A command-line tool to recursively scan folders for PDF files and extract:
- PDF metadata (Info dictionary via
pikepdf) - XMP and RDF metadata
- Embedded image metadata (JPEG, PNG, TIFF — EXIF, text, and other supported fields)
- 🔍 Recursive folder scanning
- 🧼 Clean separation of metadata output and error/warning logs
- 🖼 Embedded image metadata support via Pillow (JPEG, PNG, TIFF)
- 📑 XMP/RDF metadata parsing
- ⚙️ Optional progress bar and verbose logging
Install directly from PyPI:
pip install pdf-metadata-scannerOr from source:
git clone https://github.com/yourname/pdf-metadata-scanner.git
cd pdf-metadata-scanner
pip install .After installing:
pdfscan <folder> [--log LOG_FILE] [--out OUTPUT_FILE] [--verbose] [--progress]If running from source without installation:
python scanner.py <folder> [--log LOG_FILE] [--out OUTPUT_FILE] [--verbose] [--progress]| Flag | Shorthand | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
folder |
Folder to recursively scan for PDFs | required | |
--log LOG_FILE |
-l |
Log file for warnings/errors | scanner_warnings.log |
--out OUTPUT_FILE |
-o |
Output file for extracted metadata | pdf_metadata_output.txt |
--verbose |
-v |
Output logs to both file and console | (off) |
--progress |
-p |
Show a live progress bar while scanning PDFs | (off) |
pdfscan ./documents --log logs.txt --out metadata.txt --verbose --progresslogs.txt: Contains only errors or warnings.metadata.txt: Contains all extracted metadata.
[PDF Metadata] test.pdf
/Author: Jane Doe
/Title: Example Document
[XMP Metadata] test.pdf
<dc:title>Example</dc:title>
<dc:creator>Jane Doe</dc:creator>
[Image Metadata] test.pdf - Page 1 - Im0
DateTimeOriginal: 2024:01:01 12:00:00
DPI: (300, 300)
This project includes unit tests for core functionality.
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
python -m unittest test_scanner.py- Some image formats (e.g. CCITT, JBIG2) are skipped due to decoding limitations.
- PNG and JPEG/TIFF metadata is extracted where available.
- The tool is read-only — it does not modify PDFs.
MIT License