PDF Toolkit+ is a Mac software quite similar to PDFill FREE PDF Tools for Windows. It costs 1.99 usd and includes numerous functions for editing PDF files. It allows you to merge multiple. PDFelement for Mac is a PDF solution that integrates with a variety of convenient.
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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.
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
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?
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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:
- Select Tools > Annotate > Text/Note.
- Click on the text/note box that appears in your document and start typing.
- Close the box by clicking outside it. You can move the note/text field anywhere via drag and drop.
- 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
- To merge PDF files, open one PDF in Preview.
- Select View > Thumbnails to see the thumbnails of all pages.
- Click on Edit > Insert > Page from file and open another PDF.
- 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:
- Open a document in Preview.
- Navigate to View > Thumbnails.
- To rotate, click on a page thumbnail > Tools > Rotate Left or Right.
- To delete pages in a PDF, select thumbnail > Tools > Delete to remove a page from your PDF.
- 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:
- Open the desired PDF document within the application
- Highlight the text within the PDF and click Correct Text
- Erase the current text and type the desired changes
To insert and edit an image in PDF:
- Click on 'Insert' icon and choose an image you want to add
- Move and/or resize the image by dragging it around inside the PDF
- Double clicking an image lets you adjust it or add some effects
- 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:
- Click the plus icon in Prizmo
- Find your source in the drop-down menu
- Select an image that you'd like to convert to PDF and click Add
- Click Recognize in the top right corner or toggle Text mode in View.
- 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:
- Place your cursor where you want to insert text.
- Go to 'Tools,' click on 'Annotate,' select 'Text,' and start typing.
- To change the font, size, or color, go to 'View,' click on 'Show Markup Toolbar,' and press A.
- 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:
- Click on the Comment (cmd+8) or on the Notes (cmd+7) on the
- Tap on the area of the document where you want the comment or note to appear
- Type in the comment or note area field
- 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:
- Scan your signature and save it as an image file
- OR draw your signature right on a PDF with your trackpad, magic mouse, etc.
- Drag, resize and correct position the signature inside your PDF file.
To sign your PDF file with Preview app:
- Open the document you want to sign
- In main menu go to Tools > Annotate > Signature > Manage signatures
- To create signature tap to Click Here to Begin, draw your signature on the trackpad, press any key when finish, and then Done
- 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.
- 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:
- Within PDFpen, click Tools and select the rectangle tool
- Select the area of the text you want to redact
- Click Format and Redact Text-Block
To redact selected text:
- Under Tools select Text Tools
- Select the text you want to redact
- 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:
- Open PDF Squeezer
- Drag the PDF file you want to compress into the 'Drop Your Files Here' section
- At the drop-down menu, select your preferred dpi and image quality
- 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.
What do DOCs, RTFs, and ODTs all have in common? They are all some sort of word processing file format and it is very easy to create and modify them all. The purpose behind those file types is to serve word processing needs and word processing requires being able to edit. The downside of these word processing formats is you will often notice DOCs, for example, may look different depending on the computer you open them on (e.g. Windows vs Mac) and the program you open them with.
PDFs, on the other hand, will always look the same regardless of which computer and which program you use to view them with. This is because PDFs are intended for storage, transmission, and printing purposes — not word processing. This nature of PDFs makes it so they are significantly harder to edit but this is also why people often prefer to share documents in PDF format over the Internet as opposed to DOC — you know exactly how the other person will see the document you are sending them.
If you want to edit a PDF, you can shell out more than $100 for specialized programs. Or you can continue reading this article in which we will show you how to edit PDFs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux for free (how to edit the contents of PDFs, such as text/tables/images — not how to rotate pages, delete pages, extract pages, etc.).
BEFORE WE BEGIN
As already mentioned, PDFs are not intended to serve as word processing documents; in other words, they were not created for the purpose of being edited. So editing a PDF is, essentially, going outside the scope of the file format. That is not to say editing a PDF is impossible; it is possible and, as you will see soon, it is in fact quite easy to edit a PDF. However, don’t expect editing PDFs to be as user-friendly as opening and editing a DOC file in Word.
Most notably, text in PDFs is edited using text boxes as opposed to a free-flowing text document, i.e you will find yourself using your mouse often to move between text lines while editing PDFs. Other inherent issues with editing PDFs is formatting may not always be 100% correct and some loss of data may occur when importing a PDF into a PDF editor. These issues are unavoidable, especially when you opt to use a free PDF editor. In other words, don’t expect to be able to perfectly edit PDFs!
If you plan on doing heavy duty editing of a PDF file, instead of editing the PDF directly, I highly recommend you convert the PDF to DOC/RTF format using UniPDF (a freeware PDF -> DOC/RTF/HTML/images converter) and then convert back to PDF after you done editing by using a free PDF printer. UniPDF isn’t perfect — converting PDF to DOC/RTF has its own inherent set of issues — but if you are able to successfully and accurately convert PDF to DOC/RTF with UniPDF, editing while be a whole lot more user-friendly than editing the PDF directly. If doing PDF -> DOC/RTF -> PDF doesn’t work for you, then you should take a look at directly editing PDFs… which is what this article will show you how to do.
That being said, let’s get to the meat of this article: how to edit PDFs for free in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
We will share with you how to edit PDFs for free in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux using two free programs, LibreOffice and Inkscape. Both programs are freeware, open-source, work on Windows/Mac OS X/Linux, and have portable versions. So let’s begin.
HOW TO EDIT PDFS FOR FREE IN WINDOWS, MAC OS X, AND LINUX…
…WITH LIBREOFFICE
LibreOffice is a full-featured, open-source, and free office suite, an alternative to people who want office suite capabilities (word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, and more) but don’t want to pay for Microsoft Office. Part of the functionality of LibreOffice is the ability to open/import PDFs, edit their content (text, images, tables, etc.), and save/export as PDF.
There are two components of LibreOffice that can edit PDFs, LibreOffice Writer and LibreOffice Draw. Writer is the word processing component of LibreOffice (Microsoft Word alternative) and Draw is the diagramming and charting component. Both Writer and Draw can open/edit/save PDFs but Writer has absolute terrible accuracy when opening a PDF (formatting is typically always screwed up, badly), so you need to use Draw when editing PDFs with LibreOffice.
To edit PDFs with LibreOffice, do the following:
- After you download (and install, if using the installer version) LibreOffice, you need to open LibreOffice Draw.
- When LibreOffice Draw is open, go to ‘File’ -> ‘Open’, find the PDF file you want to edit, and double-click on it — this will open the PDF in Draw.
- Once the PDF is opened, you will see it load on your screen. The first page will be loaded with you being able to navigate to other pages from the sidebar on the left-hand side of the program window; you may have to zoom-in (you can zoom from the bottom-right corner). You can edit anything and everything that you see:
- Edit text by clicking the text to activate the textbox. You can add, remove, and modify text including adjusting text formatting (font size, font type, font style [bold, italics, etc.], text alignment, etc.). You can even move around text by clicking + dragging the associated textbox. The only thing I noticed missing is the ability to change font color.
- Edit text in tables, headers, footers, etc.
- Move around images, crop images, resize images, delete images, add more images, etc.
- And more
- When you are happy with your PDF, you can either save it as a LibreOffice format (e.g. ODF format) or save it as a PDF. If you want to save as PDF, you need to go to ‘File’ -> ‘Export as PDF…’ to open the ‘PDF Options’ window.
- At the ‘PDF Options’ window, if you just want to save your edited PDF like a normal, average PDF, simply click ‘Export’, name the PDF, select where to save it, and save it. However, LibreOffice allows you to watermark PDFs, add user/owner passwords, modify how links work, customize image compression, and more — so play around with the settings if you find the need to and when ready, click ‘Export’, name the PDF, select where to save it, and save it.
- Done!
Repeat this process whenever you have a PDF you want to edit.
As already mentioned, editing PDFs in a PDF editor is far from a perfect task. So don’t expect LibreOffice Draw to perfectly import PDFs all the time. However, LibreOffice Draw does a decent job and, when it does properly import PDFs, editing them is a breeze.
[NOTE: LibreOffice does not require Java to be installed. Most of LibreOffice works fine even without Java, although some functionlaity — mostly dealing with databases — won’t work without Java. Java, or lack of, has no effect on opening/editing/saving PDFs in LibreOffice Draw]
…WITH INKSCAPE
Whereas LibreOffice is a full-featured office suite, Inkscape is nothing of the like. Rather, Inkscape is a vector graphics editor that has the ability to open and edit PDFs and save as PDF.
To edit PDFs with Inkscape, do the following:
- Download (and install, if using the installer version) Inkscape and run it.
- With Inkscape open, go to ‘File’ -> ‘Open’ and open the PDF you want to edit.
- When you open the PDF you want to edit, you will be prompted with a ‘PDF Import Settings’ window. You can leave most of these settings at default (unless you find you are having issues importing PDFs, in which case modify the settings if needed); the one setting you want to pay attention to, however, is ‘Page settings’ at the top. You see Inkscape can only import/edit one PDF page at a time, so you need to pick which page you want from ‘Page settings’.
- Once you get past ‘PDF Import Settings’, the PDF will load on-screen (you may have to zoom-in using the zoom tool — fourth button down from the left sidebar). Like LibreOffice Draw, with Inkscape you can edit text/tables/images as you see fit.
- When ready to save the PDF, go to ‘File’ -> ‘Save’ (or ‘File’ -> ‘Save As’, in which case you will need to specify the PDF file name, save location, and select PDF format from the ‘Save as type’ drop-down) and you will be prompted with ‘Portable Document Format’ window at which you can click ‘OK’ unless you specifically know what you are doing.
- Done!
Repeat this process whenever you have a PDF you want to edit.
Similar to LibreOffice, editing PDFs in Inkscape is not a perfect task. Comparatively speaking, I’ve found Inkscape is better at keeping PDF format when importing but terrible at editing text while LibreOffice isn’t as good with formatting but makes it much easier to edit text.
CONCLUSION AND DOWNLOAD LINKS
At the risk of beating a dead horse, I want to re-emphasis that editing PDFs with free PDF editors is not going to be 100% perfect; you will, without a doubt, run into formatting and loss of data issues. This is why I suggest first trying the PDF -> DOC/RTF -> PDF route with UniPDF and free PDF printers. If that fails you, then give LibreOffice or Inkscape a try, with my suggestion being try LibreOffice Draw first since it makes editing text a lot easier.
You can grab LibreOffice (which includes LibreOffice Draw) and Inkscape from the links below. Take note both have portable versions but the portable versions must be “installed” after which they can be stored anywhere you want (on your computer, external drives, portable media, etc.).
LibreOffice
Price: Free
Version reviewed: 4.0.2.2
Supported OS: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
Download size: 97.5 MB (portable), 185 MB (installer)
VirusTotal malware scan results: Too large for VirusTotal
Is it portable? Yes (but must be “installed”)
Inkscape
Price: Free
Version reviewed: 0.48.4
Supported OS: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
How To Edit A Pdf For Free Mac Os
Download size: 37.5 MB (portable), 33.1 MB (installer)
VirusTotal malware scan results: Too large for VirusTotal
Free Pdf Editor For Macbook
Is it portable? Yes (but must be “installed”)