Information PDF

Two pages that only read

PDF Metadata Viewer and PDF Password Checker open a document, report what they find and stop. No byte is written back, so a file inspected here is the same file that was chosen, and the pages are safe to use on a document that must not be altered. That read-only behaviour is the point of the category: before a file is edited or sent, it can be examined.

PDF Metadata Viewer

The viewer reports the properties a PDF carries: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, the creation and modification dates, the page count and the file size. Creator usually names the program that produced the original document, Producer names the library that wrote the final file, and comparing the two is how a file that passed through a scanner and then an office suite gives itself away. A Title field left as Untitled is common in exports and is the first thing a reader sees in a tab.

PDF Password Checker

The checker answers two separate questions. First, does opening the document require a password - the user password, as distinct from the owner password that governs printing and copying. Second, is an encryption dictionary present at all, since some files are encrypted only to restrict permissions and open without a prompt. The page performs no recovery and no removal, so a locked file still needs its password from whoever supplied it.

When the information matters

A document received from a client can be dated before it is filed, and two versions of the same report can be told apart by their modification timestamps. A download that turns out to demand a password can be identified before an application is opened. A redacted export can be checked to confirm that the original author name is no longer attached, which is a common leak in files prepared by an office suite.

Moving from reading to changing

When a property has to be corrected, the Edit PDF group holds the page that writes new values. When the page order or the page count is the problem, Organize PDF is the place to look. Keeping the inspection pages separate means a document can be examined without any risk that an accidental save alters it.

What the pages cannot report

Neither page lists the fonts a document embeds, its page dimensions, its permission flags beyond the password state, or whether the text is selectable rather than scanned. A file that opens without a prompt can still forbid printing or copying, and the checker does not enumerate those restrictions. Anything past the fields shown needs a full PDF library or an editor.