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When using exiftool -all:all= file.pdf this message appears:
ExifTool PDF edits are reversible. Deleted tags may be recovered!
Can tag recovery be prevented when ExifTool is used? Can it just wipe/overwrite them without saving previous info?
PDF is an example. I know about MAT2 but I don't want to rebuild and rasterize files, as MAT2 does.
homocomputeris
Posted 2019-09-14T16:29:15.507
Reputation: 152
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The author of exiftool recently (August 2019) looked into zeroing out the data and has decided that against it.
It is harder than I had hoped to simply zero out the existing metadata.
The solution wouldn't be complete because there could already be unused objects containing old metadata in the original PDF, and ExifTool wouldn't be able to zero out these.
It has been advertised that ExifTool PDF edits are reversible, and some users may be relying on this feature.
See this thread on the exiftool forums.
The use of qpdf or similar programs to re-linearize after using exiftool is still how exiftool's author suggests to fully remove all metadata.
StarGeek
Posted 2019-09-14T16:29:15.507
Reputation: 782
What does linearization do? – homocomputeris – 2019-09-14T17:26:11.223
Linearizing a pdf reorganizes the data in a pdf so it is faster to read through the web. It basically makes it more steamable, allowing the web browser to show the first page right away before the whole PDF is downloaded. See the last paragraph under the PDF->File Structure wikipedia page, just before "Imaging model".
– StarGeek – 2019-09-14T17:32:25.440It seems that it's a reasonably easy and fast method, which doesn't increase the filesize a lot. – homocomputeris – 2019-09-17T13:03:15.777
See this....https://dustri.org/b/cleaning-pdf-metadata-in-depth.html
– Moab – 2019-09-14T16:36:25.367@Moab I've updated the question. – homocomputeris – 2019-09-14T16:39:03.793
I cannot find any way to do what you want without rebuilding the pdf. Let us know if you discover a way, thanks. – Moab – 2019-09-14T16:44:31.930
I found this but it is only for jpg metedata....http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Blogs/Productivity-Sauce/Remove-EXIF-Metadata-from-Photos-with-exiftool
– Moab – 2019-09-14T16:47:53.667