View PDF metadata with ExifTool and pdfinfo

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A couple of tools you can use to look into the metadata of a PDF are ExifTool and pdfinfo, a tool that is part of Poppler's utilities for working with PDFs.

Using ExifTool

ExifTool can be used to view the metadata on PDF by running

exiftool filename.pdf

Doing this will print metadata to the terminal, which may look like this, including warnings:

ExifTool Version Number         : 12.30
File Name                       : Stefano Harney, Fred Moten_The Undercommons_ Fugitive Planning & Black Study.pdf
Directory                       : .
File Size                       : 1081 KiB
File Modification Date/Time     : 2021:10:02 18:18:52+02:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2021:10:04 16:15:44+02:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2021:10:02 18:18:54+02:00
File Permissions                : -rw-r--r--
File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.5
Linearized                      : Yes
Author                          : Stefano Harney and Fred Moten
Create Date                     : 2013:03:29 09:54:56Z
Keywords                        : ISBN 978-1-57027-267-7..In this series of essays Fred Moten and Stefano Harney draw on the theory and practice of the black radical tradition as it supports, inspires, and extends contemporary social and political thought and aesthetic critique. Today the general wealth of social life finds itself confronted by mutations in the mechanisms of control: the proliferation of capitalist logistics, governance by credit, and the management of pedagogy. Working from and within the social poesis of life in the undercommons Moten and Harney develop and expand an array of concepts: study, debt, surround, planning, and the shipped. On the fugitive path of an historical and global blackness, the essays in this volume unsettle and invite the reader to the self-organised ensembles of social life that are launched every day and every night amid the general antagonism of the undercommons.
Modify Date                     : 2015:01:21 14:25:25+01:00
Subject                         : pedagogy, black liberation, autonomism
XMP Toolkit                     : Adobe XMP Core 5.4-c005 78.147326, 2012/08/23-13:03:03
Producer                        : Adobe PDF Library 10.0.1
Trapped                         : False
Metadata Date                   : 2015:01:21 14:25:25+01:00
Creator Tool                    : Adobe InDesign CS6 (Macintosh)
Instance ID                     : uuid:e1458176-d401-344f-af48-dd6a2112aa5b
Original Document ID            : xmp.did:F77F117407206811822AD408AF94C4F2
Document ID                     : xmp.id:F97F1174072068118083BBA8FE824C41
Rendition Class                 : proof:pdf
Derived From Instance ID        : xmp.iid:76F4F819772068118083DEA4678D9664
Derived From Document ID        : xmp.did:76F4F819772068118083DEA4678D9664
Derived From Original Document ID: xmp.did:F77F117407206811822AD408AF94C4F2
Derived From Rendition Class    : default
History Action                  : converted
History Parameters              : from application/x-indesign to application/pdf
History Software Agent          : Adobe InDesign CS6 (Macintosh)
History Changed                 : /
History When                    : 2013:03:29 09:54:56Z
Format                          : application/pdf
Title                           : The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study
Description                     : pedagogy, black liberation, autonomism
Creator                         : Stefano Harney and Fred Moten
Page Count                      : 172

Using pdfinfo

First, install Poppler.

On Mac:

brew install poppler

On Linux:

apt install poppler

For help, see the manual by running

pdfinfo --help

pdfinfo allows you to see metadata of the file, by running

pdfinfo filename.pdf

It will then print something like this to the terminal:

Author:          Stefano Harney and Fred Moten
Creator:         Adobe InDesign CS6 (Macintosh)
Producer:        Adobe PDF Library 10.0.1
CreationDate:    Fri Mar 29 10:54:56 2013 CET
ModDate:         Wed Jan 21 14:25:25 2015 CET
Custom Metadata: no
Metadata Stream: yes
Tagged:          no
UserProperties:  no
Suspects:        no
Form:            none
JavaScript:      no
Pages:           172
Encrypted:       no
Page size:       397.44 x 612.24 pts
Page rot:        0
File size:       1107303 bytes
Optimized:       yes
PDF version:     1.5

pdfinfo also has ability to print document level metadata with the -meta option.

pdfinfo filename.pdf -meta
<?xpacket begin="" id="W5M0MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc9d"?>
<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="Adobe XMP Core 5.4-c005 78.147326, 2012/08/23-13:03:03        ">
   <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:pdf="http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/"
            xmlns:xmp="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/"
            xmlns:xmpMM="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/"
            xmlns:stRef="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/sType/ResourceRef#"
            xmlns:stEvt="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/sType/ResourceEvent#"
            xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
         <pdf:Producer>Adobe PDF Library 10.0.1</pdf:Producer>
         <pdf:Trapped>False</pdf:Trapped>
         <pdf:Keywords>ISBN 978-1-57027-267-7&#xD;&#xD;In this series of essays Fred Moten and Stefano Harney draw on the theory and practice of the black radical tradition as it supports, inspires, and extends contemporary social and political thought and aesthetic critique. Today the general wealth of social life finds itself confronted by mutations in the mechanisms of control: the proliferation of capitalist logistics, governance by credit, and the management of pedagogy. Working from and within the social poesis of life in the undercommons Moten and Harney develop and expand an array of concepts: study, debt, surround, planning, and the shipped. On the fugitive path of an historical and global blackness, the essays in this volume unsettle and invite the reader to the self-organised ensembles of social life that are launched every day and every night amid the general antagonism of the undercommons.</pdf:Keywords>
         <xmp:CreateDate>2013-03-29T09:54:56Z</xmp:CreateDate>
         <xmp:MetadataDate>2015-01-21T14:25:25+01:00</xmp:MetadataDate>
         <xmp:ModifyDate>2015-01-21T14:25:25+01:00</xmp:ModifyDate>
         <xmp:CreatorTool>Adobe InDesign CS6 (Macintosh)</xmp:CreatorTool>
         <xmpMM:InstanceID>uuid:e1458176-d401-344f-af48-dd6a2112aa5b</xmpMM:InstanceID>
         <xmpMM:OriginalDocumentID>xmp.did:F77F117407206811822AD408AF94C4F2</xmpMM:OriginalDocumentID>
         <xmpMM:DocumentID>xmp.id:F97F1174072068118083BBA8FE824C41</xmpMM:DocumentID>
         <xmpMM:RenditionClass>proof:pdf</xmpMM:RenditionClass>
         <xmpMM:DerivedFrom rdf:parseType="Resource">
            <stRef:instanceID>xmp.iid:76F4F819772068118083DEA4678D9664</stRef:instanceID>
            <stRef:documentID>xmp.did:76F4F819772068118083DEA4678D9664</stRef:documentID>
            <stRef:originalDocumentID>xmp.did:F77F117407206811822AD408AF94C4F2</stRef:originalDocumentID>
            <stRef:renditionClass>default</stRef:renditionClass>
         </xmpMM:DerivedFrom>
         <xmpMM:History>
            <rdf:Seq>
               <rdf:li rdf:parseType="Resource">
                  <stEvt:action>converted</stEvt:action>
                  <stEvt:parameters>from application/x-indesign to application/pdf</stEvt:parameters>
                  <stEvt:softwareAgent>Adobe InDesign CS6 (Macintosh)</stEvt:softwareAgent>
                  <stEvt:changed>/</stEvt:changed>
                  <stEvt:when>2013-03-29T09:54:56Z</stEvt:when>
               </rdf:li>
            </rdf:Seq>
         </xmpMM:History>
         <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
         <dc:title>
            <rdf:Alt>
               <rdf:li xml:lang="x-default">The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning &amp; Black Study</rdf:li>
            </rdf:Alt>
         </dc:title>
         <dc:description>
            <rdf:Alt>
               <rdf:li xml:lang="x-default">pedagogy, black liberation, autonomism</rdf:li>
            </rdf:Alt>
         </dc:description>
         <dc:creator>
            <rdf:Seq>
               <rdf:li>Stefano Harney and Fred Moten</rdf:li>
            </rdf:Seq>
         </dc:creator>
      </rdf:Description>
   </rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>