Best PDF reader for Mac
Read on for our detailed analysis of each app
While it's easy to open PDF's these days, with most browsers and even office suites offering some form of built-in PDF reader, often it's not enough to simply be able to read a PDF.
The Portable Document Forum (PDF) was originally developed by Adobe in the early 1990's, as a way to share documents between users with different operating systems. Additionally, because it couldn't be edited, that meant the document's integrity could be preserved.
Top PDF Editor Software For Windows And Mac 1. Wondershare PDFelement. This is the best edit PDF software available for almost all platforms — Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. It has a very simple, minimalistic and easy to use interface. There a lot of things that this software is capable of doing.
The problem for users nowadays is that PDF's now commonly form user agreements which require signing. On top of this, collaborative working means that having to convert PDF files into native documents for editing and then back again just isn't practical.
Therefore it helps to have a PDF reader that has extended features for editing and e-signing.
However, the prevalence of Windows PCs means that sometimes Apple Macs can seem left behind, especially with the continued development of macOS as an app platform.
We've therefore highlighted the best in PDF readers for the Mac, not least where additional features will allow macOS users to do more with the PDF files they have.
- We’ve also highlighted the best free PDF readers
- Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line.
1. PDF Reader Premium
Available to download directly from the Mac App Store, PDF Reader Premium from Kdan Software is one of the most powerful and popular PDF management tools for Apple computers. It functions as a file manager, file converter and page editor.
With the software, you can easily edit PDF files by adding freehand writing, text boxes, sticky notes, hyperlinks and annotations. And to ensure that important documents don’t get mixed up, you’re able to label them by adding tags and color-coding. What’s more, to keep track of all your saved files, you can make use of an import history feature.
The app works with iCloud, too, meaning you can back up and access saved documents on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. There’s even compatibility with Dropbox, so you can easily import documents from devices that run on other operating systems.
Overall, you should find the app smooth and quick to use. It’s powered by a proprietary rendering engine, which aims to ensure that large files are processed and loaded without any lag. Currently, the app costs $59.99 (£42), although there is a free version that you can try before you purchase.
2. Apple Books
Apple Books is more than just an app for reading novels-at the heart of Apple Books is the ability to read and organize PDF files. The only stipulations is that they must be DRM-free, which makes it somewhat limited by comparison to some of the more dedicated readers featured here.
However, as a simple PDF reader Apple Books-formerly iBooks-does the job exactly as it needs to. Better still, it's bundled for free with iOS 12 so if you're already up to date with the upgrade cycle then the chances are you already have it but perhaps didn't know it can be used to read PDFs as well as novels and a range of document formats.
The one limitation Apple Books has that some of the other apps here don't have is that it can't be used for editing, anotating, or creating PDF files. However, as we're only focused on PDF readers in this piece Apple Books is still a wworthy and necessary inclusion. Even still, there are other apps available in the App Store that can provide expanded functions for manipulating PDF files, if required.
3. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
Adobe’s own heavyweight offering
Acrobat Standard DCAdobe not only invented the trusty PDF document in the first place, but the company has also created some top-notch apps to manage them. Acrobat Pro DC is a great example, and it supports both Windows and Mac devices. The software allows you to create, edit and convert PDF files with ease.
Whether you happen to be using a desktop PC, laptop or tablet, Acrobat lets you turn any paper document into a PDF file. You just have to snap a photo of the piece of paper and upload it to Adobe’s platform, then you can subsequently edit it. Acrobat also lets you convert PDFs into any Microsoft Office file format, preserving all fonts and formatting.
Thanks to integration with Excel, you can even edit data in scanned tables, making it easier to edit and analyze financial data. Just like Kdan Software’s PDF Reader Premium, you can keep track of the changes you and your colleagues make to PDF documents.
Acrobat is capable of detecting the differences between two versions of the same PDF, too. You can sign up for a business plan for £15.17 a month, which gives you the option to add more team members in the future.
4. PDF Expert
PDF Expert is a robust and easy-to-use solution for managing business documents. And with a four-and-a-half star rating in the Mac App Store, it seems to be one of the most popular options out there for Mac users. The software gives you the ability to read, edit and annotate PDF documents from a central dashboard.
One of the great things about PDF Expert is that it’s fast and slick to use. Thanks to smooth scrolling and a fast search function, you can quickly find what you’re looking for across multiple PDF files.
This app lets you edit images, text and links, plus the software can automatically detect fonts, size and opacity of writing. Plus, if you happen to own an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, you can add annotations and notes to documents on-the-go. Like most PDF apps out there, PDF Expert comes with a free download option, but the app for iPad/iPhone costs $9.99 and includes in-app purchases, while the version for Mac costs around $100 for 3 Macs.
5. PDFelement
Wondershare has developed a Mac version of the popular PDFelement app, which is positioned as an easy way to edit PDF documents. It gives you the tools to add text, images, links, backgrounds, watermarks, headers and footers to PDF documents.
The software provides an extensive selection of PDF editing options. Not only can you add text to documents, but you can also tweak the font type, size and style. There’s the ability to rotate, extract, replace and crop images too.
PDFelement is a great option for teams in particular, with powerful collaborative capabilities, letting you add sticky notes, comments, text boxes and more. And you can use the tool to fill out business documents such as contracts and tax forms. PDFelement retails at $49.95 for the standard package, but for all features you will need the Professional package priced at $79.99.
Editing a PDF file isn’t that easy as compared to Word files or images. In simple PDF readers like Adobe PDF Reader, you can only highlight the text with different colors and attach comments with the text. But for other purposes, you need some dedicated software to edit PDF files which can add, remove or change all the content. So, here is the list of best edit PDF software available in 2018. They are mostly paid software and you can decide the best one by taking a trial for free.
Top PDF Editor Software For Windows And Mac
1. Wondershare PDFelement
This is the best edit PDF software available for almost all platforms — Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. It has a very simple, minimalistic and easy to use interface. There a lot of things that this software is capable of doing. Firstly, choose to edit the PDF in Line Mode or Paragraph Mode. You can add, remove and edit the text content and images in many ways. You can change the font, size, color or alignment of the text. Existing or added images can be cropped, overturned, rotated or deleted.
Apart from adding images and text, links can be set for other pages of the document, other documents or any webpage. Amazingly, there is also an option to remove a watermark from the page and add your own. You can remove the background and add an image or colors as a background.
You can even set a thumbnail for your document. The software lets you crop a page and also remove or add header and footer to it. Unlike the other editors or PDF readers, PDFelement has the option not just to add comments, but also attach files like images, Word pages, App setups etc.
The use of this software is not limited to just editing a PDF file. You can convert PDF files to Word, Powerpoint, Ebook, image, Excel files etc. And any file type can also be converted to PDF. You can also combine two or more files types and create a single PDF document out of them. If you want to create a PDF file of your own, there are hundreds of PDF templates available under the categories like Business, Legal, Life etc. You can also see the detailed review of PDFelement which we did back in 2016.
PDFelement has two versions — Standard and Pro. The features mentioned above are present on both the versions. The Pro version is best for professional users and it has other amazing features like OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and Form Recognition, Batch Processing PDF files and File Size Optimization. PDFelement Pro has also got Extended Compatibility Support for many file formats that can’t be processed on other PDF editors or readers. The Pro version supports PDF/A format for archiving of files for future use.
2. ApowerPDF
This is also one of the best edit PDF software to edit files easily. I think this is the only software in this list that you can use for a long time without upgrading to premium but there will be a watermark of ApowerPDF on your files. This app is like the first one but with limited features and less costly. In content editing, you can add or remove text as well as images. You can choose from innumerable fonts and colors to enhance the text. The images can be cropped and repositioned.
You can crop the pages, replace them, delete or even insert a new one in between. There are also options to add, update or remove the watermark, background and header and footer. ApowerPDF also lets you set a password to your PDF documents for better security. PDF Files can also be converted to GIF, JPEG or Word files.
3. PDF Expert
This is another good PDF editor Software for Mac. If you are not into heavy usage and can do with fewer features, this will be very suitable for you. You can edit more than one file at a time in different tabs or view two pages at a time by changing the layout. PDF Expert lets you add text and images to the page or draw over it with the brush. Using different colors, you can highlight, underline or strikeout the texts.
There are other things that you can do with this software. Add signature as a watermark for your documents. You can type the signature with nice available fonts, draw one using the trackpad or upload an image from your gallery. You also have the option to add the available stamps which can also be customized.
4. Xodo PDF Reader & Editor
Xodo PDF Reader & Editor is the best free pdf editor software available on Windows Store and iTunes. It is not for professional use as it lacks advanced editing tools. But if you want to do some basic editing on your files like marking, adding images, text or drawing over it etc, then go for this tool. You can add text to the pages in different colors and fonts.
There are also options to strikethrough the written text or highlight it by coloring, underlining or making a box around it. For full utilization of the screen, you can crop the pages and also set a thumbnail for your file. It can be a wonderful PDF reader as well because it has features like Night Mode, Full screen, Rotation etc.
Download Xodo PDF Reader & Editor: For Windows
5. Cisdem PDF Converter OCR For Mac
As the name suggests this software isn’t completely a text editor, rather it is a PDF files converter. But you can use it for editing purpose too. And editing this way can be more convenient for some people. Drag a file to the software or click on the ‘+’ sign to add the PDF file. After adding the file, convert it to Word or other desired file type.
After the conversion, you can easily edit, remove or add text and images in the PDF file. Once you edit it, go to the creator tab on the software, add the edited file and convert again to PDF file.
Pdf App For Mac
So, What Is The Best Edit PDF Software?
I have been using PDFelement for few days and I really liked it. It has more features than any other software. If it is okay to manage with fewer features or the price is the concern, go for the trial versions and choose the best one for you. All of these PDF editors are too useful in one or the other way. ApowerPDF is also a fair tool and iSkysoft PDF editor is similar to PDFelement.
Apple Free Pdf Editor
So, this was the list of some good software to edit PDF texts and images. If you face any problem with these tools, you can share with us in the comments.