Is There A Free Pdf Editor For Mac

PDF Editor for Mac allows users to insert and merge PDF documents together or split PDF apart. Delete, extract, duplicate, replace, or rotate pages to reorganize PDF documents. Compare two PDF documents and highlight the differences to help you identify what has been changed quickly and easily. Download a free trial of PDF Expert – the best PDF software for your Mac. Enjoy advanced reading layouts, powerful PDF editing and classical annotation tools.

The PDF format is a great way to read, especially eBooks. When they were first conceptualized, it was intended to be a document that users couldn’t edit. This is one reason why you see so many open source PDF editor projects being abandoned (like PDFEdit which was updated last in 2012). After all, if you wanted an editable document, there is always Microsoft Word or Google Docs, right?

The fact that Adobe has little documentation available on the topic doesn’t help either. A lot of people are under the impression that PDF is a proprietary format by Adobe, which is not true. It was until 2008 when it was released as open-standard.

When it comes to editing PDF files, Adobe’s Acrobat Pro DC is the industry standard, but it’s quite expensive as well ($15 per month). But fret now, there are still free and open source PDF Editors available for Windows and Mac. Let’s see what they are.

Open Source PDF Editors for Windows

1. Using Word to Convert and Edit

While MS Word is not open source, it’s still is a worthy option, if it’s already installed on your Windows computer. We tend to give far less credit to Microsoft Word then it deserves. You can use Word to convert PDF to Word, edit it and convert it back to PDF on the fly.

Here is how it works, launch Word on your PC. Click the File button and click Open.

Locate the PDF file on your system that you want to edit and open. If you can only see Word files and not PDF files, click on All Files from the drop-down menu on the lower left. By default, Word is set to look for its own kind.

Word will work its magic and open the file in .docx format. If you don’t know what that is, you don’t need to. Just edit the document and when you are done, click the file button again.

This time, you will click Save As as and choose file type as PDF.

The process is fairly simple and doable. You may see a popup during the process asking you to confirm your choice. Click OK in that case. If you don’t have MS Word installed, you can also use Google Docs online, the process is pretty much same.

The problem with Word is that it is inconsistent when it comes to converting from PDF to Word. This is why I went looking for other options.

Also Read:5 Best PDF Editor Apps For Android

2. Inkscape

Inkscape is another open source PDF editors but it picks up things where LibreOffice lefts. Inkscape primarily uses vector graphics to open and edit PDF files. This means better performance, more features, and more options to edit images embedded within the files.

Inkscape is available in portable version. Portable versions are directly executable files that you can use to open and use the software without having to install them on your PC.

How to use Inkscape to Edit PDF?

To get started, import your PDF with Inkscape, making sure the “Import text as text” option is selected. After you import it, double-click on the text line, and you can start editing it. Once you have made desired changes simply save the file as pdf. And that’s it.

The UI is more user-friendly compared to LibreOffice, more control over images and graphics, and completely free and light-weight. Where it falls short is speed. The tool is slow which can irk some people.

Download Inkscape (Free)

3. Apache OpenOffice Draw

Apache OpenOffice Draw is similar to Inkscape in that it is a drawing tool that you can use to edit PDF files. It is a graphics editor so you can easily edit images and vector in your PDF.

OpenOffice made the list because it is more stable and comes with additional features. The UI is a lot better. It has a built-in spell checker and offers more editing options.

How to use Apache OpenOffice Draw

After you have installed using the link below, you will have to install the import extension. Now, launch the software, click on Tools-Extension Manager-Add. This should open a popup. Find the extension file on your Windows and double-click to install it.

From here, the steps are same. Click on File and find the PDF file you want to edit to open it.

Download OpenOffice Draw (Free)

Open Source PDF Editors for Mac

1. Formulate Pro

Formulate Pro will allow you to view, edit, and redact PDF files. It comes with cloud support so that you can store your documents online and access them anywhere, anytime.

You can add text (there is an option to change the font as well to match the original copy) sign PDF files, and protect it with passwords as well as permissions. This is a good feature if the file contains sensitive information. It comes with a converter so you can convert files back and forth.

You can add or edit images as well, and there is support for OCR technology. Although the software hasn’t been updated since 2009, it worked fine in our testing.

Download Formulate Pro (Free)

2. LibreOffice Draw

LibreOffice has long been the favorite open source office suite. It is robust, free, and the community is awesome. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux platform.People who are used to Microsoft suite of apps may not appreciate the UI which is less than stellar, but you don’t get everything in life.

LibreOffice Draw will allow you to edit PDF files easily. You can import, export, add or remove pages, text, and images, and even digitally sign your PDF file. The process remains the same. Click Open and choose the PDF file. I am using it on my Linux powered laptop, but you can also use it on Windows.

What you don’t get is cloud option. Once again, though LibreOffice was working fine for me, some of our users came back frustrated by file types. You see, I mentioned that Adobe has some proprietary add-ons which make it difficult to edit all PDF files.

Download LibreOffice Draw (Free)

3. Scribus

Scribus is an open source page layout and PDF editor that is available for not only Mac, but also Windows and Linux platform. You can use it to create and design interactive PDF files. There is a lot of choice when it comes to color management.

Adobe Pdf Editor For Mac

Think of it as Adobe InDesign. A really handy tool for desktop publishing. This is what sets it apart from other document management tools available on the Internet. U,nlike some other PDF editors, Scribus developer team remains active.

The UI is fairly easy to understand and mimics that of Adobe. There is support for colors, font types, and images. There is a drag and drop functionality that you can use to move things around and resize them once they are placed inside the page.

Download Scribus (Free)

Best PDF Editor – Web

1. PDFescape

While PDFescape is not an open source PDF Editor, it’s still a worthy option, as it’s free and can be open from your favorite web browser. There is no messy installation process involved. There is also desktop version, which lets you edit PDF documents without internet connections.

Pdf Editor Mac Download

Once you go to the website, you can either create a new PDF document from scratch or edit an existing one by uploading it from the hard drive. Next, to edit a PDF document, you can quickly add text, white out previous content, add images, and digitally sign documents.

The web app is free to use, if the PDF files is less than 10 MB and 100 pages, which is more than sufficient for most users. However, if you decide to remove these restrictions, you can upgrade to pro plan for $2.99 per month.

Try PDFescape

Wrapping Up: Open Source PDF Editors

MS Word is a good PDF editor for Windows if it is working for you. Otherwise, you can either go for Apache OpenOffice Draw to edit your PDF files. It is a little slow but still better than the ones I reviewed.

For Mac users, Formulate Pro is free and works nicely but if you are looking for more features and functionalities.

2020-10-27 20:47:14 • Filed to: Choose Right Mac Software • Proven solutions

It can sometimes be difficult to edit PDF files or documents on Mac, leaving users frustrated. If you are looking for open source PDF editors for Mac, then there are plenty of free PDF editor Mac tools that will allow you to modify your files quickly and easily. Here, we've listed the top 5 Open Source PDF Editor Mac (macOS 10.15 compatible) currently on the market that you can use to convert, edit or work with PDF documents. This list will help you figure out which tool is best for you.

Online Pdf Editor Free Mac

The Best Open Source PDF Editor Mac

1. Formulate Pro for Mac (Best Open Source PDF Editor for Mac)

Formulate Pro for Mac is one of the best open source PDF editors for Mac users. It is a stable program with great features. This PDF editing tool lets you redact PDF files, and provides cloud services for more space to store documents. You can also merge and combine PDF files. You can also use it for creating, signing, and analyzing PDF forms, and for the protection of PDF files.

Features:

  • This tool will convert PDFs to other output formats and vice versa
  • You can add, delete and modify the text, improve images, and rearrange pages
  • It supports OCR technology in multiple languages
  • It has password protection abilities

Pros:

  • Includes a wide variety of tools that can be used to create excellent PDF files and presentations.
  • Has a tremendous PDF conversion program that can convert PDF documents into different file formats
  • This software is very easy to use

Is There A Free Pdf Editor For Mac Version

Cons:

  • It does not convert documents to EPUB formats

2. PDFpenPro (Mac PDF Editor Open Source)

PDFpenPro includes many features for simple PDF editing. You can export PDF content, markup and edit text, and digitally sign PDF files using a hand-written signature. This program lets you handle PDFs easily.

Features:

  • Export PDF content to Microsoft Word documents
  • Correct typos in PDF text
  • Sign PDF files with handwritten signatures
  • Make text in image-based PDF files editable by performing OCR
  • Store PDF files in the Cloud
  • Create PDF forms
Pdf editor mac download

Pros:

  • PDFpenPRo supports adding signatures to encrypt your PDF documents
  • You can use PDFpen to edit PDF documents
  • OCR technology is embedded in PDFpenPro, which allows you to work with scanned PDF files for better editing and printing

Cons:

  • Pen pad is not supported by PDFpenPRo
  • It is difficult to write when a mouse is used

3. Skim (Open Source PDF Editor for Mac)

This free note taker and PDF editor are made for macOS. It functions similarly to Preview. This program lets you review PDFs with comment features allowing you to make snapshots for easy reference, highlight important text, and navigate pages easily using a table of contents with a visual history.

Features:

  • Views PDFs
  • Add and edit notes
  • Highlight important text, including one-swipe highlight mode
  • Makes snapshots for easy reference
  • Give powerful presentations using built-in transitions
  • Use smart cropping tools

Pros:https://softagro.mystrikingly.com/blog/remote-desktop-manager-2019-1-4-07.

  • There are many options available to annotate PDFs
  • You can choose from over five text colors
  • Great for reading and editing PDFs
  • Easily highlight text, navigate with TOCs, and more
  • Integration with LaRex, PDFSync

Cons:

  • Not as advanced as Adobe Acrobat X
  • Some of the basic features are not as intuitive as they should be

4. Preview (Built-in Open Source PDF Editor for Mac)

Preview is the default PDF viewer and editor for Mac and one of the top Open Source PDF Editor tools for Mac on the market. It functions more like a PDF viewer that allows users to annotate PDF files as well. Preview is acceptable for reading and signing PDF documents. It is basically a limited PDF editor that is available to all Mac users for free. There is no download required. This simple PDF editor for Mac enables you to create, merge, and split PDF files as well.

Features:

  • Transfer web pages and images as PDF format
  • Split your PDF file by dragging thumbnails
  • Merge multiple documents by dragging thumbnails together
  • Rotate PDF pages
  • Annotate PDF files with different tools

Pros:

  • Add and Edit hyperlinks in a PDF file
  • View and edit PDF metadata

Cons:

  • No multicolor highlighting is available from the toolbar
  • Inserting new pages is sometimes difficult

Shortcomings of Open Source PDF Editor for Mac

Many open source programs face problems in opening PDF on Mac. There are varieties of reasons for this, including the ones below:

  • 1. The web browser needs updating: This is a common problem. Try updating your browser before trying anything else.
  • 2. Your browser is not compatible: This is an issue when your OS is not working properly. If your browser is not compatible with your OS try using a different browser.
  • 3. Check the Adobe Reader plug-in: Try using Adobe Reader as stand-alone program, rather than running it through your browser or a plug-in. It can be reinstalled easily if necessary.

Best Solutions for Open Source PDF Editor for Mac

PDFelement is a professional tool that is affordable, easy to use, and one of the best open source PDF editor tools for Mac on the market. It provides full editing features for Mac users that allow them to create, edit, and convert PDF documents, as well as fill out PDF forms on Mac. This tool is fully compatible with macOS, including the latest OS 10.15 Catalina. It is compatible with macOS which supports over 20 languages.

Full PDF Editor

  • Edit and fill out PDF form effortlessly
  • You can also add or remove watermarks in batches, or delete all annotations from your PDF at once

Smart Form Filler and Creator

  • Combine and create text files, images, web pages, and more
  • Effortlessly modify the text, images, pages, and watermarks in your PDF

Powerful PDF Converter and Creator

  • Merge and split your PDF file
  • Convert PDF documents to Office documents, EPUB eBooks, and HTML pages

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