Greatest PDF Editor for Mac (2025): Greatest instruments for textual content edits, OCR & annotations

Why Apple Preview is an efficient alternative: Apple Preview, the default doc and picture viewer on macOS, is a surprisingly succesful and free software that handles most private and enterprise PDF wants. Whereas it isn’t designed to switch a full-featured, skilled PDF editor, Preview provides a sturdy set of instruments without spending a dime. Preview’s built-in capabilities are greater than enough for on a regular basis duties, making it a wonderful place to begin for anybody needing to work with PDFs on a Mac or iPad—and even an iPhone.

Apple Preview is the default doc and picture viewer on macOS, providing a variety of helpful options past simply viewing images and PDFs.

Click on on any PDF (or any picture format) to open it and it’ll launch in Preview. Alternatively, open Preview and it’ll open the Finder, permitting customers to flick thru folders to find the file they need to view. The app encompasses a toolbar on the prime of the display screen, which permits customers to view file particulars, zoom in or out, share the file, fill in a type, or mark up the file.

The Markup button reveals instruments for choice, doodling, inserting shapes or sticky notes, signing, and typing textual content. These instruments are simply customizable, permitting customers to regulate the colour and measurement of a form or textual content field, in addition to choose between a number of fonts when typing. There may be additionally an autofill helper.

Apple Preview shouldn’t be designed to switch picture or PDF editors, however it nonetheless provides some power-user options. The menu bar’s Instruments button permits customers to disclose extra superior picture controls, similar to granular resizing, shade changes, and computerized background elimination. The File menu features a Export button that enables customers to decide on the output’s high quality and file format, permitting them to transform photos to varied codecs.

When viewing a PDF file in Apple Preview, customers can simply re-order or delete its pages utilizing the sidebar, permitting them to restrict the file to the vital bits they want. If exporting the PDF utilizing Preview, customers can optionally add a password, quartz filter, or file restrictions.

When you’d desire to not pay for Adobe Acrobat or one other answer, Apple Preview could also be extra appropriate for you. Apple Preview provides free instruments that Adobe has paywalled, together with PDF web page group/deletion, password safety for PDF recordsdata, and doc scanning.

Simply want to show one thing right into a PDF? Learn: Tips on how to make a PDF on Mac

Why Readdle PDF Knowledgeable is an efficient alternative: PDF Knowledgeable is a well-liked alternative for Mac customers, recognized for its intuitive interface, easy efficiency, and a variety of instruments, together with AI options. It’s accessible as a lifetime license, making it an economical different to subscription fashions

PDF Knowledgeable has a variety of dependable instruments and an intuitive person interface. It’s an amazing choice in case you are in search of greater than Preview provides without spending a dime.

Upon launching PDF Knowledgeable, customers are greeted by a Instruments tab with shortcuts to varied options, similar to organizing, optimizing, defending, reviewing, or changing paperwork. The app runs easily and offers you every thing you want to absolutely management a PDF file, together with edit textual content and pictures, signal, fill checkboxes, add hyperlinks, redact content material in a number of methods, insert shapes, spotlight textual content, doodle, and even measure the gap between two factors or calculate particular areas.

The PDF Knowledgeable toolbar options structure settings, a complicated search bar, and an AI Chat button. The AI Chat button permits customers to work together with the built-in chatbot, summarize PDFs, listing key factors, generate hashtags, and extra. The toolbar’s heart contains generally used PDF modifying functionalities, similar to annotation, modifying, file conversion and exporting, signing, and optical character recognition (OCR).

For many customers, PDF Knowledgeable’s options are enough, because it permits customers to govern a doc’s content material, add or take away parts, defend the file with a password, and shrink its measurement. Whereas Adobe Acrobat provides extra superior instruments, PDF Knowledgeable’s core functionalities are enough for many customers.

There are two cost choices on macOS: a lifetime license, or an annual license that features future updates and cell assist. College students can get 50% off and there’s a free 7-day trial. It’s accessible for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, however shouldn’t be accessible on Android or Home windows units.

Why Wondershare PDFelement is an efficient alternative: Wondershare PDFelement is a succesful PDF editor that provides a compelling different to different choices available on the market, notably for customers with particular wants and budgets because of its a wealthy function set and versatile pricing.

Wondershare’s PDFelement is a doc manipulation instrument that provides important options on all platforms at an inexpensive worth. The app encompasses a minimalistic person interface and provides single- and cross-platform licenses, with the primary distinction being app updates. When you plan to make use of the PDF editor in your Mac solely, you may go for a one-year, two-year, or lifetime license. PDFelement additionally helps iOS, iPadOS, Home windows, Android, and the net, providing an all-encompassing bundle that helps all of those platforms.

The only-platform licenses embody 20GB of cloud storage, whereas the highlighted bundles provide 100GB. When you run out of the 20,000 AI tokens included together with your buy, you should purchase extra. PDFelement encompasses a clear residence web page showcasing normal PDF modifying instruments, similar to PDF conversion, optical character recognition (OCR), template choice, file compression, and extra. It additionally has a sidebar that grants entry to useful locations like latest recordsdata, cloud paperwork, tagged PDFs, and agreements you’ve despatched others to signal.

PDFelement helps mostly wanted PDF modifying functionalities, together with textual content manipulation, picture and URL insertion, including, deleting, and modifying the doc’s pages. It’s not probably the most superior choice on the market, however it will get the job carried out in informal workflows. PDFelement is healthier suited to annotation and synthetic intelligence wants, permitting customers to insert textual content, shapes, feedback, stamps, types, checkboxes, textual content callouts, and extra. It might probably additionally robotically bookmarks reflecting the doc’s chapters.

Past textual content manipulation, PDFelement can redact textual content, add a password to the file, convert the PDF to a Microsoft Workplace format, change the pages’ background, compress the scale, and insert a watermark. Whereas not probably the most feature-rich PDF editor, it caters to informal customers searching for a light-weight answer.

Regardless of its minimalism, getting used to PDFelement could take a while. The unlabeled buttons within the editor’s sidebar may be complicated and difficult to determine, and a few options, like textual content modifying, can generally be unpredictable. PDFelement is a wonderful PDF editor for these with informal wants, however its instruments aren’t as superior as these provided by many rival apps.

Why Foxit PDF Editor is an efficient alternative: Foxit PDF Editor is a robust competitor to Acrobat, Foxit is full of business-ready options and makes use of a well-known Microsoft Workplace-style interface. It provides completely different plans, with the Editor+ model together with AI-assisted instruments and eSign capabilities.

Foxit provides a variety of PDF-centric options for Mac customers, together with PDF Reader and PDF Editor. PDF Reader is obtainable on macOS without spending a dime, permitting customers to view, annotate, signal, and have AI analyze their paperwork. The paid-for PDF Editor unlocks the whole modifying toolbox for an annual payment, with a base plan and a plus (+) plan that features extra options. There are alternatives to pay month-to-month, however it’s nonetheless an annual contract: there’s no choice to cancel after a month. 

The free PDF Reader permits customers to regulate the scale, shade, and magnificence of inserted textual content or shapes, in addition to customise options like altering the doc’s background shade, reversing and rotating pages, signing types, and extra. It might probably learn textual content aloud, measure distances, calculate areas, enlarge chosen spots, and have AI analyze your doc.

The paid-for PDF Editor helps all of PDF Reader’s options however provides modifying functionalities, similar to file conversion, optical character recognition (OCR), and full manipulation of a doc’s textual content and pictures by means of addition, deletion, or tweaking. It caters to energy customers with superior options like doc sanitization, redaction types, safety layers, JavaScript, and accessibility checks.

Foxit’s PDF Editor stands out for its ChatGPT integration, which may analyze and summarize paperwork and carry out actions in your behalf. The bottom plan ought to suffice for many customers, whereas the Plus plan provides exclusives like cell app entry, monitoring different events’ signatures, good redaction, 130GB of cloud storage, and template assist.

Whereas the app is usually swift, the person interface could appear too packed to some customers, particularly those that don’t want all of the provided instruments. Foxit PDF Editor is designed for severe customers moderately than informal customers, and if the UI overwhelms you, it might be an overkill for you.

Why Adobe Acrobat Studio is an efficient alternative: Adobe Acrobat provides a variety of merchandise from a free on-line editor to the paid Customary and Professional variations. The Professional model is probably the most feature-rich, together with superior instruments like model comparability and net type creation, however it is usually one of many dearer choices.

In 2025 Adobe launched Acrobat Studio, which mixes the Acrobat Professional options with Adobe Specific premium and provides AI instruments.

Adobe Acrobat Studio marks a serious step in making PDFs extra clever and interactive — combining conventional PDF modifying instruments with AI-powered doc evaluation and collaboration options. At its core is “PDF Areas,” a hub the place you may add as much as 100 recordsdata — not simply PDFs, however Phrase, Excel, PowerPoint, net hyperlinks or cloud-stored paperwork — and deal with them collectively as a single “information base.”

As soon as uploaded, Acrobat Studio robotically generates “perception playing cards” summarising key themes, breaking down complicated particulars into tables or bullet factors, and offering a helpful overview at a look.

You can too ask a built-in AI chatbot questions concerning the uploaded paperwork — for example, have it summarise a contract, extract knowledge from a spreadsheet, or define professionals/cons from a protracted report. The chatbot even helps customized “personalities” relying in your use case (e.g. analyst, teacher), serving to you view the content material from completely different views. The AI assistant cites its sources, which helps mitigate one of many major drawbacks of generative AI: hallucination.

Adobe additionally guarantees that uploaded paperwork aren’t used to coach its fashions. This is a crucial privateness reassurance for delicate recordsdata.

The Studio bundle bundles this new AI workspace with different Adobe instruments: the total PDF-editing suite, 100 GB cloud storage, 250 generative credit for media creation, and even Adobe Specific Premium.

There are some sensible caveats although. Acrobat Studio is expensive at about $35/month (or $300/yr beneath an early-access provide). We felt there was a number of bloatware related to the macOS installer, consequently the net model could also be a greater choice for Mac customers.

Additionally, though PDF Areas is nice for evaluation, you can’t immediately edit paperwork in it; to make adjustments to a PDF you want to obtain it, edit it within the separate Acrobat editor, then re-upload, which is cumbersome.

Acrobat Studio is a robust, AI-driven platform for anybody dealing with complicated or massive doc units — whether or not you’re doing analysis, evaluating investments, dealing with contracts, or engaged on enterprise proposals. It excels at summarising, organising, and extracting insights. However its excessive worth and workflow friction (on Mac) could make it extra interesting to professionals and heavy customers than informal PDF editors.

Why Abbyy FineReader PDF is an efficient alternative: Abbyy FineReader PDF is a specialised instrument that excels in particular eventualities, notably for customers who must digitize bodily paperwork or convert current recordsdata into editable codecs. Nonetheless, its suitability relies upon closely in your particular wants, as it isn’t an all-in-one PDF answer.

Different PDF modifying apps provide optical character recognition (OCR) as an added perk, Abbyy FineReader PDF leads on its optical character recognition software program and file converter, and, whereas it provides dependable OCR and file conversion functionalities, it falls quick in relation to PDF modifying.

FineReader PDF is a straightforward person interface with three major tabs: viewing PDF paperwork, fast and superior file conversion instruments, and importing paperwork. It has been optimized for macOS and provides a contemporary design. FineReader PDF helps viewing and highlighting PDF recordsdata, with preset spotlight colours and feedback.

The short conversion function processes inputted recordsdata to detect content material after which selects the output’s format. Supported file codecs embody PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, EPUB, FB2, TXT, HTML, RTF, ODT, and CSV. It doesn’t assist Apple’s HEIC picture format, so customers could must convert HEIC iPhone pictures to JPG first. Every format provides its personal customizations, similar to book title, writer, structure, and web page measurement.

FineReader PDF exports the doc, making it extra editable. Nonetheless, it doesn’t assist correct PDF modifying, so it will not be the best PDF answer for manipulating recordsdata.

It doesn’t provide a one-time buy choice and has comparatively excessive recurring charges. There’s a yearly subscription plan on the Abbyy web site, and a month-to-month subscription on the Mac App Retailer (which is an efficient choice as a result of you may cancel at any time). There’s a full-featured 7-day free trial.

Why Tenorshare’s PDNob PDF Editor is an efficient alternative: Tenorshare’s PDNob PDF Editor for Mac provides a variety of options for customers with primary to intermediate PDF modifying wants, although it comes with some notable drawbacks.

Tenorshare’s PDNob PDF Editor has a modern person interface with fashionable buttons that simply convey their actions. It packs in some neat options, similar to an optical character recognition (OCR) engine for changing photographed paperwork to textual content, password safety, compression, conversion between common file codecs, merging, computerized indexing, and extra. The service provides 20GB of cloud storage.

PDNob PDF Editor additionally packs an AI assistant, however it failed miserably once I tried to make use of it. It merely couldn’t comprehend what my (very) primary questions meant and continued asking for additional clarification.

The unhealthy information is it is just accessible on macOS 10.15 or Home windows 10, there’s no iPhone or iPad app, which is an obstacle. Plus, whereas there’s a free 14-day trial (with watermarks) sadly for those who later need to delete your account and its related knowledge from Tenorshare servers you should contact assist to assist (which rings some alarm bells!)

Whereas it’s glorious for these with primary to intermediate wants, there are too many downsides and there are higher choices elsewhere.

Why EaseUS PDF Editor is an efficient alternative: EaseUS PDF Editor (aka Cisdem PDFMaster) is a succesful and inexpensive choice, offering all of the important instruments with out overwhelming options. It provides a free model with watermarks and is obtainable for a one-time lifetime license payment.

One of many choices you might come throughout throughout your hunt for a PDF editor is that from EaseUS. Whereas the corporate’s personal PDF editor is unique to Home windows, its web site provides PDFMaster for macOS—which is definitely developed by its accomplice Cisdem. EaseUS packages Cisdem PDFMaster as EaseUS PDF Editor for Mac, however it’s basically the identical app. Confused? We have been. 

Simply to baffle you additional, you should purchase the app from EaseUS or Cisdem, and on the Mac App Retailer, all at completely different costs and there are a couple of variations. We reviewed EaseUS’s model. 

The app encompasses a minimalistic person interface with modern-looking buttons and labels. 

Whereas PDFMaster’s function set is considerably restricted in comparison with extra skilled apps, it usually will get the job carried out for these with informal PDF modifying wants. You’ll be able to edit the textual content within the doc, together with add or take away phrases, change the font, insert hyperlinks and so forth. You can too add shapes, highlighting, underlining, strikethroughs, and go away feedback. Pictures, stamps, and digital signatures will also be added. 

Watermarking, doc cropping, conversion to a number of file codecs, measurement shrinking, optical character recognition (OCR), redaction, web page reorganization, PDF comparisons, space calculations are additionally accessible. 

We did have a couple of points throughout testing. For instance, exporting a PDF after password-protecting it didn’t truly safe it. 

As soon as its 14-day trial expires, you’ll have to pay $89.95 as soon as or $59.95 per yr to proceed utilizing the software program. The macOS model doesn’t present a month-to-month subscription plan. There is no such thing as a cell model for iOS and iPadOS customers.