Applies to: All editions
What analysis does
Analysis inspects the selected PDF without sanitizing it. It reads basic file and PDF properties, examines document structure, detects selected interactive or hidden-content features, and records findings used by later warnings and sanitization decisions.
Analysis does not alter the source PDF.
Run analysis
- Add one or more PDFs.
- Check the documents to include.
- Select Analyze.
- Allow the operation to finish or cancel it if necessary.
- Select a document and review its Overview.
After analysis, the list shows the page count, finding count, and status for each successfully analyzed PDF.
What PDFSanitize can detect
Analysis can identify or summarize:
- PDF version and page count;
- Encryption;
- Digital signatures;
- Document information metadata such as Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, and dates when present;
- XMP metadata;
- Document identifiers;
- Previous or incremental revisions;
- Comments and annotations;
- Interactive forms and widget data;
- Embedded files;
- JavaScript and document actions;
- Hyperlink annotations and external navigation actions;
- Bookmarks;
- Optional or layered content;
- Catalog name-tree structures;
- Tagged PDF structure;
- Text detected with invisible rendering modes or positioned completely outside the visible page.
Encrypted documents
When a PDF is encrypted, analysis records a critical encrypted-PDF finding and stops deeper inspection of that file. The document cannot currently be sanitized by PDFSanitize.
Automatic analysis before sanitization
If one or more selected PDFs have not been analyzed when Sanitize is chosen, PDFSanitize offers to analyze the missing documents first. Sanitization proceeds only if the required analysis completes successfully.
Re-analysis invalidates downstream state
A fresh analysis clears the previous sanitization and verification state for that document in the current session. This prevents an older output result from being presented as though it belonged to a newly analyzed source state.