Jan 02, 2020 Content editing: Another bit of magic that PDF editors unlock is the ability to modify text; insert, resize, and move images; and reorganize pages in the PDF. A good one will perform these tasks. Sep 28, 2020 PDF Editor Mac is a free pdf editor mac from the individual developer. Although it may not have a beautiful interface and is not intuitive, it has the standard features for light users. You can edit, rotate and annotate PDF documents. PDF Expert – Best Free PDF Editor for Mac. If you want a good PDF editor for your iPhone and iPad then Good Reader does a good job, however it cannot fill or edit the forms. For this purpose, you can use the PDF Expert which is slightly more expensive than Good Reader. The best PDF editor right now is: Adobe Acrobat Pro DC It's not free, but if you need to edit and create PDFs professionally, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is the software for you. It gives you total. PDFelement 7 for Mac by PDFelement focuses on PDF document solutions. It comes with a variety of useful features that combine editing, creating, converting, annotating, password protecting.
I no longer rely heavily on Mac to edit PDF files. Whenever I’m on the move or want to get the work done faster, I prefer to use my iPad to zoom through the task. Let alone the ultra-large tablet; even iPhone comes in handy for basic requirements. Based on my personal experience and the valuable feedback from other users, We have rounded up the best PDF editors for iPhone and iPad, which offer desired control over managing PDF files.
#1. Adobe Acrobat Reader
Adobe Acrobat Reader doesn’t need any introduction, does it? Ranked at number 4 in the business category, the app provides you the needed liberty to read, view and design your PDFs to your best liking.
You can also add comments on PDFs using sticky notes and drawing tools. Using several advance annotation tools, you will be able to highlight and mark up the text.
Easily fill out PDF forms by typing text into fields. And you can use Apple Pencil to sign documents elegantly. Furthermore, it lets you reorder, rotate, and delete the unwanted pages to keep your files in perfect sync.
Price: Free Download
#2. PDF Expert
Readdle’s PDF Expert has achieved legendary status. No list of top PDF editors for iOS will be complete without this top-notch app. What I really admire about this app is the unmatched simplicity. You can read, edit, annotate your files as proficiently as you would ever like.
It allows you to change text and images right in the PDF. You will also be able to fill and sign your documents. Better still, you can use the Redact feature to erase or hide any confidential information in your documents permanently.
Price: $9.99 Download
#3. PDFpen 5 – PDF Editor
PDFpen is the way to go. This PDF editor app is not only powerful but quickly fills and signs applications or contacts. Moreover, you can make corrections, highlight text, draw, and make comments effortlessly. This is arguably the best to save your precious time.
It is beautifully designed and boasts sophisticated features including dark mode support. You can work on your important documents without disturbing others in low light conditions. Enhance your multitasking ability by viewing two documents simultaneously with multiple windows.
For annotation and editing, you can insert notes, edit images, import pictures from Photo Library, add watermarks, and more. A notable feature of this PDF editor is you can sync and save your documents in iCloud. Alternatively, you can upload your documents in Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneNote.
Price: $4.99 Download
#4. GoodReader
GoodReader is much more than just a PDF editor. You can use it to not just take control of your PDFs but also manage your entire files effortlessly. You will be able to read and annotate your files with complete peace of mind.
It lets you multiple file formats including MS Office, TXT, and HTML. You will rename, zip, unzip and unRAR files and folders. It offers you more flexibility to store your data to several cloud services Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, box.com, etc. Did I say; it also comes with a text-to-speech feature to make your device read PDF and TXT files for you.
Price: $5.99 Download
#5. iAnnotate 4
“iAnnotate 4” has long been one of my favorite PDF editors for iPhone. With a wide range of editing tools, the app lets you view, annotate and sign PDF with complete freedom. The intuitive user interface and customizable features ensure you can get your work done more efficiently.
You can select from various tools like pen, highlighter, typewriter, stamp, straight-line, note, underline, strikeout, photo, voice recording, arrow, rectangle, circle, and date stamp tools to beautifully annotate your files. It lets you synchronize your files with multiple cloud services like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and iCloud Drive. Thanks to the support for all the multitasking features and Apple Pencil, it lets you get the most out of your iPad!
Price: $9.99 Download
#6. PDF Viewer by PSPDFKit
If you are looking for a lightweight yet highly user-friendly PDF editor, give this one a serious look. Use this app to quickly import PDF from cloud services and annotate it with the help of easy-to-use tools.
You can use your finger or Apple Pencil to highlight and markup text. Want to emphasize some important points? Add comments to your files to put a bit more stress on some of the pivotal ideas. To make your files more appealing, you can also add images or audio to your documents. Better still, there is also a night mode to let you work comfortably in the dark environment.
Price: Free Download
#7. Foxit PDF Reader & Converter
When it comes to editing PDF with the desired flair, Foxit is second to none. Using this easy-to-use app, you can view, annotate, and even protect PDF files. It lets you view several file formats like MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, TXT and image files.
You will be able to rename, move, copy and delete PDF file easily. It allows you to zip and unzip files as well. Besides, you can also share your PDF files with your friends and collaborate with them.
Even better, Foxit has the support for 12 languages including English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.
Price: Free Download
#8. LiquidText PDF Reader
Specifically designed for iPad, LiquidText is an excellent PDF editor. Whether it’s editing PDF files immaculately or keeping them perfectly organized as per your demanding workflow, it can live up to your task with aplomb.
Add notes, highlight some vital part and even draw on your files. You can also add comments that link to multiple documents. To ensure all of your data remain secure and accessible across multiple devices, don’t forget to synchronize it with iCloud Drive, Box or other cloud services. This app is compatible with iPad only.
Price: Free Download
#9. PDFelement
To put it straight, PDFelement is one of the finest PDF editors for iOS. What makes this app so handy is the ability to make editing files a pretty simple affair. You can use this app to read, edit, annotate, convert and sign PDF files with optimum ease.
You will be able to combine different format files to create PDF. With the support for multiple output formats like Word, Excel, PPT, EPUB, HTML, Text, RTF (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .txt, .epub, .html.), it ensures you have more flexibility.
You can import your files from several cloud services including Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box. Another notable feature of this app is the compatibility with a number of languages like English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and more.
Price: Free Download
#10. PDFpen 3 – PDF Editor
PDFpen 3 may be the most expensive PDF editor for iOS, but if you wish to have more convenience and flexibility, you should consider it. Using the wide range of tools, you can elegantly design your PDF, add text, images, and signatures to your documents.
PDFpen lets you annotate docs with proofreading marks and stamps. To drive home some crucial points, insert the note and valuable comments to your files.
Like to edit your file using a stylus? This app has the support for several top-of-the-line styluses including Apple Pencil, FiftyThree Pencil, Wacom, Jot Touch, Jot Script, Jaja, and Pogo Connect.
Price: $19.99 Download
That’s done!
What’s your favorite?
Hopefully, your search for a more pragmatic PDF reader has come to a happy ending? Which one is it and what are the features that have caught your attention in it? Do share your feedback down below in the comments.
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Jignesh Padhiyar is the co-founder of iGeeksBlog.com who has a keen eye for news, rumors and all the unusual stuff that happens around Apple products. During his tight schedule, Jignesh finds some moments of respite to share side-splitting contents on social media.
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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?
Best Pdf Editor For Mac 2020
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.
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
Best Pdf Editor For Mac Catalina
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.
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.