In selecting the best PDF editor for Mac, we used the following criteria in selecting the winner: Overall Design — Working with PDF files is hard enough as it is. The PDF editor you choose should provide a clean user interface with features that are easy to understand and use so you can complete your work quickly. The best PDF reader apps do more then just open files, providing a variety of navigation, annotation, and cloud storage functions to provide a full spectrum of document features.

There are plenty of ways to view and edit PDFs on a Mac, but Apple's built-in Preview application is phenomenal and often overlooked. While Lion didn't wow the crowd with most of its features, it brought some amazing additions to Apple's PDF viewer/editor that puts it over the top and makes it our choice for the best.

Free Adobe Pdf Reader For Mac

Note: There are a few ways you could define a PDF viewer/editor, as features can range from simple form-filling to complete PDF manipulation. For this post we're concentrating on the features the average person would use, meaning viewing, form completion, annotation, and so on.

UPDATE: Wondershare is claiming we named their Product, PDF Editor, our top choice. We did not, and they are using a false award that claims our approval. Please do not buy their products as they are a dishonest company. We've left the original text (stricken out) about PDF Editor in the alternatives section so you can see how little of a recommendation we made.

Preview

Platform: Mac OS X
Price: Free
Download Page

Features

View and edit images in addition to PDF files
Annotate, highlight, and mark up PDFs in several ways
Digitally fill out forms
Sign PDF documents with your webcam (read on for more info)
Super-fast performance
Super-fast search
Insert new pages into PDFs
View and edit PDF metadata
Add and edit hyperlinks in a PDF file

Where It Excels

Preview is fast. Mac OS X isn't exactly known for its speed and efficiency, so Preview's ability to blow through PDF documents is pretty impressive. But among its many handy highlighting and annotating features, which are all solid, its ability to fill out forms is especially impressive. This may seem like a mundane thing, but when you get to the signature line it is hard to eschew at least a little reverence. Preview (in Lion) has a feature where you can sign a piece of paper, hold it up to your computer's webcam, and it'll turn it into a high-quality signature you can place in a form. It can also save multiple signatures so you don't have to continuously repeat this process. Preview is solid all-around, but it's those sorts of features that make it amazing.

Arkaos grandvj free download for mac. Advertisement

Where It Falls Short

As incredible as Preview's webcam signature feature is, it seems kind of strange that there is no ability to sign with your trackpad as well. After all, Apple Stores let you sign for purchases with your finger on an iPod touch. Additionally, Preview wasn't exactly perfect prior to Lion and Lion isn't exactly perfect on its own. It's hard to justify upgrading to OS X 10.7 if Preview is the only draw. If you're sticking with Snow Leopard, your version of Preview isn't bad but it's certainly not the best PDF editor/viewer you can find. Apple fixed a lot of quirks in Lion, which make it a pleasure to use, but if you're not running Lion you're pretty much out of luck.

The Competition

PDFPen costs $60 but is pretty great. If you need more features than Preview can provide, it'll get the job done. PDFPen makes page rearrangement, editing, multi-document assembly, and more very easy. Free spotify 30 days globe. While it's on the expensive side, consider it a cheaper alternative to Adobe Acrobat ($200). We've never loved Acrobat and it likely provides more features than you're going to need.

~~Wondershare PDF Editor~~ ($50) is another pricey option, but it has the ability to convert PDFs to Microsoft Word documents. We're not sure how well this works, but you might want to give it a try if that's something you need. Wondershare placed a false claim on their PDF Editor software that we considered it the best. They even created a fake Lifehacker approval image to act as if we provided them with an official award. We listed it as an alternative here, but as Wondershare has opted to falsely market their product with a seal of approval from us that we never provided, we ask that you do not buy from them.

Skim is a great choice if your primary focus is annotation as that's what it was design to do. It has an impressively long list of features to make annotation easy.

Got any other favorite PDF editor/viewer apps for Mac that you love? Share 'em in the comments.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.

External cd reader for mac. Advertisement

Having a free PDF reader
Having a free PDF reader is essential at the very least for being able to open your documents containing important information, however there are PDF readers out there that can do much more than this. The high-end PDF readers will split, merge, protect, convert and edit your documents. Most people are only familiar with the popular Adobe Acrobat Reader, so here we will introduce you some other great programs that are available for free. We tried to collect free PDF readers from both ends of the spectrum: from the most basic, lightweight ones to the feature-packed, more advanced tools. You will find both PDF reader online and PDF reader offline applications in the list.

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

Adobe Acrobat’s Reader is one of the few free PDF viewers that has been available since the invention of the PDF format. It has since become the gold standard for managing PDF files. The free PDF opener version of the program allows you to view, print, share and add comments to your documents. One of the notable features of the newest release of the program is that you can now also add sticky notes to your document and also highlight text. Adobe Acrobat Reader is also known for its simple interface that significantly shortens the learning curve for the program.

Foxit Reader

One of the most versatile and easy-to-use PDF readers out there. Apart from being able to view your PDFs with Foxit Reader, you will be able to add comments, sign, protect and share your documents. If you want to convert your PDFs to a different format, with Foxit Reader’s downloadable add-ons you will also be able to do this easily. If you are familiar with the interface of Microsoft Word, you will have no trouble using Foxit Reader. The downside of the program, however, is that unless you purchase the Pro version, a watermark is placed on your documents.

Nitro PDF Reader

Nitro PDF Reader is yet another software closely resembling Microsoft Office’s programs and it offers plenty of functions that make it stand out among other PDF file readers. With Nitro you can fill in forms and sign PDFs, add notes, highlight text, and extract images from your documents. Nitro also has a built-in conversion tool that lets you extract the text from your PDF by converting it to a plain text file. Unfortunately, even the free version requires users to register before using the program and it still comes with a number of limitations compared to its paid counterpart.

Nuance PDF Reader

Install adobe flash player 9 for mac. Nuance PDF Reader is a light PDF reader software compared to Adobe Acrobat, but still it does not fall short its functions and capabilities. Nuance PDF Reader lets you view your documents in the program’s interface or in your browser. The additional features Nuance offers are printing, sharing, verifying digital signatures, adding comments and highlights, and conversion to various

What Is The Fastest Pdf Reader For Mac