This article explores free and trial PDF editing software for macOS, highlighting key features and limitations.
Top Free PDF Editors for Mac
- Preview (Built-in): Offers basic editing, annotation, and signature tools, ideal for simple form filling.
- Adobe Acrobat Reader: Free tier allows commenting, annotation, and signing. Paid tiers unlock advanced features.
- Foxit PDF Reader: Simple, lightweight, and free, suitable for basic form filling and annotation.
- LibreOffice: A free office suite that allows basic PDF editing, text and image addition, and PDF creation.
- Skim: Open-source and free, focused on PDF reading with basic annotation features.
- PDF Candy (Web-based): Free online tool for adding text, underlines, strikethroughs, signatures, and basic PDF manipulation.
Trial Versions with Advanced Features
- Wondershare PDFelement: 7-day trial offers extensive editing, creation, and conversion tools, but output has a watermark.
- Readdle PDF Expert: 7-day trial provides professional-grade editing, annotation, redaction, and conversion features.
- Abbyy FineReader Pro for Mac: 30-day trial specializes in OCR, enabling editing of scanned documents, but accuracy can vary.
- Cisdem PDFMaster/EaseUS PDF Editor: 14-day trial offers a range of editing and annotation tools, but some features are limited.
- pdfFiller (Web-based): 30-day trial provides extensive editing, signing, collaboration, and form-filling features.
Choosing the Right PDF Editor
The best PDF editor depends on your needs. Preview suffices for basic tasks. For advanced editing, consider PDFelement or PDF Expert. FineReader excels in OCR. For occasional use, free web-based tools like PDF Candy or PDF Escape might be suitable. See our guides on external hard drives and USB-C hubs and adapters for optimizing your Mac workflow.