PrivatePDF

Strip what a PDF is carrying

Documents accumulate things on their way to you. The author’s name and the software that made it. Comments from a review that was never meant to be public. Sometimes a spreadsheet attached inside the file, or a script set to run when it opens. This shows you all of it, and removes what you choose.

or drop a file anywhere on this panel

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How it works

  1. 01Open the PDF.
  2. 02Read what it is carrying, listed by name.
  3. 03Choose whether to remove document properties and annotations.
  4. 04Export. Scripts and attachments are removed regardless.

Most of it is removed whether you ask or not

This is worth being plain about rather than taking credit for. When you export here, the document is rebuilt from its pages rather than edited in place — so anything attached to the original file, including embedded scripts, embedded files and the original document properties, simply never gets carried across. That is a property of how exporting works, and it is covered by a test so it stays true.

Annotations are the part that needs asking

Comments, highlights and sticky notes belong to their pages, so they travel when the pages do. Their text goes with them. A document that went through internal review can arrive carrying the review, which is the single most common way a PDF says more than its author intended. That switch is off by default because removing someone’s markup is a real edit, not a cleanup.

What sanitizing cannot reach

Text hidden inside the page — white on white, or buried under a black rectangle — is part of the page content itself. Removing it means destroying part of the page, which is redaction, not sanitization. If the document contains any, the panel says so explicitly rather than letting a clean-looking result imply the file is safe to release.

Questions

Does this remove the author’s name?
Yes. The document properties — title, author, subject, keywords, and the software and timestamps — are not carried into the exported file. With "Remove document properties" on, nothing replaces them either.
What about XMP metadata?
It lives in the document catalog, not the pages, so it is not carried across by the export for the same reason attachments are not.
Will this make a leaked document safe to publish?
Not on its own, and we will not claim otherwise. It removes what surrounds the pages. Anything actually written on a page — including text concealed under a box — stays until it is redacted. Use Find hidden text first.
Can I keep the annotations but remove everything else?
Yes, that is the default. Annotations are only removed when you switch it on.