PDF title

Silktide checks that each PDF document declares a title. The title is a property stored inside the file, separate from the file name and from any heading printed on the first page, and it is what software announces when the document opens.

It lives in the document's . A document with no title there is introduced by its file name instead, which is rarely what anyone would choose to say out loud.

Why this matters

The title is the first thing a reader learns, and often the only thing they get before deciding whether to continue. A announces it on opening, so "Annual report 2025" orients someone immediately, and AR25_FINAL_v3_web.pdf does not. File names accumulate the history of how a document was produced, and none of that is useful to a reader.

It matters more as soon as there is more than one document open. Titles are what appear in the window title bar, in tab lists, in a browser's history, and in the list a screen reader offers when moving between windows. Untitled documents are indistinguishable there, so someone with three reports open cannot tell which is which without opening each one and reading it.

Titles are also what search engines display, so a document with none is listed by its file name in results, which costs it clicks from everybody.

How to fix it

Set the title in the source document and re-export. In Word, use File > Info and fill in the Title property; in InDesign, use File > File Info. Setting it at the source means it survives every future revision.
Or set it in Acrobat Pro through File > Properties > Description > Title.
Write the title a reader needs, which is usually the document's real name and its edition or date. Match the heading on the first page rather than inventing something new, and leave out the file format and your organisation's internal codes.
Then make sure the title is what gets shown, which is a separate setting. See PDF display title.
Or run Silktide remediation, which sets a title and reviews whether it describes the document. See How PDF remediation works.

How Silktide tests this

Find the PDF documents linked from your website, and analyse each unique file once however many pages link to it.
Read the document's metadata and look for a title entry.
Report the document when there is none.

Whether the title is any good is a separate question from whether it exists, and it is examined during AI review. A title of "Document1" satisfies this check and helps nobody.

Troubleshooting

The document's name is printed on the first page

That is a heading in the page content, and software cannot know it was meant as the document's title. The title has to be set as a document property. Both are worth having, and they should say the same thing.

The file name is already descriptive

It is a good habit and does not substitute for a title. File names cannot contain some punctuation, get truncated, are rewritten by content management systems, and are announced with their extension. The title has no such limits.

I set the title but readers still announce the file name

The title exists but the document is not configured to display it, which is a separate setting inside the file. See PDF display title.