Extract XMP Meta Information

You can extract the XMP meta information contained in a PDF.

Usage

pdfa-lab xmp FILENAME.pdf
pdfa-lab xmp -i FILENAME.pdf
pdfa-lab xmp --input FILENAME.pdf

These commands are all equivalent.

By default, the embedded XMP meta information is printed as XML to the console. The output format can be changed with the option --format or -f.

Options

Option	Description
-i, --input FILENAME.pdf	The input filename.
-f, --format FORMAT	Try pdfa-lab xmp --help for a list of formats.
-b, --base-iri URI	Use URI as base IRI.
--flags FLAGS	Use FLAGS as serialisation flags.
-V, --version	Show version number and exit.
-h, --help	Show help and exit.

Output

By default, the XMP meta information is printed to the console.

Output Format

pdfa-lib supports all output formats that rdflib supports:

Format	Aliases	Description
application/rdf+xml	xml, rdf+xml	The default output format, which is also the format embedded into a PDF document.
text/turtle	turtle, application/x-turtle
application/n-triples	n-triples
application/ld+json	json-ld, ld+json, json
text/n3	n3, notation3, application/n3
application/nquads	nquads, application/n-quads

Formats identifiers and their aliases are case-insensitive.

Serialiser Flags

You can further control the output with the option --flags. Flags can be combined (for example o k):

• s i – used by default for Turtle to suppress =, => notations
• d e i n p r s t u x – used for N-Triples/N-Quads to simplify output
• dr – used with JSON‑LD conversion (no default, no relative prefix)
• o – new: do not abbreviate to a prefixed name when the local part contains a dot. This keeps IRIs like http://example.org/ns/subject.example in <...> form instead of ns:subject.example.

Notes:

• For Turtle and JSON‑LD, user‑provided flags are merged with the defaults so your flags (like o) are honored.
• By contrast, passing p disables prefix abbreviations entirely (all terms are written as <...> IRIs).