How To Remove Metadata From PDF (Step By Step)

Sometimes, for example when sending a review of a paper, I do not want the pdf file to contain any metadata. Ideally, the editorial process should take care of this, but I do not want to take any chances.

Removing metadata from PDF files using Exiftool and qpdf This article describes how to view and modify metadata (which is data about data) in a file, but more specifically a PDF file.

Remove metadata from a PDF file, using exiftool and qpdf. Note that embedded objects may still contain metadata. - remove-pdf-metadata.sh

MetaRemover is a free online tool to remove hidden metadata (EXIF, GPS, author, timestamps) from photos, PDFs and Office documents. 100% client-side, fast, private and secure.

Starting with qpdf 8.1, when splitting pages, qpdf is able to attempt to remove images and fonts that are not used by a page even if they are referenced in the page’s resources dictionary.

Best dedicated tool (cannot remove everything or else images with embedded metadata would be destroyed), is probably Coherent cpdf which can use GhostScript to fix and regenerate the file first, thus remove much of imbedded meta data based objects.

Then, after scrubbing, linearize the PDF with QPDF to remove any remaining metadata stored in the file: