How to Check a PDF’s Metadata: Acrobat, Windows, macOS and the Command Line

A PDF keeps its metadata in two places inside the file: the Info dictionary and an XMP packet. Every common way to check PDF metadata – Acrobat, a browser, Windows, macOS, the terminal – shows you some of it, but not the same slice, so two tools can disagree about the same file. Below is where to look on each platform, what you get there, and why the answers can differ.

What you are looking at

The Info dictionary is a short list of named fields: title, author, subject, keywords, the application the document was originally made in (Creator), the software that produced the PDF file (Producer), and two dates. The XMP packet is a separate block of XML that can carry the same kinds of values and more.

A file may have both, only one, or neither. Software that writes a PDF may update one store and leave the other as it was, so the two can hold different values. Some tools read the Info dictionary, some read XMP, some show both, and some show only what the operating system has recorded about the file on disk. That is why one method can show an author name and another shows nothing.

This guide covers how to open the fields. For what each one records and who writes it, see the field-by-field reference.

In Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader

Acrobat and the free Acrobat Reader both have a Document Properties dialog. Menu labels vary slightly between versions:

1. Open the PDF.
2. On Windows, open the main menu (the ☰ icon) and choose Document properties. On macOS, choose File > Document properties.
3. Stay on the Description tab.

The Description tab shows the basic fields – title, author, subject and keywords – along with the dates and the software that made the file. Empty boxes are normal: many generators leave those fields blank.

In the paid Acrobat, the Description tab also has an Additional Metadata button. It opens a panel that displays the XMP packet, which can hold fields the Description tab doesn’t show.

In Chrome’s built-in PDF reader

If you don’t have Acrobat installed, Chrome can show you most of the same information. Open the PDF in Chrome (drag it into a tab or open it from a link), then open the reader’s toolbar menu (the ⋮ icon in current versions) and choose Document properties.

The panel lists:

• file name and file size
• title, author, subject and keywords
• created and modified dates
• application and PDF producer
• PDF version, page count and page size
• whether fast web view is enabled

This is often the quickest option on a Windows machine that has no dedicated PDF software.

On Windows

File Explorer has a Properties dialog with a Details tab (right-click the file, choose Properties, then Details). For PDFs it is unreliable as a metadata source. Explorer reads document properties through a property handler, and which PDF fields appear – if any – depends on whether one is installed for PDFs. On many machines you will see little beyond file-system information.

The dates Explorer shows by default are file-system dates: when this copy of the file was created or last changed on your disk. They are not the dates written inside the PDF, and they can change when a file is copied or downloaded. Checking a PDF’s creation and modification dates covers that difference in detail.

On Windows, use Acrobat Reader or Chrome’s PDF reader instead.

On macOS

Finder. Select the PDF and choose File > Get Info (or press Cmd-I). Get Info shows file details such as size, location and file-system dates. The same caveat applies here: those are dates for this copy on your disk, not the dates inside the PDF.

Preview. Open the PDF in Preview and click the Info (Inspector) button in the toolbar. The General info panel shows details such as the file size and the author name; other panels cover keywords, encryption and annotations. Preview is a quick read-only look rather than a full listing of every field.

If you want every field from both stores laid out in one place without installing anything, the PDF metadata viewer lists the Info dictionary, the full XMP packet and the file’s technical details side by side.

From the command line (read-only)

Three tools cover most needs. All the commands below only read the file.

pdfinfo comes with Poppler, usually packaged as poppler-utils on Linux or poppler on Homebrew.

pdfinfo document.pdf

It prints the Info dictionary fields (Title, Subject, Keywords, Author, Creator, Producer, CreationDate, ModDate) followed by technical facts such as page count, encryption, page size, file size and PDF version. Fields that are absent from the file are simply not printed. By default the dates are converted to your local time zone; add -isodates to get ISO 8601 instead:

pdfinfo -isodates document.pdf

To print the XMP packet, use -meta:

pdfinfo -meta document.pdf

exiftool reads both stores at once.

exiftool document.pdf
exiftool -a -G1 document.pdf

The second form is the useful one here. -G1 prefixes each tag with its group, so values from the Info dictionary and from XMP appear on separate, labelled lines, and -a keeps duplicate tags instead of hiding them. That shows which store each value comes from.

mdls is built into macOS.

mdls document.pdf

It prints Spotlight attributes such as kMDItemTitle, kMDItemAuthors, kMDItemCreator and kMDItemEncodingApplications. This is Spotlight’s copy of the metadata, not the Info dictionary read directly, so a file Spotlight hasn’t indexed shows very little, and values may lag behind the file itself.

Why the methods can show different values

When two methods disagree, the usual reasons are that they read different stores, that one shows file-system dates instead of the dates inside the PDF, or that one converts times to your local time zone.

What metadata does and does not tell you

Metadata is what a PDF says about itself: which application it was made in, which software produced the PDF, when, and under what title. It is useful context. It is also incomplete by nature – many files leave fields empty – and widely available tools can rewrite or strip any of it. So on its own it doesn’t show whether a file was changed after it was created.

A PDF can also record something metadata doesn’t: the structure of its saves. To see it, read viewing a PDF’s edit history, which explains what the file’s save chain shows. If your actual question is whether a file was changed, start with how to check if a PDF has been edited. For a wider look at what metadata can reveal about a document and its author, see understanding PDF metadata.

Seeing every field in one place

For a file you can’t or shouldn’t upload, the local tools above are the right choice. If you’d rather not collect output from three commands, the free PDF metadata viewer shows the Info dictionary, the full XMP packet and technical facts – PDF version, page count, file size, encryption status, whether XMP is present – on one page. It needs no Acrobat, no install and no account, takes files up to 10 MB and never reads the document’s content.

Reading metadata and checking for modification are different jobs; why a metadata viewer cannot settle the second question is explained in a separate comparison. The HTPBE? tamper check analyses the file’s structure and returns one of three verdicts: intact, modified or inconclusive. intact means no modification was detected, not that the document is genuine. Content that was false from the start carries no evidence of a later edit. inconclusive means the file’s structure doesn’t support a reliable call either way – a limit of the evidence, not a finding against the file. New accounts get 5 free checks on signup, then pay-per-check credit packs or a subscription. To run the tamper check from your own code, see the API.

Common questions

Can I check PDF metadata without Acrobat?

Yes. Chrome’s built-in PDF reader, Preview on macOS and the command-line tools above all show metadata without Acrobat.

Why might Windows show little or nothing?

Explorer only shows PDF fields when a PDF property handler is installed. Without one, the Details tab may show little beyond file-system data.

Why do pdfinfo and exiftool give different values?

Plain pdfinfo reads the Info dictionary; exiftool also reads XMP. If the two stores hold different values, the tools will too. exiftool -a -G1 shows which store each value came from.

Why are the dates in File Explorer or Finder different from the PDF’s own?

They are file-system dates for this copy of the file on your disk, not the dates recorded inside the PDF.

Related FAQ: What is PDF metadata, and why does it matter?

After reading the metadata, the five-method check for an edited PDF explains what to conclude from it and where a metadata read stops being enough.