• Filed to: Mac Tutorials
'What is the best free PDF Editor for Mac?'
- PDF Editor Mac is a free PDF editor mac from the individual developer. Although it may not have a beautiful interface and is not intuitive, it has the standard features for light users. You can edit, rotate and annotate PDF documents.
- How To Add a Password to a PDF on a Mac; Here are 2 easy ways to open, edit and sign a PDF document on your Mac for free. Method 1: Using macOS Preview. Preview is a really useful free tool in macOS that allows you to edit both images and documents easily. Using Preview has the advantage that all of your data stays on your Mac.
Jun 04, 2021 Steps to Edit a PDF Document on Mac with Acrobat Reader: Step 1. Open the file you want to edit. Click on the 'Edit PDF' tool in the right pane, then choose a PDF editing tool you want to use to edit text or image. And you can add a watermark and annotations to it.
Here we've compiled the top 5 PDF editor Mac tools to work with your PDFs efficiently. We've found the best 5 free PDF editor for Mac to help you modify your files, including tools like PDFelement Pro for Mac.
Choose Your Best PDF Editor for Mac
1. PDFelement Pro-Clean and Powerful PDF Editor
PDFelement Pro is one of the best programs for all solutions to edit PDF files on Mac. You can edit, add, modify, and delete texts, graphics, and images in PDF format with this tool. You can also convert your PDF files to Word, Excel, EPUB, Images, and more formats. Furthermore, you can annotate and mark all the screen content with a variety of markup and annotation tools. It allows you to fill out your existing PDF forms, creates PDFs, and extract data from PDFs forms. The advanced OCR feature helps you to edit and convert scanned PDF and remove data from scanned PDF.
Features | PDFelement Pro | PDF Expert | Adobe® Acrobat® DC Mac |
---|---|---|---|
OS Compatibility | Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android | Mac | Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android |
Price | From $79 / perpetual | $79.99 / perpetual | $180 / year |
Easy Editing | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
Simple User Interface | |||
Markup Features | |||
Convert PDF | Microsoft Office files, Pages, ePub, and image formats | Microsoft Office files and image formats | |
PDF Forms | Create and fill out | Create and fill out | Create and fill out |
Create PDF | |||
Perform OCR | |||
Customer Support | Free one-to-one support and online help center | Online help center | Seldom get time response |
2. PDF Expert - Beautiful and Robust PDF editor
PDF Expert by Readdle is a start product in the Mac App Store. It has been rewarded as 'Editors' Choice,' 'App of the Year' and 'Top 1 Paid App'. It provides advanced reading experience on Mac. The cool thing is that you can compare two PDF files in the 'split view mode.' You can also mark up while reading. PDF Expert also provides tools to combine PDFs. Add, remove, extract, rotate, copy, and reorder pages to make your PDF files' best arrangement. Fill out PDF forms and sign electronically.
3. Adobe® Acrobat® DC Mac - Powerful but Expensive Choice
As the leading brand in the PDF industry, the PDF editor of Adobe® Acrobat® is no doubt of reliable quality. From the product interface, we can see, it has a wide range of toolsets. You can edit, comment, fill & sign, convert, combine, and secure PDFs. With the help of Action Wizard, Pro users can customize an action and run it so that you can deal with piles of PDFs with the same story. It is also integrated with Adobe Sign. If you have an Adobe suite already and enough budget, then Acrobat DC is a better choice.
4. Foxit PhantomPDF Mac - New Product by Old Brand
Foxit published PhantomPDF Mac in recent years. Been dedicated to Windows solution of PDF for years, its Mac version deserves a trial. This PDF editor mac allows you to edit text, convert, annotate, compress, OCR, and sign PDFs. You can also fill out forms and protect PDFs with a password.
5. PDFpen Pro
PDFpen Pro is an all-purpose PDF editor for mac. You can edit, mark up, OCR, and protect PDF and create PDF forms. Edit text and images, annotate PDFs with the highlight, notes, and hand-drawings. OCR scanned PDFs into editable text. There's also a redaction option that can black out your sensitive information.
Three Light-weighted PDF Editing Software for Mac
6. Preview - Mac Built-in Markup Tool
Preview is a light-weighted PDF annotation tool, which is built-in on Mac. You can add text, notes, shapes, and highlighting to jot down your thoughts and compress, convert and combine PDFs. It also allows you to organize pages like add, delete, and move. To protect your PDF documents, you can add a password. However, it has fewer features compared with professional pdf editors on Mac. It doesn't support batch processes and OCR. The most important is that it can't edit existing text in a PDF. Therefore, it's only suitable for those who only want to mark up PDF files. If you are looking for PDF editing software on Mac, it is not your choice.
7. Adobe Reader DC
Adobe Reader DC is a free PDF reader on Mac. As its name conveys, it only allows you to view, comment, and sign PDFs. If you want to enjoy the editing feature, you need to upgrade to Adobe Acrobat DC.
8. FineReader Pro for Mac
FineReader Pro for Mac is an OCR product from ABBYY, a leading company in the OCR area. The highlight of the program is converting scanned PDFs with great accuracy. You can convert those documents into editable formats like Docx, xlsx, pptx, and more. If you often deal with scanned files, then FineReader Pro for Mac is your best choice.
Two Minority Free PDF Editors Mac
9. PDF Editor Mac
PDF Editor Mac is a free PDF editor mac from the individual developer. Although it may not have a beautiful interface and is not intuitive, it has the standard features for light users. You can edit, rotate and annotate PDF documents.
10. Skim
This software is a free PDF annotation and reader for Mac that allows you to make several modifications. It lets you perform tasks such as highlighting, underlining and adding sticky notes to better view PDFs.
/iMyMac PDF Compressor /How to Edit a PDF on Mac for Free Using Preview
When dealing with files at work, chances are you have to work with PDF files. You may have received a document in PDF format that you’re itching to edit. While PDFs are great for preserving your document’s format, they may be a hassle to edit sometimes, considering you have to pay extra to get the editing feature of a PDF viewer like Adobe.
If you’re a Mac user, you might think that editing PDFs is not possible on Mac, but there are several tools you can use to do just that. For one, Mac has a built-in program that lets you make simple changes to PDF files. For more complicated edits, you can easily download PDF editors and compressor software that are available for free or for a small fee on the internet. Let me show you two easiest ways of how to edit PDFs on Mac.
TIPS:
Article GuidePart 1. How to Edit A PDF Using Mac's Preview AppPart 2. Common Problems When Editing PDFs on MacPart 3. How to Compress PDF Documents on Mac
Part 1. How to Edit A PDF Using Mac's Preview App
PDF, short for Portable Document Format, is a file that allows you to see pictures and texts in a fixed electronic format that resembles printed paper. It used to be that we can’t edit PDFs, but now there are many programs designed to do more than just edit these files. Mac itself has something in store for you.
Every Mac has a default Preview app that lets you open and edits PDF files. It has several functions like highlighting texts and copying texts. Here are some of the things you can do with the Preview app:
Step 1: Adding text
Instead of directly editing texts, you can use Preview to add text to your PDFs by following these steps:
- First, try clicking on the text you want to change. If a text field appears, you can type new text.
- If this doesn’t work, you can draw a white text box over any text in your PDF. This covers up the old text and allows you to write your own.
- Simply select Tools > Annotate > Textto add a text box.
- If you want more text options, go to View > Show Markup Toolbar and press A. Here, you can change the font size, color, and style of your text.
Admittedly, this can consume more time than directly editing the text, but this is what Preview lets us do at the moment.
Step 2: Highlighting the text
If you wish to highlight some text on your PDF, you can easily do so with Preview.
- Click the “Edit” This turns on the highlight mode. You can then select the text you want to stand out in your document.
- If you want to have other options like underline, strikethrough, and color change, select the “Drop-down Menu” next to the highlight mode “Edit”.
- When it’s time to turn off the highlight mode, just right-click/ Control-click on any text and select Remove Highlight.
Step 3: Copying text
Preview also allows you to copy text between PDF files. Here’s how:
- Go to the first icon in the leftmost side of the toolbar. Click the icon Aa.
- Select parts of the text you want to copy.
- Press
Command + C
to copy the text. You can also Control-click and select Copy. - Go to your target document for transfer and Paste the copied text.
- You can also Paste the text in a text box somewhere in the PDF.
If you don’t need many functions for your PDF editor, then the built-in program will do, but if you have other needs, you might need a PDF editor to do the job.
Part 2. Common Problems When Editing PDFs on Mac
There are times that you need more changes in your PDF file and the features of Preview might not be enough. Also, some Mac users report occasional problems using Preview.
- When using Preview to view a PDF, the contents sometimes appear blurry. This is annoying especially when you have a lot of files to view.
- There are cases when Preview saves unknown changes to the file or, in a few instances, even corrupts the file, making it unusable.
- Some users who upgraded to newer versions of macOS encountered problems with duplicate files. Sometimes, Preview makes an unauthorized copy of an edited file, which can be a problem if you’re trying to trace the changes you made to a file.
If you’re having similar problems with the Preview app of your Mac, then maybe it’s time to use a PDF editor instead.
Part 3. How to Compress PDF Documents on Mac
If there’s one thing that Preview cannot do, it’s to make your files smaller. A PDF compressor software gives you the power to reduce the size of your PDF files, which is especially useful when you need to send or upload large-sized PDFs. If you find the functions of Preview limited, this is the one for you.
The makers of PowerMyMac, iMyMac, have launched the iMyMac PDF Compressor to help Mac users compress their PDF files into a manageable size. This is the best free PDF compressor software on Mac that you’ll ever need. Compressing PDF files makes it easier to send bulky files via email or USB transfer. It’s also absolutely free so no need to shell out your hard-earned money.
Here’s a quick guide on how to use the iMyMac PDF Compressor:
- Download iMyMac PDF Compressor from the iMyMac website for free.
- Install the app on your Mac and enter its home page.
- Drag the PDF file and drop at the center. Your compression will automatically start.
- When compression is complete, you can preview the files by clicking the Preview button.
- Click Save to select a folder that will keep the file.
Key Advantages of Using iMyMac PDF Compressor
If you’re having second thoughts about downloading a PDF compressor like this, then let me ease some of your worries with these wonderful benefits of using an offline service like iMyMac.
It's quick and easy.
It’s a simple process that reduces the size of your PDF files in seconds.
It's completely offline.
What’s more, your data is protected as it’s an offline process that doesn’t require uploading your file to a server somewhere where anyone can have access to the confidential information contained in your file.
It's smart.
The iMyMac PDF Compressor doesn’t just want to compress your files for you; it aims to provide you the easiest way to compress your PDFs without losing its graphics quality. While some compressors twist the contents of a PDF file in an effort to reduce its size, this file compressor tries its best to retain the original quality of the file.
You don’t need to know what DPI is and no need to set your own target file size. The app will figure out the ideal size that will produce the best quality for your file.
Additionally, it makes sure that the resulting file is just right for your email’s attachment requirements.
Knowing how to edit a PDF on Mac is a basic need when working with soft copies of documents and other digital files. It’s important that you know how to quickly edit your PDFs using Mac’s built-in Preview app.
In case you need to reduce the size of your PDF file, you can easily download a compressor like iMyMac PDF Compressor to bring it down to your desired size and make it easier for you to transfer several pages of PDF files.
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How To Edit A Pdf On A Mac For Free
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