Mac OS X have default PDF reader called “PDF Viewer” which helps to open the PDF documents. Today I’m going to list you another 12 alternative PDF Readers and PDF Editors for your Mac OS X. I categorized these applications into paid and free versions to let you find the one you need easily.
A dedicated free PDF reader will let you do so much more than just open documents. If you want to merge several PDFs, convert them to a different format, extract images, tweak text or split them into individual pages, there's a free PDF reader that will make it straightforward.
Once you've installed a new PDF reader, it will display a prompt asking if you'd like to make it your default PDF reader. We recommend leaving your settings as they are until you've had a chance to try the new reader and see if it's right for you.
If you're satisfied with its performance, you can make it your default PDF reader by right-clicking one and selecting 'Open with'. Browse to the EXE file for your new PDF reader, check 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file', then click 'OK'.
1. Foxit Reader
A clear interface and every tool you could want in a PDF reader
Foxit Reader is a joy to use, and makes working with PDFs effortless. Its ribbon-style interface is intuitive, and there's practically no learning curve if you're familiar with recent versions of Microsoft Office.
The ubiquity of the PDF format makes it a popular target for malware and virus developers, so Foxit Reader offers a Safe Reading mode that provides control over things such as internal links and Javascript integration.
Downloadable add-ons are available to convert PDFs to other formats (and vice versa) and to combine multiple PDFs into a single file. File conversion is incredibly simple thanks to the inclusion of an entry in Windows' context menu.
This power and flexibility makes Foxit Reader the best PDF reader you can download today. Try it now and you won't look back.
2. Nitro PDF Reader
A great PDF reader for collaboration, with tracked changes
Like Foxit Reader, Nitro PDF Reader bears more than a passing resemblance to Microsoft Office applications – and this is no bad thing. Right from the start this feels like a highly accomplished piece of software and there are plenty of document viewing options to choose from.
But this free PDF reader is about more than just viewing. As well as including an annotation and highlighting option, Nitro PDF Reader also lets you add sticky notes to the documents you open.
You can use Nitro PDF Reader to convert text documents to PDF format, and vice versa. You can also extract all of the images from a PDFs in one fell swoop, digitally sign electronic documents with an e-signature. This is without doubt one of the most polished free PDF readers out there.
3. PDF-XChange Editor
A classic free PDF editor, fully overhauled for Windows 10
The free edition of PDF-XChange Editor contains handy features such as tracked comments and the ability to insert or extract pages, but those marked 'Pro' in the menu are only available in the paid-for version.
This free PDF reader's killer feature is OCR (optical character recognition). You can scan printed documents, have the text converted into searchable format, and save the resulting document as a PDF.
While installing this free PDF readers, we recommend selecting the 'Custom' option rather than 'Complete', then deselecting the components you don't want to install. They are presented as an expandable tree, so make sure you click all the '+' icons to discover what's hidden there.
4. SlimPDF Reader
A frill-free PDF reader that barely makes a dent in your drive space
SlimPDF Reader is by far the smallest free PDF reader in this roundup, occupying just 1.43MB of space, and makes a virtue of its frill-free approach.
SlimPDF Reader really is little more than a viewer, but that's no bad thing. Controls and navigations are simple and self-explanatory, and the program benefits from being lightning-fast.
Search, print and rotate are the most advanced features you'll find, although you are invited to try a free trial of the PDF to Office converter.
If you're looking for a free PDF reader without the bloat, SlimPDF Reader could be the ideal choice. The only real drawback is the inability to view two pages side-by-side as a spread.
5. Icecream Ebook Reader
Icecream's great ebook reader is also a good choice for PDFs
As the name suggests, Icecream Ebook Reader is designed primarily for viewing EPUB and MOBI documents, but it doubles as a simple free PDF reader.
As this is an ebook reader, you-re encouraged to organize all of your books into a library, sortable by type and fully searchable – but there's nothing to stop you from just opening individual PDFs.
The program has a slightly unusual look, but it is a joy to use. Navigation of PDFs is wonderfully simple, and there are a number of viewing modes to choose from, including an eye-friendly night mode. You can quickly add bookmarks and create notes, which are accessed through the fly-out Contents pane.
If you have a Word document or ebook that you'd to convert to PDF format, or vice versa, you might like Icecream PDF Converter, from the same developer.
- Discover how to convert PDFs to Word documents with our guide
Aug 12,2019 • Filed to: Mac Tutorials
'What is the best free PDF Editor for Mac?'
Here we’ve compiled the top 5 PDF editor Mac tools to easily work with your PDFs. We’ve found the best 5 free PDF editor for Mac to help you modify your files, including tool like PDFelement Pro for Mac.
Choose Your Best PDF Editor for Mac
1. PDFelement Pro - Clean and Powerful PDF Editor
PDFelement Pro is one of the best programs for all solutions to edit PDF files on Mac. With this tool, you are able to edit, add, modify and delete texts, graphics and images in PDF format. You can also convert your PDF files to Word, Excel, EPUB, Images and more formats. You can annotate and mark all the screen content with a variety of markup and annotation tools. It allows you to fill out your existing PDF forms, create PDFs form and extract data from PDFs forms. The advanced OCR feature helps you to edit and convert scanned PDF and extract data from scanned PDF.
Features | PDFelement Pro | PDF Expert | Adobe® Acrobat® DC Mac |
|---|---|---|---|
| OS Compatibility | Mac, iOS, Windows and Android | Mac | Mac, iOS, Windows and Android |
| Price | from $79 / perpetual | $79.99 / perpetual | $180 / year |
| Easy Editing | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Simple User Interface | |||
| Markup Features | |||
| Convert PDF | Microsoft Office files, Pages, ePub and image formats | Microsoft Office files and image formats | |
| PDF Forms | Create and fill out | Create and fill out | Create and fill out |
| Create PDF | |||
| Perform OCR | |||
| Customer Support | Free one-to-one Support and online help center | Online help center | Sledom get time resoponse |
2. PDF Expert - Beautiful and Robust PDF editor
PDF Expert by Readdle is a start product in Mac App Store. It has been rewarded as 'Editors' Choice', 'App of the Year' and 'Top 1 Paid App'. It provides advanced reading experience on Mac. The cool thing is that you can compare two PDF files in the 'split view mode'. You can also mark up while reading. PDF Expert also provides tools to combine PDFs. Add, remove, extract, rotate, copy and reorder pages to make the best arrangment of your PDF files. Fill out PDF forms and sign electronically.
3. Adobe® Acrobat® DC Mac - Powerful but Expensive Choice
As the leading brand in the PDF industry, the PDF editor of Adobe® Acrobat® is no doubt with realiable quality.From the product interface we can see, it has a wide range of tool set. You can edit, comment, fill&sign, convert, combine and secure PDFs. With the help of Action Wizard, Pro users can customize an action and run it. So that you are able to deal with piles of PDFs with the same action. It is also integrated with Adobe Sign. If you have an Adobe suite already and enough budget, then Acrobat DC is a better choice.
4. Foxit PhantomPDF Mac - New Product by Old Brand
Foxit published PhantomPDF Mac in recent year. Been dedicated in Windows solution of PDF for years, it's Mac version deserves a trial. This PDF editor mac allows you to edit text, convert, annotate, compress, OCR and sign PDFs. You can also fill out forms and protect PDFs with password.
5. PDFpen Pro
PDFpen Pro is an all-purpose PDF editor for mac. You can edit, mark up, OCR and protect PDF and create PDF forms. Edit text and images, annotate PDFs with highlight, notes and hand-drawings. OCR scanned PDFs into editable text. There's also a redaction option that can black out your sensitive information.
Three Light-weighted PDF Editing Software for Mac
Free Pdf Viewer And Reader
6. Preview - Mac Built-in Markup Tool
Preview is a light-weighted PDF annotation tool, which is built-in on Mac. You can add text, notes, shapes and highlight to note down your thoughts. You can also compress, convert and combine PDFs. It also allows you to organize pages like add, delete and move. To protect your PDF documents, you can add password. However, it has less features compared with professional pdf editors on Mac. It doesn't support batch process and OCR. The most important is that it can't edit existing text in a PDF. Therefore, it's only suitbale for those who only want to mark up PDF files. If you are looking for PDF editing software on Mac, it is not your choice.
7. Adobe Reader DC
Adobe Reader DC is a free PDF reader on Mac. As its name conveys, it only allows you to view, comment and sign PDFs. If you want to enjoy the editing feature, you need to upgrade to Adobe Acrobat DC.
8. FineReader Pro for Mac
FineReader Pro for Mac is OCR product from ABBYY, a leading comany in OCR area. The highlight of the program is converting scanned PDFs with great accuracy. If you often deal with scanned files, then FineReader Pro for Mac is your best choice. You can convert those documents into editable formats like docx, xlsx, pptx and more.
Two Minority Free PDF Editors Mac
9. PDF Editor Mac
PDF Editor Mac is free pdf editor mac from individual developer. Although it may not have beautiful interface and is not so intuitive, the program have the common features that's enough for light users. You can edit, rotate and annotate PDF documents.
10. Skim
This software is a free PDF annotation and reader for Mac that allows you to make a number of modifications. It lets you perform tasks such as highlighting, underlining, and adding sticky notes as for better viewing of PDFs.