View PDF metadata with ExifTool and pdfinfo

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 utilites.

Using ExifTool

ExifTool can be used to view the metadata on digital files, including PDF, JPEG and many more. It mostly displays information about the file's creation, and with PDF, shows the

• Title
• Author
• Keywords
• Creation date

By running

exiftool filename.pdf

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

ExifTool Version Number         : 12.30
File Name                       : Christina Sharpe_In the Wake_ On Blackness and Being.pdf
Directory                       : .
File Size                       : 3.1 MiB
File Modification Date/Time     : 2021:10:02 10:07:43+02:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2021:10:04 16:15:44+02:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2021:10:02 10:07:45+02:00
File Permissions                : -rw-r--r--
File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.4
Linearized                      : No
Warning                         : Invalid xref table

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>