diff --git a/src/core/core.js b/src/core/core.js
index c81f5b7d3..2eb8fd57b 100644
--- a/src/core/core.js
+++ b/src/core/core.js
@@ -343,6 +343,10 @@ var PDFDocument = (function PDFDocumentClosure() {
   PDFDocument.prototype = {
     parse: function PDFDocument_parse(recoveryMode) {
       this.setup(recoveryMode);
+      var version = this.catalog.catDict.get('Version');
+      if (isName(version)) {
+        this.pdfFormatVersion = version.name;
+      }
       try {
         // checking if AcroForm is present
         this.acroForm = this.catalog.catDict.get('AcroForm');
@@ -444,8 +448,10 @@ var PDFDocument = (function PDFDocumentClosure() {
           }
           version += String.fromCharCode(ch);
         }
-        // removing "%PDF-"-prefix
-        this.pdfFormatVersion = version.substring(5);
+        if (!this.pdfFormatVersion) {
+          // removing "%PDF-"-prefix
+          this.pdfFormatVersion = version.substring(5);
+        }
         return;
       }
       // May not be a PDF file, continue anyway.
diff --git a/test/pdfs/basicapi.pdf b/test/pdfs/basicapi.pdf
index 31ffcfe9f..2f16483d5 100644
Binary files a/test/pdfs/basicapi.pdf and b/test/pdfs/basicapi.pdf differ
diff --git a/test/unit/api_spec.js b/test/unit/api_spec.js
index 75905f76d..2d5d17bf7 100644
--- a/test/unit/api_spec.js
+++ b/test/unit/api_spec.js
@@ -156,6 +156,7 @@ describe('api', function() {
       var promise = doc.getMetadata();
       waitsForPromiseResolved(promise, function(metadata) {
         expect(metadata.info['Title']).toEqual('Basic API Test');
+        expect(metadata.info['PDFFormatVersion']).toEqual('1.7');
         expect(metadata.metadata.get('dc:title')).toEqual('Basic API Test');
       });
     });