Apple's Photos for Mac is great, but it can be limiting. Looking for an alternative photo editor for the Mac? Here's our pick of the best free. OpenShot is an award-winning free and open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Create videos with exciting video effects, titles, audio tracks,.

2020-02-10 19:59:11 • Filed to: Choose Right Mac Software • Proven solutions

Wondering how to access a free Mac PDF editor, or how to choose the right PDF editor for Mac? Below, we'll cover 10 commonly used PDF editor for Mac, all of which are compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina. By reading this list, you will be able to determine the most cost-effective Mac PDF editing software that also best meets your business needs.

Top 10 PDF Editor for Mac

1. PDFelement

PDFelement is a PDF solution integrate with a variety of convenient and practical features for editing, conversion, annotation, OCR, form processing and digital signatures.

This well-rounded PDF editing software is popular among users and has a step up above the competition due its excellent form field recognition and data extraction technology.

Unique Features:

  • Fully compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina.
  • Powerful PDF editing and annotation tools that allow for a smooth editing experience.
  • Robust PDF creation and conversion features.
  • The ability to fill and sign PDF forms easily.

Pros:

Pros of this program include clear function classification, a complete set of PDF tools, OCR and batch processing, high compatibility with all operating systems, a simple user experience and interface, and the ability for document conversions.

Cons:

Because of its focus on simplicity, it has less advanced features than programs like Adobe Acrobat. You can download free trial version to test, and purchase the full version after testing.

Supported Systems: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

Other Benefits:

  • A smooth and simple interface design
    The full functionalities can be enjoyed by both Windows and Mac users.
  • Better experience with PDF forms
    The automatic form recognition feature enables you to create an editable form with just one click.
  • PDF editing tools
    You can export data from paper or electronic forms into an editable Excel form.
  • Intelligent and smooth editing features.
    A better PDF editing experience lets you keep the fonts and formatting of your original file while converting it.
  • It can convert standard PDF file format to longer-lasting PDF / A format for purpose of a longer archiving period.

2. Acrobat for Mac

Acrobat is also a powerful tool. As the world's best desktop PDF solution, the brand new look of Acrobat will blow your mind. It also includes a mobile version that lets you fill in, sign and share PDFs on any device at any location. However, Adobe Acrobat XI has ended support, meaning you might need to turn to an Acrobat alternative if you are looking for dedicated support. Click here to discover the best Acrobat alternative options.

Unique Features:

  • Fast document comparison.
  • Supports operational procedures for review and approval.
  • Automatic form field recognition.
  • Create a PDF from Office formats quickly and easily.

Pros:

Stable functionalities, high efficiency, and high compatibility.

Cons:

It has a lot of advanced features that are complicated and difficult to use for beginners. Plus, the bloated features mean it comes at a higher cost and you need to pay in order to use the full version.

Free

Supported Systems: Windows, Mac, iOS

Price: $179.88 / Year

More Introduction:

  • An attractive user interface that supports touch functionality
    Fully compatible with mobile devices and supports touch functionality, with a user-friendly interface.
  • Work anytime, anywhere
    Acrobat has all the tools needed for converting, editing and signing a PDF anytime and anywhere. You can start a document at work, modify it during the transit ride home, and then send it for approval from the comfort of your living room.
  • Edit any file any time
    You won't need to spend your valuable time re-creating new documents. Simply export or convert your file into an easily editable format.

3. PDF Expert

PDF Expert is one of Readdle's premium Apps. It has been the leading product of PDF processing software on iOS platform for quite some time. Since the launch of PDF Expert on the Mac platform in 2015, it has become the best application on Mac App Store in 2015 and has been recommended by Apple editors.

Unique Features:

  • Fast speed for page organization and functionalities
  • Fluent in adding annotations and editing
  • Simple text and image editing functions

Pros:

Good reading experience, simple operation and easy to use. Plus it has a nice user interface.

Cons:

It has less features than other PDF editors, and the PDF compatibility could be improved.

Supported Systems: Mac, iOS

Price: $59.99

More Introduction:

  • Professional reading experience
    Smooth scrolling and a quick search function. Choose your favorite layout and complete any task quickly and easily.
  • Editing PDFs is seamless
    PDF Expert for Mac helps you format text and paragraphs easily. It will automatically detect fonts, and editing a PDF document is as easy as using any other program to edit a document.
  • Fill in and sign PDF forms effortlessly
    Fill PDF forms easily, such as application forms, tax reports, shopping lists, you name it. You can sign a contract by using a legally valid personal e-signature in just a few clicks.
  • Integration, sharing, and collaboration
    Add notes or comments to easily collaborate with colleagues. You can also use a password to protect your sensitive files and documents.
  • Compatibility with iPhone, iPad, and more
    PDF Expert is compatible with all Apple platform products: Mac, iPad and iPhone. It allows you to transfer documents across these devices seamlessly. Your work can be done anytime and anywhere.

Get the best PDF Expert alternative now - PDFelement.

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4. PDFpenPro

PDFpenPro is a professional program heavily influenced by Preview. It is fully compatible with macOS X for PDF documents. It keeps the original operation processing feature of Preview, which fits more user's operating habits and is more convenient for a beginner user. There are also functional enhancements. You can add signatures, text and images, as well as make changes, correct typos, and perform OCR on scanned documents. It allows you to fill and create fillable forms, as well as convert PDF to Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats.

Unique Features:

  • Simple form field creation
  • Intuitive annotation properties

Pros:

It meets basic PDF editing needs and the operating experience is similar to that of Preview.

Cons:

Not all languages are supported, such as Chinese. It also has weak text and page editing capabilities compared to other programs.

Unique Features: Mac, iOS

Price: $124.95

Mac

More Introduction:

  • Generic PDF editing tools
    You can use PDFpenPro to add text and signatures, amend text, and use OCR for scanned documents.
  • Make interactive PDF forms for Mac and Windows
    You may create an interactive form by using check boxes, text boxes, radio buttons, and interactive signature fields.
  • Exports MS Office formats to PDF
    It allows you to export a PDF to Excel, Word, PowerPoint and save as a PDF/A format.
  • Store your PDF in the cloud
    You can edit your PDF at any time, and can use the PDFpen on an iPad or iPhone to edit a PDF seamlessly over iCloud or Dropbox.

5. Preview

As a built-in PDF software on Mac, Preview allows for the limited ability to read and browse PDF formats, as well as make simple annotations. It can meet your primary requirement of reading and editing PDFs. But if you have more advanced PDF editing needs, Preview will not be suitable.

Pros:

Build-in system, more preview formats, and read files fluently.

Cons:

Poor compatibility, lack of professional functions and PDF content can only be edited in the most basic ways.

Supported Systems: Mac

Price: Free

More Introduction:

  • Quick annotation
  • You can quickly arrange pages by dragging and dropping thumbnails
  • The camera is able to recognize handwritten signatures quickly.

Learn more about Preview here >>

6. Skim

Skim is a free Mac PDF editor. It functions like Preview, offering markup tools that help highlight important PDF content. You can also add and edit notes, crop PDF files, and more. Excel for mac rtd functions thinkorswim.

  • View PDF files.
  • Add and edit notes.
  • Highlight text.
  • Take snapshots of PDF files.
  • Give presentations with built-in transitions.
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7. PDF Nomad

PDF Nomad is unique editing software that provides a number of editing tools. The software supports the editing of images and texts in PDFs. It also allows you to arrange, split, and merge PDF pages in a document. Some of the tools in this software also make it easier for you to rotate, scale, and crop PDF files.

Pros:

  • It can be used to edit all aspects of PDF files including images.
  • It comes with an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature that makes editing scanned PDFs very easy.
  • You can use it to annotate a PDF document.

Cons:

  • The free version lacks many features and at $75 the pro version is somewhat expensive compared to others.

8. Master PDF Editor for Mac

Master PDF Editor is PDF editing software for Mac that comes with loads of features allowing you to convert PDF to numerous other file types and edit just about any aspect of your PDF document.

Pros:

  • It can be used to edit both text and images.
  • You can convert PDFs to other formats including Word and Excel.
  • Works with Linux.

Cons:

  • The complex interface makes it difficult to use for beginners.
  • The free version has limited capabilities.

9. Scribus for Mac

Scribus is a free PDF editing software for Mac that can be used to open PDFs and even edit certain aspects of the PDF document. It is one of the easiest programs to use because the user interface is simple and clean. You can also use it to annotate PDF documents if you want to highlight and edit sections of the document you consider important.

Pros:

  • It is very easy to use.
  • It can be used to edit both text and images.

Cons:

  • It can't be used to convert PDFs.

10. PDF Buddy

This is another online tool that can be very useful when you want to edit PDF documents. This PDF editing software for Mac comes with a lot of features that can be used to manipulate a PDF document in many ways. You can add text, add and remove images and even split and merge PDF files. It can also be used to add signatures to your PDF document.

Pros:

  • It is free to use.
  • It lets you make numerous edits to your PDF files.
  • There is no limit to the size of PDF file you can work with.

Cons:

  • It sometimes fails to download the file after editing.

There you have it - the 10 Best Free PDF Editor Tools for Mac. Now that you've had time to research the best PDF editor for Mac, don't hesitate to try out PDFelement now to see if it's right for you!

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