Metadata

PDF metadata is embedded in the document's Information Dictionary and is visible to users through "Document Properties" in most PDF viewers. It also aids search engines and document management systems.

Setting Metadata

var pdf = await renderer
    .WithMetadata(m =>
    {
        m.Title    = "Q4 Financial Report";
        m.Author   = "Alice Smith";
        m.Subject  = "Quarterly earnings summary for Q4 2025";
        m.Keywords = "finance, quarterly, earnings, 2025";
        m.Creator  = "MyApp v2.1";
    })
    .RenderUrlAsPdfAsync("https://example.com/q4-report");

pdf.SaveAs("report.pdf");

MetadataOptions Reference

Property	Type	Default	Description
Title	string?	null	Document title
Author	string?	null	Author name
Subject	string?	null	Subject or description
Keywords	string?	null	Comma-separated keywords
Creator	string?	null	Application that created the content
Producer	string?	"CobaltPdf"	PDF producer (note: PDFsharp may override this)
CreationDate	DateTime?	null	Creation date. null = current UTC time

Combining Metadata and Encryption

Metadata and encryption can be applied together in the same fluent chain. CobaltPdf runs both through PDFsharp in a single document pass:

var pdf = await renderer
    .WithMetadata(m =>
    {
        m.Title  = "Confidential Contract";
        m.Author = "Legal Department";
    })
    .WithEncryption(new PdfEncryptionOptions
    {
        UserPassword = "contract2025",
        AllowCopying = false
    })
    .RenderUrlAsPdfAsync("https://example.com/contract");

Tip

For password-protecting the document and restricting print/copy permissions, see the Encryption article.