A metadata editor changes selected document properties
Use Edit Metadata when the PDF is otherwise correct and you only need to change Title, Author, Subject or Keywords.
That workflow preserves the document as a normal PDF and does not intentionally strip the rest of its structure simply because one descriptive field was changed.
Hidden PDF data can exist outside those four fields
Adobe lists many kinds of potentially hidden information in PDFs, including metadata, comments, hidden layers, attachments, form data, bookmarks, links, actions and JavaScript.
That is why clearing an Author field is not equivalent to sanitizing a document before distribution.
1into1 Deep Sanitize rebuilds visible pages into a fresh PDF
Deep Sanitize renders the visible appearance of each page, then creates a brand-new PDF from those clean page images instead of carrying the source document object graph forward.
The output intentionally removes selectable or OCR text layers and interactive structures along with metadata. It also clears newly generated document-info identifiers before saving the final copy.
The privacy trade-off is loss of interactivity and selectable text
Because Deep Sanitize creates image-based pages, selectable text, form fields, comments, attachments, bookmarks, scripts and similar interactive features do not survive as working PDF structures.
Use it when removing hidden and interactive data matters more than preserving those features. Keep the original if you still need editable forms or searchable text.
Visible secrets still require redaction
Sanitization is not a substitute for covering confidential information that is visibly printed on the page. A name, account number or paragraph that is part of the visible page appearance will remain visible in the sanitized page image.
Use Permanent Redaction for visible confidential content, and Deep Sanitize when you also need to remove hidden and interactive document data.
Official sources reviewed
- Adobe Acrobat — Sanitize PDFs and remove hidden contentAdobe describes sanitization as removing metadata, comments, hidden layers and other hidden information before sharing.
- Adobe Acrobat — About redacting and sanitizing PDFsExplains the difference between redaction of visible content and sanitization of hidden document data.