Metadata in PDFs

[Smallbadger]

Hi all,

I really want my team's exports from Illustrator, InDesign etc. to include metadata by default.

Ideally, I want the filename and the designer's name (or login details... some kind of identifier).

I don't want this to be a manual process - they'll forget. I don't want 3rd party apps ideally.

Am I asking the impossible? Any help would be awesome.

Richard.

[BobLevine]

It's not magic. If you don't supply the information it's not going to be exported.

[Smallbadger]

It's not?! Damn. lol

As Adobe know the username of the person logged in, as the PC/Mac does too, I thought maybe adding this data to the metadata in a kind of 'include the name of the person who this app knows is using it' thing would exist. I also thought as I've typed the name of the PDF in the export field, upon export copying of this to the metadata in a kind of 'add own selfs name in here' would be possible... maybe.

I suspect from your reply that this is in fact not possible and so can only thank you for your time.

[BobLevine]

You might be able to script it, but be prepared to pay someone to do it.

[Eugene Tyson]

I thought the File>User and insert the persons name in there might do it. 

Have not tested it.

[Smallbadger]

Cheers Eugene. This seems to be another place to log your username for such things, but not a means to add it itself. Good call though.

[Eugene Tyson]

Funny enough - here's the article I found on it and it was written by Bob.

https://indesignsecrets.com/quickly-add-metadata-to-indesign-and-pdf-files.php

Seems you'd have to get them to load the metadata into the File>File Info via a template. 

You'd need to make this part of your Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which most places operate under. 

And then assign a person to check the metadata prior to the file being sent out. 

As with SOP, there should be ramifications for not following the SOP. 

[BobLevine]

HA! An oldie but goodie. 😊

[Eugene Tyson]

Like yourself! 

[BobLevine]

True enough

[Kasyan Servetsky · Accepted solution]

In InDesign, you can do this automatically with a start-up script, say, before the document is saved.
Here's a script I wrote recently on request here on the forum.

— Kas

[Smallbadger]

Perfect! That traps a key piece of info without user intervention (thus avoiding user error ^_^ )

[Mike-drawinginc]

Richard, I know your post is old but I've just discovered a solution that's working in both InDesign and Illustrator. When exporting your PDF file from either application choose one of the PDF-X standards, the following worked for me:

PDF/X–1a:2001

PDF/X–3:2002

PDF/X–4:2010

In InDesign it's saving the filename and extension into the meta data of the PDF. In Illustrator it saves the filename without the ai extension.

Tests carried out using InDesign version 17.3 and Illustrator version 26.3.1