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How to see who created a PDF (and change the author)

Updated October 19, 2026

Short answer: open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader and press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on Mac), or open it in Chrome and choose the three dots → Document properties. You'll see the author, the title, the creation and modification dates and the program that made it. Those fields are a clue, not proof: anyone can change them, and below you'll see how.

Every PDF carries a set of details you don't see when you read it, but you do when you check the document's "properties": who's listed as the author, what software created it, when, and sometimes a title that has nothing to do with what you're actually reading. That's metadata, and it travels with the file whether anyone looks at it or not.

It turns into a real problem in cases like:

Someone sends you a PDF and you want to know who actually wrote it, not just what the filename says.
You're about to send a document to a client and the title still reads "Template 2024," or the author is someone who no longer works with you.
You need to strip out a company name or a previous author before sharing a file outside.
You're generating PDFs automatically and want them all to carry the same title and keywords.

See a PDF's metadata without installing anything

Adobe Acrobat Reader (Windows or Mac): File → Document Properties, or Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on Mac). The Description tab shows the title, author, subject, keywords, the created and modified dates, the application that created the document and the "PDF Producer", which is the program that wrote the PDF itself.
Chrome: drag the PDF into a Chrome window, click the three dots at the top right of the viewer and choose Document properties.
Preview on a Mac: open the PDF and choose Tools → Show Inspector (Cmd+I).

If a field is empty, the program that made the PDF simply didn't fill it in.

What the author field does (and doesn't) prove

The author is usually filled in automatically by the program that created the document: Word, for example, uses the user name set up in Office. That makes it a useful clue (a PDF that says "Microsoft Word" and a colleague's name was probably exported by that colleague), but not proof: it can be empty, it can carry the name of whoever set up the computer, and anyone can change it in a few seconds, including with the tool below. If you need to prove who wrote a document, metadata alone isn't enough.

Read or change it automatically

When you have many PDFs, or they're generated by a workflow, opening them one by one isn't an option. PDF metadata handles both sides of that from n8n, Make, Zapier or your own code: reading what a PDF already has, or changing only what you want.

Check what metadata a PDF has right now

Send the PDF with no metadata fields and the tool responds in read mode: it gives you back the metadata object exactly as it's stored in the file right now. That's the step for checking who's really listed as the author before assuming anything, or for seeing what title and dates a PDF someone sent you is carrying.

Change only the fields you care about

As soon as you include at least one metadata field in the request (even an empty one, to clear that specific field), the tool switches to write mode. It only touches the fields you give it; everything else in the PDF, including the rest of the metadata, stays as it was.

The available fields are:

title, author, subject, creator, producer: plain text.
keywords: you can send it as comma-separated text or as an array. In read mode it always comes back as an array, but that's an approximation: internally a PDF only stores a single keywords string, so it's not an exact conversion.
creation_date and modification_date: ISO 8601 format, like 2026-08-06T10:00:00Z. An invalid format returns a 400 error.

Output format

In write mode, the response is either the binary PDF or a JSON body with the PDF in base64, depending on whether you request output=pdf or output=json. Read mode is always JSON: there's no PDF to return, just the data.

Every call, whether reading or writing, costs 1 credit.

FAQ

Can I see who created a PDF without Adobe? Yes. Chrome shows it under the three dots → Document properties, and Preview on a Mac under Tools → Show Inspector.

Is the author of a PDF proof of who wrote it? No. It's whatever the program that created the file filled in, and anyone can change it. Treat it as a clue, not as proof.

Does changing the title in the metadata change what shows up on the pages? No. The title, author and the rest of the metadata are separate from the visible content. Changing them doesn't touch a single character of what's written in the PDF.

Why do the keywords come back as an array when I sent them as comma-separated text? Because in read mode the tool always returns them as an array, even though internally the PDF only stores a single string. It's a practical approximation, not an exact byte-for-byte conversion.

What happens if I get a date format wrong? You get a 400 error. Dates need to be in ISO 8601 format, like 2026-08-06T10:00:00Z.

How much does it cost to read or change the metadata? 1 credit per call, whether you're reading or writing.

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You'll find the full instructions for PDF metadata, covering both modes and every available field. And if you don't have an account yet, you can create one for free.