PDF ISBN information...Where is it and how do I change it?

darkbeanies · 08-03-2011, 04:31 PM

Okay, so meddling about with exiftool, I am wondering where exactly the ISBN information is located in a PDF. Anyone familiar with the XMP/metadata/whatever specifications or whatever it is I should be looking for?

I can make a new key/tag/whatever called "ISBN", but it is not "really" the isbn number. And every program that tries to extract isbn from the file completely ignores my new key. And just uses the existing ISBN key that was there already.

Does anyone have any clue what I am talking about here? Because I don't think I do!

Oh, almost forgot...I suspected it might be urn:isbn earlier (the name of the tag I'm looking for, that is) but exiftool can't write to this, or so it tells me.

Is that what I'm looking for?

Or...dc:identifier, perhaps?

Jim Lester · 08-09-2011, 03:34 PM

There is no canonical location for an ISBN a PDF file, so where and how it should be stored will depend upon the tools you are using to read it.

There are 2 interesting sources of metadata in a PDF file. The info dictionary, and the XMP metadata. For exiftool these can be accessed by the the 'PDF Info Tags' and the 'PDF Metadata Tags'.

If your tools are looking at a someplace different that you are not modifying (using exiftool), then I would suggest looking at the document in Acrobat / Reader to see if you can find out what they are looking.

Good Luck

darkbeanies · 08-11-2011, 02:42 PM

Ha! I pretty much just found out that there is no genuine isbn data in a pdf.

I found a way to make one though, with pdftk! So I can now see isbn numbers in windows explorer, and a few other metadata editors.

Tools like calibre don't directly read my ISBN data as real isbn's though. Still, my ebook collection looks about a million times more organized than it was a couple of weeks ago!

Thanks for the info, I am slowly starting to understand this metadata stuff.

08-03-2011, 04:31 PM	#1
darkbeanies Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2011 Device: none	PDF ISBN information...Where is it and how do I change it? Okay, so meddling about with exiftool, I am wondering where exactly the ISBN information is located in a PDF. Anyone familiar with the XMP/metadata/whatever specifications or whatever it is I should be looking for? I can make a new key/tag/whatever called "ISBN", but it is not "really" the isbn number. And every program that tries to extract isbn from the file completely ignores my new key. And just uses the existing ISBN key that was there already. Does anyone have any clue what I am talking about here? Because I don't think I do! Oh, almost forgot...I suspected it might be urn:isbn earlier (the name of the tag I'm looking for, that is) but exiftool can't write to this, or so it tells me. Is that what I'm looking for? Or...dc:identifier, perhaps? Last edited by darkbeanies; 08-03-2011 at 04:41 PM.

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08-09-2011, 03:34 PM	#2
Jim Lester Evangelist Posts: 416 Karma: 14682 Join Date: May 2008 Location: SF Bay Area Device: Nook HD, Nook for Windows 8	There is no canonical location for an ISBN a PDF file, so where and how it should be stored will depend upon the tools you are using to read it. There are 2 interesting sources of metadata in a PDF file. The info dictionary, and the XMP metadata. For exiftool these can be accessed by the the 'PDF Info Tags' and the 'PDF Metadata Tags'. If your tools are looking at a someplace different that you are not modifying (using exiftool), then I would suggest looking at the document in Acrobat / Reader to see if you can find out what they are looking. Good Luck

08-11-2011, 02:42 PM	#3
darkbeanies Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2011 Device: none	Ha! I pretty much just found out that there is no genuine isbn data in a pdf. I found a way to make one though, with pdftk! So I can now see isbn numbers in windows explorer, and a few other metadata editors. Tools like calibre don't directly read my ISBN data as real isbn's though. Still, my ebook collection looks about a million times more organized than it was a couple of weeks ago! Thanks for the info, I am slowly starting to understand this metadata stuff.

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