How To Edit A Pdf On Mac Free

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PDFpen lets you change anything about your PDF docs.

You can't escape them — PDFs are everywhere, especially in the workplace. Although convenient to read, PDFs can be tricky to deal with if you just need to make quick changes to the text, sign a form, or send a file through a size-restrictive platform.

With a default PDF reader like Preview on the Mac, finding a certain word in the PDF is difficult and editing a document can be almost out of the question. Without knowing which tools to use, it will be very hard to make changes to a PDF document. Fortunately, there are plenty of PDF apps to help you get the editing job done.

Free PDF editor for mac is a real work, but when taking performance and security into consideration, they may disappoint you. If you need some of the additional features that come with the product and/or have a business operation that handles a lot of PDF documents, paid PDF Editor for Mac is the best choice. In the Preview app on your Mac, open a PDF or image that you want to view. Do any of the following: View thumbnails: Choose View Thumbnails or View Contact Sheet. Sort thumbnails: Control-click a thumbnail, then choose an item from the Sort By submenu in the shortcut menu. The thumbnails are sorted by file.

You can use PDF Search to search for specific document, information, facts, or figures. This would come in particularly handy if your PDFs are very long. To pore through your PDF in batches or to scan through long files, open the app and type in a search word or phrase in the search bar. Even if you misspell a word, PDF Search's artificial intelligence feature will make an effort to understand what you mean and help you find exactly what you're looking for.

Tools to Edit PDF Documents

How To Edit A Pdf On Mac Free

By now, if you don't know how to modify a PDF document, you may be left behind. Good news is taking control of your PDF files is not rocket science — whether they be for home or work, you just need the right set of tools in place to cover your everyday requirements.

To help you alter PDF documents, there are a few apps with such useful features as adding comments, filling and signing agreements for your business, removing sensitive information, and compressing large files to allow for easier sharing. Stop agonizing over how to edit PDFs and try a few of the powerful applications mentioned below. You may want to redact your PDF documents, like edit typos or add different images, but how do you go about doing so?

Grab the best PDF editor

A perfect toolkit that allows you to rotate, combine, highlight, annotate, and change anything about your PDF. Easy squeezy.

Apple provides every Mac with Preview, a free program that allows you to read and edit PDF files (add and highlight text, combine PDF documents and transfer pages from one PDF to another, add a signature and comments).

Edit and mark up PDFs with Preview

The experience of editing images with Preview is pretty intuitive. We've created a quick guidance for you to instantly find what you're looking for.

How to type on a PDF, add text and notes

Open the PDF in Preview and try to add text by clicking on the target text field. If it doesn't work, you'll have to add a new text or note field:

  1. Select Tools > Annotate > Text/Note.
  2. Click on the text/note box that appears in your document and start typing.
  3. Close the box by clicking outside it. You can move the note/text field anywhere via drag and drop.
  4. To customize fonts or color of text, select View > Show Markup Toolbar > A.

Highlight text in a PDF

To activate the highlight mode in Preview, select the Highlight button in the top right corner. Click on the down arrow next to the Highlight button to change color, or choose an option to underline or strikethrough.

When switched on, highlights will be applied to any text you click on. You can switch it off by clicking on the same Highlight button.

To view notes and highlights in the PDF, select View > Highlights and Notes.

Combine multiple PDFs

  1. To merge PDF files, open one PDF in Preview.
  2. Select View > Thumbnails to see the thumbnails of all pages.
  3. Click on Edit > Insert > Page from file and open another PDF.
  4. Choose destination and save the updated file as PDF.

Rotate, delete, rearrange pages, and renumber pages inside a PDF

You can cut pages out or change the order of pages in a few steps via thumbnails:

  1. Open a document in Preview.
  2. Navigate to View > Thumbnails.
  3. To rotate, click on a page thumbnail > Tools > Rotate Left or Right.
  4. To delete pages in a PDF, select thumbnail > Tools > Delete to remove a page from your PDF.
  5. Rearrange by dragging pages around in the sidebar.

To change page numbering, you can use PDFpen editor. When you open a file, go to Edit > Headers, Footers, Page numbers > Insert. From there, you can customize the position and format of page numbers as well as define a starting page.

Split PDF files

To separate pages in a scanned PDF, simply drag the page you want to remove from the thumbnails pane to desktop. If needed, you can combine those pages into a separate PDF file afterwards.

How to reduce PDF size

You can compress your PDF in Preview while exporting the doc. Once you're done with editing, select File > Export. Click on Quartz Filter to open the pop-up menu > Reduce File Size.

Apart from Preview, you can use a scanning application like Prizmo app to create easily searchable PDF files out of paper-based images like brochures, books, or posters. This app lets you scan and recognize any photo documents to make them editable. You can even take a photo of a physical document on your phone, and finish editing on your Mac.

To make corrections or rewrite some text within the original file with editable text blocks, try PDFpen. Also you can use it to highlight, draw, scribble on the document.

Edit any PDF on a Mac

To correct text with PDFpen:

  1. Open the desired PDF document within the application
  2. Highlight the text within the PDF and click Correct Text
  3. Erase the current text and type the desired changes

To insert and edit an image in PDF:

  1. Click on 'Insert' icon and choose an image you want to add
  2. Move and/or resize the image by dragging it around inside the PDF
  3. Double clicking an image lets you adjust it or add some effects
  4. You can also delete pictures and drop new ones

You can also edit images by converting them into PDFs with Prizmo. With powerful OCR, Prizmo app instantly captures text and makes it fluid and editable.

To create a PDF from an image with Prizmo, use the following steps:

  1. Click the plus icon in Prizmo
  2. Find your source in the drop-down menu
  3. Select an image that you'd like to convert to PDF and click Add
  4. Click Recognize in the top right corner or toggle Text mode in View.
  5. Editable text will appear on the right side of the window.

Add comments and annotations to a PDF

To help yourself with extra notes or annotations, you can add comments directly onto a PDF. Comments can be useful to readers when you want to provide extra information about certain parts of the document.

To add text using Preview app:

  1. Place your cursor where you want to insert text.
  2. Go to 'Tools,' click on 'Annotate,' select 'Text,' and start typing.
  3. To change the font, size, or color, go to 'View,' click on 'Show Markup Toolbar,' and press A.
  4. You also can move the text box anywhere on the document.

A regular PDF viewer app won't let you attach comments to specific areas on a PDF, so you need to use an editor like PDFpen to do that. This app allows to add comments to PDF files with highlights, sticky notes, a freehand drawing. Annotations are useful because you can embed them into the file without being too distracting for a reader. You can also use the markup tools to add shapes around important areas of the PDF and underline things to remember.

To comment and make notes on PDF:

  1. Click on the Comment (cmd+8) or on the Notes (cmd+7) on the
  2. Tap on the area of the document where you want the comment or note to appear
  3. Type in the comment or note area field
  4. Drag the comment or note text box to the desired area on the document

Fill and sign PDF forms (e-sign)

Printing documents just to sign them and scan them back can be frustrating and time-consuming. Many of us don't even have printers anymore. But luckily with e-signatures, there's no need for all that.

Now you can easily add your signature to digital forms and documents in macOS. Whether you're looking to have a new client sign an agreement, a tenancy contract, or any other PDF form, e-signature will save you time (and ink).

To sign a document using PDFpen:

  1. Scan your signature and save it as an image file
  2. OR draw your signature right on a PDF with your trackpad, magic mouse, etc.
  3. Drag, resize and correct position the signature inside your PDF file.

To sign your PDF file with Preview app:

  1. Open the document you want to sign
  2. In main menu go to Tools > Annotate > Signature > Manage signatures
  3. To create signature tap to Click Here to Begin, draw your signature on the trackpad, press any key when finish, and then Done
  4. You can also scan your handwritten signature - write it on a piece of paper, hold to be visible to the camera, and Preview will draw a virtual signature.
  5. Choose the signature created to insert it into the document. Drag, resize and correct position of your sign like a regular image

Redact sensitive information from PDFs

Many of the PDF files on your computer may contain sensitive or personal information, leaving you at risk of becoming a victim to identity theft. For example, a PDF form could contain your tax information, credit card numbers, or other personal details that you don't want to share with third parties.

This is where PDF redaction comes in handy. Without an appropriate PDF editor like PDFpen, it can be very difficult to remove parts of the text you want to hide from a document. Redaction can remove a word or an entire line of text with a black box or empty white space.

Of course, if you don't want to use software to redact your PDF, you can always take a black marker to cross out any information from a printed sheet. To make your life easier, use the following steps to redact sensitive information.

To redact an entire section of a document:

  1. Within PDFpen, click Tools and select the rectangle tool
  2. Select the area of the text you want to redact
  3. Click Format and Redact Text-Block

To redact selected text:

  1. Under Tools select Text Tools
  2. Select the text you want to redact
  3. Click Format and Redact Text – Block

Compress and share a PDF

If you don't have a strong or reliable internet connection, it can be hard to send large PDF files to friends or colleagues. In order to upload large PDF files onto the cloud, send via email, or add them into size-restricted forms, you'll need an app like PDF Squeezer to help you compress the PDF file while keeping the original quality. You can rest easy that this process won't convert your PDF into a ZIP file.

To shrink your PDF resumes, applications, or visa-related documents for the web, use the following steps:

  1. Open PDF Squeezer
  2. Drag the PDF file you want to compress into the 'Drop Your Files Here' section
  3. At the drop-down menu, select your preferred dpi and image quality
  4. Click Save

With a built-in feature to send your PDF files to friends, clients, or colleagues, it makes sharing your compressed documents super easy. Click Share to send your file via text, email, or other options.

Get a collection of PDF instruments

In a single package, download a bunch of useful PDF tools, each of which complements the other's functionality. Give it a try!

So with the use of a few apps, you'll easily be able to create, search, and share PDFs all while saving time and frustration by being able to directly make changes to your documents, add notes, or remove personal information with redaction. Best of all, Setapp can help you do all of the above and features every app you can use to increase your PDF productivity. You can try the apps mentioned here at no cost along with over 150 other high-quality macOS apps.

Setapp uses cookies to personalize your experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our cookie policy.

For office worker, PDF file is undoubtedly one of the most widely used file format. When facing up a PDF business proposal or any other, you may need to edit it for further purposes. But how to edit PDF on mac? Actually, MacOS offers a free Preview helping editing PDF on mac. Here we will introduce several methods to edit PDF on mac with or without Preview.

Edit PDF on Mac with Preview

Apple also take PDF files into consideration when they design Mac, as Apple’s native application, Preview makes it easy to view and edit Portable Document Files (PDFs).

What kind of editing can Preview do to PDF?

  • Insert and delete PDF pages
  • Copy the selected text so that you can paste it into another document
  • Annotate and markup PDF, you can insert a box, oval or line in your document, even change the color, thickness, or fill of these shapes. And you can highlight, underline or add strikethrough to texts in PDF
  • Edit PDF text
  • Insert your signature into a PDF document
  • Add bookmark

Basically, when we talk about editing PDF on mac, we mean editing PDF text on mac. You can absolutely edit PDF text in blank area or on other texts with Preview.

How to edit PDF text on mac with Preview?

  1. Open PDF with Preview.
  2. Click “Show Markup Toolbar” >Text Toolbar, then drag the text box to any blank area and edit PDF text in the box.
  3. In the case you want to edit PDF by replacing existing texts with newly added ones, you need to white out the text first, then add text box to edit PDF on mac.Choose the “Border Color” as none, and then click the “Sketch” icon, you will be able to white out the texts you want to replace. Finally, choose the “Text” and edit PDF text in the text box. You can adjust the font size and color as needed by clicking “A”.
  4. Once finish editing PDF on mac with Preview, click “Export as PDF” to save the changes and allow no changes from others.

How To Edit A Pdf On Mac

Tips: Although Preview is free and it doesn’t need to download, it only can do some limited editing for PDF files, if you want to edit a scanned document, Preview may be stranded.

Make PDF Editable on Mac for Editing

If you want to edit a PDF on mac as freely as possible, make it in editable Word or other formats first, then editing PDF in Word on mac. Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is the a recommended PDF OCR Software for Mac to turn any PDFs into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Keynote and other editable formats. Its OCR feature supports to recognize over 50 languages on scanned PDF files. That't to say, with this PDF converter, you can even edit scanned PDF on mac now.Even, you can utilize this tool to create, protect, unlock and compress PDF.

Edit Pdf File Mac

How to edit PDF on Mac with Cisdem PDF Converter OCR?

  1. Open the 'Converter', import the PDF that you want to edit on mac to the program by drag and drop. You can upload multiple PDFs for conversion.
  2. Tweak the setting to make PDF editable on mac. Choose page range and output format, you can export PDF as Word or other formats that you can edit conveniently.
  3. Click “Convert” to get a file in editable format on mac.
  4. Open the file in Word or other file editor, edit PDF on mac, then save the file as PDF again by going File>Save as PDF.

How To Edit A Pdf On Mac Free Software

Edit PDF online, free

If you don’t need to edit a PDF on mac that often, use a free PDF editor online. Here we pick PDFfiller, the PDF editor allowing you to add text, annotate, sign, comment, highlight, etc, also you can print and share PDF files online.

  1. Upload the PDF that you want to edit on mac to the online program
  2. Choose the mode you want to edit PDF on mac. If you want to add text to the fields, click “Text” and input the text. If you want to replace some words or sentences with new ones, click “Erase”>”Text”, you can adjust the location and size of inputted fonts.
  3. Click “Done” to save the PDF after editing, you can export as PDF or Word as needed.

Attention:

  • Make sure your Internet connection is in good condition
  • Do not upload confidential or private files for editing, potention risk of information leakage may occur to your PDF fiels
  • Wait patient when the online program processes uploading, editing and downloading.

Edit A Pdf Adobe

Edit PDF on Mac with Adobe Acrobat If You Installed

How To Edit A Pdf File On Mac Free

As the leader of PDF, Adobe Acrobat is undoubtedly a powerful PDF tool that gathers almost all operations of editing PDF. With this application, editing PDF is too simplistic.

What kind of editing can Adobe Acrobat do to PDF?

  • Edit images in PDF files. It can resize, replace, and adjust images within your PDF file.
  • Add, delete, or edit text. You can change the location of the text box, resize a text box, etc.
  • Change the font, font size, text color, alignment, and other items of the text box.
  • Search for a specific word or phrase as well as replace a word with another.
  • Annotate and sign

How to edit PDF on Mac with Adobe Acrobat?

In Adobe Acrobat XI Pro

Free
  1. Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat XI Pro.
  2. Go to Tools>Content Editing>Edit Text & Images, you can choose the tool that best fits your task. Add, insert or delete PDF text as needed.
  3. Save the file.

In Adobe Acrobat DC

  1. Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat DC.
  2. Go to Tools>Edit PDF, select the part you want to edit, you can add, insert or delete any PDF text as needed.
  3. Finally, save the file in Adobe Acrobat DC.