Paper Clip is a terrifically simple app for editing PDF metadata on Linux.
Built in Vala and GTK4/libadwaita, the utility opens PDF documents so you can edit or remove metadata attached to the document.
Metdata?
Yeah, metadata is often added to PDF files during export or creation.
It can include who made the PDF, the app used to create it, and the date and time it was exported. While this kind of information is (largely) innocuous there may be times where you need or want to update or remove this metadata.
And it’s that job that Paper Clip excels at.
Paper Clip enables you edit/remove the following metadata:
- Title
- Author
- Creator
- Producer
- Creation Date
- Modification Date
- Keywords
After updating any of those fields you can save your changes back to the PDF file itself, or ‘save as’ to create a separate copy.
Want to double-check your changes got saved? You can view PDF metadata in most PDF viewers/editors. In Evince (default on many Linux distributions) just open a PDF, and then select ‘Properties’ from the document menu.
In summary, if you need to edit PDF metadata (and don’t want to open a full-blown PDF editing app) then Paper Clip is ideal. It’s well designed, easy to use, and supports system dark mode on modern desktops too.
• Get Paper Clip on Flathub
