it in memory, and hands you the result. The site is a set of static files with no server capable of receiving a document.
The libraries doing the work are served from this site rather than borrowed from someone else's CDN, so using these pages does not make a request to any third party either. You can check that on the about page, which lists every request this site makes, read live from your own browser.
It also means it works offline once loaded, there is no file size limit beyond your own memory, and there is no queue.