Download PDF Reader Pro - Lite Edition for macOS 10.12 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. PDF Reader Pro is a PDF powerhouse that will fulfill all your document needs. Building on solid features such as Annotation, Edit, Form filling, OCR, Convert, Create, Sign, Bookmark and protect your PDF files, PDF Reader Pro allows you to maneuver through your PDF files. Adobe ® Acrobat ® DC Pro. Adobe was a founder of the PDF format, and it is the best PDF converter for Mac. Adobe ® Acrobat ® DC Pro comes with a touch-enabled interface, and a new document cloud online service that gives you access to files through mobile apps and web browser. PDFelement Pro for Mac. PDFelement Pro gives you full control over your PDF files and it is one of the best pdf to word converter on mac. With this application, you can convert PDF to all business formats, including Excel, Word, PPT, Text, Image, HTML, EPUB and many more.
Business • Updated on March 15, 2020
It’s far enough in 2020 for you to notice that you can’t directly open a PDF file with Pages, Office, TextEdit, or XYZ app on your Mac as it will be a display of gibberish above. Considering how tricky PDFs can get, it becomes really taxing to view and edit PDFs on Mac.
What!!!
Did you say “retyping PDF”?
It is too valuable to waste time re-entering PDF data into Microsoft word or spreadsheets on Mac — especially when it comes to maintaining the original formatting of the document.
So it’s necessary to have a powerful Mac PDF converter tool in 2020 so that you can finally stop re-typing other documents and get back to what’s really important – your work and productivity.
Quick navigation:
PDF Converter: what we tested
We looked at the following criteria to pick the best PDF converter for Mac from the lot.
- Ease of use: When we want to use my PDF converter, we want to simply drag-n-drop-n-go. we expect to need a Mac app that should be dead simple to use each time.
- Export options: With this category of apps, this is the single most important feature. A good PDF converter should convert a PDF into a different format such as images, text/RTF, Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. that are compatible with Apple iWork as well.
- Converting quality: While much emphasis is placed on the ability to convert PDF files, equally as important is the ability to keep the original formatting and produce high-quality results. Besides, the best programs quickly and batch processes the task to provide a pleasant conversion experience.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) — The ability to apply Optical Character Recognition (or OCR) is extremely important as it takes an image that looks like text and converts it to actual, computer-readable text. A Mac PDF Converter that integrates OCR technology will save you tons of hours when it comes to dealing with scanned PDFs.
Best for most: Wondershare PDF Converter Pro for Mac
Among all the apps that we tested, Wondershare PDF Converter Pro for Mac was the clear winner.
The reason why it stands out of the competition is because of some of these features that it possesses, and the number of file types that it converts your PDF to is unparalleled.
Wondershare PDF Converter Pro for Mac helps you convert text-based and scanned PDF into following file formats:
- PDF to iWork Pages(.pages)
- PDF to Microsoft Word(.docx)
- PDF to PowerPoint(.pptx)
- PDF to Excel(.xlsx)
- PDF to RTF(.rtf)
- PDF to Text(.txt)
- PDF to ePub (.epub Book format.)
- PDF to HTML(.html)
- PDF to Images (JPG, BMP, TIFF, GIF)
Installation and interface
You can download a free trial version to test out the software. The trial version only allows you to convert the first five pages of a PDF, and OCR function isn’t available.
About the User Interface, it is sleek, not many options, which makes it easy to use. Just select the output format that you desire and click on Convert. Easy at it sounds.
The software also uses drag and drop functionality that all Mac users love, which makes it not only easy, but much gets the work done with much better pace.
OCR PDF
After you purchase Wondershare PDF Converter Pro, you can turn on “OCR” support, and download and install the plugin first.
Drag-n-drop your scanned PDF files to it. You can also import the whole folder for conversion.
When a scanned PDF file is uploaded, the program will automatically detect it and promote you to perform OCR to make it editable.
The program will ask you to choose the right OCR language for the output documents.
Another worth-mentioning feature is the fact that optical recognition system has the ability to scan and recognize the text from your PDFs or images for 20+ languages, so chances that your text will be converted with strange characters or symbols are quite low.
Batch-file processing
PDF Converter Pro can queue as many as PDFs for conversion at one time, and you can easily select which individual pages should be picked up for conversion or define a range.
We liked PDF Converter Pro’s ability to specify different format for each PDF I uploaded and then convert them simultaneously.
PDF Converter Pro even supports password-protected PDF. If the document has security set up to prevent you from printing it, changing it, or copying its text, PDF Converter Pro ignores the restrictions.
We tested the application against PDF documents with all security measures enabled, save printing and PDF Converter Pro dealt with them with the same speed.
Conversion quality
We tried converting about twenty different PDFs, a few ebooks, and regular documents that were converted from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We even converted scanned fax from a few months ago.
We tried working with one of the most common formats — DOCX — and as you can see, the resulting Word file (right) looks a lot like the original PDF (left). This is very common with this type(complex layouts) of file conversion.
We also tried working with PPT files. We started with a PowerPoint that we saved to PDF via PowerPoint, it converted back into a PowerPoint well. The background and title became a background image, but the text was editable.
Coming to Mac’s native document format, we tried playing around with Pages. We picked a lost Pages document with only a PDF copy. When we tried to convert it back. It wasn’t 100% perfect. Some text that was centered needed to be re-centered, and some of the text ends up in separate boxes, but some of that is because of the way the original was constructed.
The EPUB also worked very well. We downloaded a few public domain ebooks, and each one converted with ease. There were no real issues with the converted files.
Well, for the most part, this software does a great job of converting PDFs to other formats properly. And it does a much better job than other software I’ve used, especially with poor quality PDFs that were scanned from faxes.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
For the most part, this software does a great job of converting PDFs to other formats properly. And it does a much better job than other software I’ve used, especially with poor quality PDFs that were scanned from faxes. However, there was one part that was a bit disappointing.
The app takes a while to work on PDFs that are large with many elements. So if you are doing batch conversion, then you might have to wait for a while to get the results.
However, the speed might see an improvement if you are on newer Macs with faster processing and more memory.
Pricing and availability
![Pdf Pro Converter For Mac Pdf Pro Converter For Mac](/uploads/1/3/4/8/134877116/545837435.png)
You can download Wondershare PDF Converter Pro trial version now to give it a whirl, or get the lifetime version at the list price $39.95 from their official website.
The trial limits access to features such as OCR, but it should be enough for you to get a hang of things at Wondershare PDF Converter.
Best with OCR: OCRKit
Our second pick is the OCR Kit Pro. This app is useful for converting scanned or printed documents into searchable PDF files (also RTF, HTML and text). It produces documents after you drag in graphics. It couldn’t be simpler to use.
It supports about 25 languages and offers different options for you to customize the conversion.
OCRKit combined the scanned image visuals with the interpreted text. It made it easy to search for text and find it within the context of the original document. The product’s output is something many users will find of value.
It is beneficial if you are someone who works with extracting a lot of texts out of PDFs. The app also has support for PDF compression, so if you are emailing large PDFs, this feature can be of great aid.
The app comes with automatic language selection to increase precision. It also has automatic rotation to determine the angle of each document, so you won’t have to waste much time trying to figure out the orientations of specific files. Automation here is of great aid!
OCRKit also has AppleScript support, which means that advanced users can use the app for programmed batch conversions.
The following file formats are currently supported by OCRKit: PDF, HTML, RTF, and TXT.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
OCRKit made it to our list of top PDF converters due to excellent OCR abilities. However, we did wish that the app had a more modern interface.
Sometimes, you wonder where the app is performing its operations. We also wished that the app gave us an option to directly access the output files without having to locate them.
The app doesn’t really have an interface, so the work is done by going to the File option and then choosing Open to select a PDF you want to work on. The presence of a simple interface might have made the interface more straightforward.
There is also no preview or some kind of an editor, which can make the app a bit confusing to use.
However, if your needs are straightforward, then this app could be a good choice.
Pricing and availability
OCRKit comes with a 14-day free trial. It should be enough for you to fully evaluate the app before you decide to purchase. Once you have made up your mind, you can go ahead with the purchase.
You can purchase a license of OCRKit at $39.99.
Other options we considered
Here are some of the other options that we considered for PDF editing and converting other than our top picks.
Preview for Mac
Preview is Mac’s built-in viewer. It lets you open images, PDFs, and other formats such as PNG, TIFF, BMP, PDF, AI, FAX, XBM, and JPE. You can convert these supported formats to PDF by following a few simple steps.
Open Preview on your Mac and go to File. Then, click on Open to add the target file to the Preview app. Now, scroll through the thumbnails to select the file you want to convert to the PDF. Mark these thumbnails and then go to File and choose Export as PDF. Once you do that, a print window pops up, letting you choose your destination to save your newly created PDF while.
Although Preview is a handy app to get to know your files better and convert them to PDF, it is not really the ultimate app to convert files into other formats as the export options to other formats are quite limited.
Lighten PDF Converter Master for Mac
Lighten PDF Converter is a lightweight and simple to use application that enables you to transform read-only documents.
The software supports batch conversion, as well as a full preview of each file — thanks to the integrated PDF reader.
The software enables you to draw table areas in the reader area to highlight or preserve certain formatting particularities.
Several output formats require additional settings, such as JPG, TXT, CSV or XLSX. In case you convert the PDFs to images, you may select to extract only the images from the input files, then resize each picture to fit the page format.
Moreover, the Standard version does not have OCR function, so scanned PDF will be converted as an image instead of editable text in Word. TO use the OCR feature, you need to get hold of the OCR version.
The standard version can be purchased at $29.99, and the OCR version comes at $34.99. There’s also an iOS version available.
You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you are unhappy with your purchase.
Solid Converter Mac
Solid Converter Mac is another Mac app to convert PDF files to other formats. It lets you easily convert your PDFS into editable Word documents. It even lets you convert scanned PDFs to editable and well formatted Word documents using its Solid OCR feature.
Other conversion options include conversion to Excel files, PowerPoint, HTML, Text, and iWork Pages.
The app also comes with advanced features for converting or removing headers and footers in a document. Options such as table recovery allow you to reconstruct border and borderless tables with apt formatting.
It also supports form recognition, which means that you won’t miss out on those forms, and can work on them quickly through editable text boxes.
Other Solid Converter Mac features include Rotated Text Recovery and Hyperlink detection, which makes it much easier to work on the app. It also lets you save time by selecting and converting multiple PDFs to your desired format through batch conversion.
Solid Converter Mac has all the tools you need in a PDF converter. Besides, it’s quite fast and easy on your computer’s resources. Solid Converter Mac won’t be cumbersome to run if you have a Mac loaded with apps, with little memory left.
The app also has decent localization features as it is available in 11 languages.
Solid Converter Mac comes with a 15-day working trial, after which you have to purchase the app for $99.95. The results that you get during the trial period are watermarked. They have a 90-day money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied with the workings of the app.
Smallpdf for Mac
Smallpdf for desktop is another app that aims to “simplify your PDF tasks”.
It provides you with an optimal reading experience, faster compression, and automatic upgrades.
Smallpdf performs the most common conversion tasks with ease. It has a PDF converted, which also compresses PDFs to save more space. There’s a split and merge feature that comes handy if you are working with multiple PDFs at the same time.
The conversion PDF files have been optimized to include popular file options such as Word Excel, PPT, and JPG. It also works vice-versa — you can easily convert the same files to PDF.
Besides conversion features, Smallpdf for Mac lets you sign PDFs, unlock, and protect them.
A 14-day free trial is available for Smallpdf, after which you have to pay $108 per year or $12 per month.
PDFelement for Mac
PDFelement for Mac is an app that brings to you what Preview cannot.
It makes editing stuff in a PDF as easy as editing a Word file. You never really realize that you are editing a PDF file. It takes all the elements of a PDF into context, be it images, blocks, tables, captions, fonts — anything.
PDFelement has annotating tools to make working with PDFs easier. If you are taking it to the office, or for work purposes, then the digital signatures come handy.
However, one of the most exciting features of PDFelement is the ability to convert PDFs to other formats. It can convert a PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, ePub, Text, Pages, HTML, and RTF. Yes, every other format out there is usable for various applications.
Another great feature that we liked about PDFelement was its ability to collaborate. It lets you collaborate more effectively with you by sending across your work and having them reviewed by them.
If you are someone who works with a team on projects that require extensive editing, then PDFelement could help you out with it.
The monthly plan for the standard version of PDFelement comes at $6.99, whereas you might have to shell out $9.99 for a Pro plan.
There are also quarterly and annual plans available.
Acrobat Pro DC PDF Converter
Has a PDF list really been complete without the addition of Acrobat DC?
Adobe Acrobat DC is used by millions of organizations around the world to create and edit PDFs and convert them to other Office formats.
Besides providing all the essential features of a PDF editor and converter, Acrobat DC also comes with features to increase your work efficiency. It can convert existing forms to fillable forms, which saves a lot of time with line-drawing.
You can also compare two PDF files in a single interface to figure out how different is one PDF file from the other.
If you have a PDF mixed up at all places, you can easily rearrange pages and delete them. You can also rotate pages to fit a particular style.
With useful sync features across devices through mobile apps, Acrobat DC can be a beneficial tool for your organization.
What about online pdf converters
Online conversion services don’t require software installation. They’re mostly free, fast, and convenient. But some important notes: first, they tend to be less secure if your PDFs contain sensitive or confidential information; second, the quality of the output documents is not great.
They also lack other advanced features such as batch conversion, OCR, PDF comparison, and more. Be prepared to wait longer if you have dozens of PDFs to be converted.
Wrap up
By now, you must have an idea of what could work for you. You would need an app that performs the basics as well as advanced functions. The pricing could also be a factor.
If you have been an Adobe user and are now looking for something different, then Wondershare PDF Converter Pro for Mac could definitely be an option as it is decently priced and has all the features that you need in a PDF converter. It is also fast.
As far as the PDF OCR is concerned, just make sure you download the OCR plugin and install it first.
Wondershare PDF Converter Pro is continually being updated too. We can’t wait to see what else is done to improve this fantastic application.
Solid Converter Mac and OCRKit are also good and manage to do their respective jobs well.
Adobe Pdf Converter For Mac
With constant updates and excellent support, most of our top picks are all set to help you increase your productivity and change the way you have been working with PDFs.
They are a PDF revolution.
Business • Updated on July.30, 2020
Editor’s note: After another round of testing, we stand by our picks. We also added a little information about our thoughts on online PDF editors.
PDF is a necessity in macOS. Without PDF, you can’t easily create & share portable documents. In fact, almost every native macOS application lets you export content into PDF.
Preview in Mac is a great PDF viewer and annotator, but it’s not enough for editing. Normally, people got to convert the PDF file to something else and do the editing after. That isn’t the most convenient option either.
That is why a fully-fledged PDF editor for Mac is a necessity indeed! Unlike the common thought, there is an impressive variety of PDF editing programs to choose from.
And, Adobe Acrobat Pro is most people’s go-to option.
Jump to:
Disclosure: We sometimes use affiliate links which means that, at zero cost to you, we may earn a commission if you buy something through our links.
Why Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Isn’t Enough?
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC has been the standard for PDF editing for quite a long time. Considering that Adobe built the format, it’s quite not surprising. Anyway, it’s not really a great reason to keep using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC as the macOS PDF editor.
The Good: Acrobat Pro DC is undoubtedly one of the powerful PDF solutions out there. You can get the best of the Adobe ecosystem as well. If you use Adobe Reader to view PDF documents, you can have the benefits of a familiar UI as well.
The Bad: Even then, Acrobat Pro DC does not offer the best User Interface in town. Sure, it gets the job done, but that’s not enough. We cannot recommend Acrobat Pro DC when you want to edit multiple documents and manage everything with ease.
The Ugly: Acrobat Pro DC is damn expensive. It comes with a monthly subscription charge of $14.99. Adobe Pro 2017, an older, standalone version, is available for a hefty price-tag of $449. These rates are way beyond what a normal user can afford.
We believe these reasons are enough for anyone to look for an Adobe Acrobat alternative — or one better PDF editor for Mac.
What about Online PDF Editors?
Pdf Converter For Macbook Pro
Online PDF editors are the next best choice that people make when they can’t afford Acrobat Pro DC. It’s an awesome option too — until you lose the internet connection. The problem with online editors is that you’d need a fast, reliable Internet connection at all times.
There are also some security concerns. You basically have to upload the PDF document to a third-party server for editing it. It’s not the ideal option when you are dealing with confidential files. Besides, not all online PDF editors are offering satisfactory features. A lot of them ask for paid subscriptions as well.
Personally speaking, I think online PDF editors are just good for page management of PDF documents. If you need deeper editing or bulk editing, you can’t count on them. More importantly, most people like to edit their files in a native environment, which isn’t the case with most online PDF editors.
So, it makes sense to check out some of the actual native macOS PDF editors out there.
How to Choose the Alternative to Acrobat Pro DC
As we said, there are a huge number of PDF editors for macOS. As always, we wanted to pick the best ones. To navigate through the immense collection of options, we had a proper criteria as well.
- The PDF Editor must have a Simple User Interface. It must be non-distracting as well as focused. We always recommend a UI that works well with single-document and multi-document management.
- Easy & Advanced PDF Editing is a must-have option in a PDF tool. Automated selection recognition is great since it enables easy editing of other components like images, boxes, shapes and signatures.
- Security of the PDF documents is also an important concern. The PDF editor should have an option to enable the basic security features. For instance, there must be a way to password-protect PDF.
- Feature-rich: The ideal PDF editor shouldhave additional features as well. On top of the list are Optical Character Recognition and Digital Signing. You may, indeed, go for a minimal editor, though.
- Price: Not everyone wants to or cannot spend around $100 on a PDF editor. So, we have included a variety of PDF editors that come with varying price tags.
So, we have chosen the best Mac PDF editors based on this criteria.
The Pick: PDF Expert — the Fastest, Easiest & Made-for-All
PDF Expert is a fast, robust and beautiful PDF editor. If you are looking for a feature-rich PDF editor that is available on multiple platforms, PDF Expert could be the right candidate. We chose PDF Expert as the best pick after testing it for more than a few weeks.
After the testing period, this tool has become our go-to option for editing PDF documents with ease. The package has some downsides and room for improvement, of course. Even then, we believe PDF Expert must be your first choice if seamless editing is your priority.
PDF Expert comes from Readdle Inc, a developer who makes wonderful apps for Apple devices. Many of the products, including the Spark email app, are popular on iOS and macOS. So, in terms of security and privacy, you don’t have to worry at all.
Here are a few reasons why we think PDF Expert is your best choice at PDF editing on Mac.
Intuitive User Interface
As you can see, PDF Expert offers a clean and intuitive User Interface. You can simply drag-and-drop a file to get started. From the top-left side of the window, you can open options like Bookmarks, Thumbnails, Outline, and Annotation. Unlike the other PDF editors, we have tried, this one doesn’t scare us with the big number of toolbars.
Instead, everything is organized very efficiently. So, whenever you want a particular feature, you can access that single module. Altogether, we love this UI so much.
Easy PDF Editing
PDF Expert lets you edit PDF documents without any fail. There are actually four main options in the toolbar — Text, Image, Link and Redact. Making things easier than ever, PDF Expert automatically detects the type of content you’ve selected. If you’ve selected an image, for instance, you will see options to rotate, replace, export and crop the photograph.
Like the same way, you edit other parts of the PDF document. The Redact feature is also quite helpful, which works in a single click. I’ve found this feature really useful while sharing confidential data with friends.
Smart Annotation & Page Management
You get some smart Annotation features in this package. You can fill out content, provide signatures digitally and export all your annotations with ease. You can add signatures using text, trackpad or by even uploading an image of the signature. Either way, you get awesome results. PDF Expert has a page manager, with options such as Add Page, Append File, Copy, Paste, Rotate, Delete and Share.
You can easily arrange multiple pages by dragging and dropping them. You can also extract individual pages from a complete PDF document. Altogether, it checks all the important boxes.
Multi-Platform Support
PDF Expert is available for both macOS and iOS. It also enables content-sync between the devices, you know. If you want to access documents that you created using PDF Expert for macOS, you can easily do it from an iPhone or iPad. You can download the apps from the App Store, and everything is kept in sync. It’s a great way to access cloud storage; everything is done via iCloud.
It’s as seamless as it gets. I always love a software product when it can offer the same amazing UX on iPhone and Mac. PDF Expert does exactly that.
Enhanced Security & Utilities
PDF Expert has an in-built method for password-protecting PDF files as well. This is a great way to secure your PDF file without further complication. It’s so simple that you can go to File –> Set Password and pick the password of your choice. You can also use it to reduce the file size of a PDF file.
When we checked, PDF Expert was able to reduce the file size by 75%, which is quite a great deal. Because you get Touch Bar support, accessing these options is easy as a piece of cake.
What Could be Better
There are a few things that we didn’t like in PDF Expert. We understand that PDF Expert is a minimalistic PDF editor but it has left out some basic features as well.
- You cannot create PDF documents using PDF Expert. You can technically add a new page in the PDF file and add text, but that’s something inefficient. We’d have really loved to see some additional set of PDF creation features in the program.
- PDF Expert could have included a basic version of Optical Character Recognition. It’s disappointing that the program does not even support plug-ins, which can bring in the feature. It lacks other types of plug-ins as well.
- There are only four editing options in PDF Expert. At times, these may not be enough for most people. We’d have loved to see some extra toolbars in there.
- It would be better if PDF Expert had better options for bulk actions. As of now, that’s NIL.
Also, PDF Expert lacks options for customization and control. The features are basic — very basic, at times.
Availability & pricing
PDF Expert is available for macOS and iOS. You can download the Mac version from the official website and the iOS version from App Store.
PDF Expert for macOS is priced at $79.99 while the iOS version can be bought for $9.99. If you ask us, both apps have been priced quite reasonably. The PDF Expert license actually lets you run the app on 3 Macs.
Verdict
Pros
- Simple design and UI
- Smart editing options
- Multiplatform Support
Cons
- Lacks advanced features
- Cannot create PDF Files
If you are looking for a simple yet effective PDF editor for Mac, PDF Expert is the best option. It brings all the necessary editing features, never compromising the performance as well. It isn’t for you if you want technical features like OCR, though. Overall, for the price you’re paying, PDF Expert is worth it.
Upgrade Pick: PDFpenPro – The Most Powerful
There are times when you need more than a basic PDF editor. PDFpenPro is the best choice for that occasion. It comes with a great set of features inside, including the option to create awesome PDF files. If you can spend more for a comprehensive PDF suite, PDFpenPro could be a potential option.
Unlike the top pick we suggested for most people, PDFpenPro is made for advanced users, it is an upgraded version of the PDFpen software. You get a lot more options than simply changing the text or adding some comments. We think it’s suitable for you if you have to handle too many PDF documents.
Precise Control UI
PDFpenPro has been designed to create PDF files with precision. The UI has been optimized for professionals. When you open the program, you can see the blank screen where you can insert content like text, images, shapes and others. Like we saw in PDF Expert, PDFpenPro too offers different viewing options. It has a multi-tabbed UI for managing multiple files as well.
Nevertheless, we should admit that the UI isn’t that intuitive. We needed time to figure out how the tools work. It also lacks automated recognition options.
Advanced Editing Options
PDFpenPro checks all the boxes when it comes to editing PDF files. You can take care of a wide variety of content like text, images and others. All the editing options are included in the same toolbar. It’s also easy to navigate between multiple pages of the document. We also loved the Precision Edit tool in PDFpen, which lets us select even the minute elements in a document and remove them easily.
When it comes to annotations, there are five different ways you can annotate documents using PDFpenPro. From simple drawing and scrabbling over the document, to adding your notes, comment boxes, links, bookmarks, or attachments. There is even an option to add an audio annotation, which is adding audio comments to the document. We also loved how you can use your iPad to bring richer content.
PDFpenPro allows you to turn websites into PDF in a single click. Thanks to the wider compatibility, you can export PDF files to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint as well.
DocuSign Support
PDFpenPro is your upgrade pick if you have to deal with PDF signing a lot. Apart from the native option to put and manage signatures, the latest version now offers DocuSign integration. It means you can now make use of this signature-management system to request digital signs from others. Because DocuSign comes with full legal compatibility, you don’t have to worry at all.
On any day, this powerful integration can help you save a few hours. Personally speaking, this is one of the best signing options I have seen in a PDF editor.
Efficient Scanning & OCR
Optical Character Recognition is perhaps themost important advanced feature inside PDFpen. It has been designed to extract an impressive variety of data from sources like a scanned image. To use this feature, you can open the image in the software and begin the OCR option. In a few minutes, PDFpenPro will help you convert the content into editable text.
It’s quite a time-saver and PDFpenPro offers great speeds too. PDFpenPro offers much control over the OCR process. You can decide the quality and resolution with ease.
Availability & Pricing
PDFpenPro is available for both macOS and iOS.
PDFpenPro costs $124.95. Still, you can download a free trial from Smilesoftware and get a single license that can register only on one Mac.
You can actually find its standard version, PDFpen, on Setapp.
Verdict
Pros
- Advanced PDF Editing
- OCR and DocuSign support
- Versatile Editing Control
Cons
- UI could be better
- An expensive package
PDFpenPro is made for professionals, and there’s a steep learning curve. Even then, PDFpenPro offers many features you can’t find in other tools. The best example would be OCR, which works great in this program. It is just that you should be ready to pay something extra.
Other Apps We Considered
Here are some of the top apps we considered as the best Mac PDF editor. They did not, however, make it to the top list.
Preview
Preview is the pre-built PDF and image viewer in macOS. It’s something that you can securely use for viewing and annotating PDF documents. The best part? It’s quite integrated to the system that you get the maximum level of performance. The main limitation here is that Preview does not actually let you edit the PDF files. It has a bunch of effective options for annotation.
You can do a few things like adding text and shapes to the document. Once done, Preview can neatly export the files to PDF as well. Considering that you are not paying anything to get this program, we’d love to keep it aside. So, if you just want to bring some annotations and text boxes to a PDF document — without affecting the existing text —, Preview would be fine.
Preview is free and is built into macOS.
Are you looking for a fully-fledged suite for OCR? Then, ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is a great choice for. The problem is that you cannot expect standard features here. The whole program has been made for OCR needs, an area in which you can expect the best results. In just a few seconds, the program would convert a scanned image to editable text.
As far as OCR technology is concerned, ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac works just great. It was able to do the OCR for even some of the low-quality images we’d tried. But, of course, if you have a better-quality image, the results would be better. We would not recommend the program for standard editing needs, though. The price tag is relatively higher too.
ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is available for $119.00.
Foxit PhantomPDF
Foxit PhantomPDF is one of the smoothest PDF editors we’ve seen so far. It packs so many features into a smaller-looking tool. Nevertheless, compared to other PDF editors we’ve covered, Foxit PhantomPDF comes with a larger footprint. Multitasking is not easy when you have Foxit PhantomPDF running in background. It also checks the boxes of OCR and automated recognition.
It’s comparatively easier to do PDF editing in Foxit PhantomPDF. We think, however, that the AI could be an impressive one. As of now, the User Interface looks so rudimentary and you will need some time to get used to the deal. Keep that aside, Foxit PhantomPDF is a great PDF editor for teams as well. It has options for real-time collaboration features.
Foxit PhantomPDF is available for Windows and macOS. It has a hefty price tag of $99.95 for Mac.
![For For](/uploads/1/3/4/8/134877116/698965913.png)
Kdan PDF Reader Pro
Kdan PDF Reader is another app which makes it to our list of PDF editors for Mac. It is quite popular with over 44,000 App Store ratings. It provides a wide range of document functions for business and daily life. It has both desktop and mobile apps, so you can work anytime, anywhere. It provides you with the feature to create and edit PDFs with features such as handwritten comments, highlighting, striking through, underlining texts, and more.
The highlight of this app is the Robust Reading Engine which provides you with a comfortable reading experience with features such as smooth page scrolling and the option to change the theme and page background so that your eyes don’t strain up.
Kdan PDF Reader’s individual plan can be purchased at $59.99 for a year.
The Bottom Line
So, these are the best Mac PDF editors you can find today. We have tried to suggest PDF editors that work well for particular needs. We hope it helps you choose the right one. If you are still confused and want a PDF editor that’s easy and effective, you can go with our pick, PDF Expert. As far as you don’t need anything fancy out there, that choice won’t go wrong. However, if you think you need more features and a better UI to manage documents, we recommend PDFpenPro, which packs some powerful features too.