If you’ve ever been given a pdf file that you want to edit, or a pdf form that you need to complete and return electronically, you’ll realise that it’s not obvious how to edit a pdf file in OS X. You can make simple changes to a pdf file using the free built-in Preview App that comes free with OS X. Here’s how.
- Jan 04, 2020 The Mac is still the best device for serious photo editing, so you need some serious photo editing apps to make an impact. The built-in Photos app on Mac offers several useful photo editing tools. You can crop, adjust lighting and color, set the white balance, add filters, remove unwanted blemishes, and a few more things.
- K-Board Pro 4 Downloads Minimum System Requirements: For Mac: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.3GHz (or greater), 100 MB free hard disk space, Mac OS 10.9 or later For Windows: 2.5 GHz processor (or greater), 4 GB RAM (or greater), USB 2.0 (or greater), 100 MB free hard disk space, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, & 10 (64-bit only).
If you double-click on any pdf file in OS X it will open in an application called Preview. Preview has a hidden “Annotations Toolbar’ that will allow you to edit the pdf file. You can’t change what’s already in the pdf document. But you can do minor changed like adding your own text and graphics, so this method will allow you to complete a form or make minor additions.
How to edit a PDF using Preview. If you haven't updated to Mojave or Catalina, you can still edit PDFs on your Mac for free using the Preview app that comes bundled with the Mac operating system. PDFpen is a powerful Mac PDF editor: add text, images, and signatures to PDFs, make corrections, fill out PDF forms, OCR scanned pages.
For full pdf editing capabilities (for example adding paragraphs of text, moving pictures around on a page etc) you need to get some fully blown pdf editing software like Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Acrobat Professional. But these cost hundreds of dollars. The good news is that ‘Preview’, the built-in OS X pdf reader app, has some basic pdf editing abilities built-in.
Here’s how to use the Annotations Toolbar.
Go up to the View menu and select the menu item called ‘Show Annotations Toolbar. This will give you a toolbar along the bottom of your preview window to help you edit the pdf file.
Note: In Yosemite and El Capitan the ‘Annotations Toolbar’ has been Renamed to ‘Markup Toolbar’ so that it looks like this:
After you select the ‘View: Show Annotations Toolbar’ menu you will see a toolbar across the bottom of the preview window that looks like this:
These buttons will allow you to edit the pdf file. The left three buttons make an arrow, a circle or a rectangle. The fourth button along allows you to add text to the pdf.
If you click on the text box button – the 4th button across, you can then go up to your document and add in a text box like this:
If you click on the text button you can add a text box to the pdf document like this.This is a very easy way to fill in pdf files that are forms.
If you highlight the newly added text you can change the font by pressing Apple-T and the font window will appear.
You can’t delete what’s already in a document, but you can draw a rectangle over it to hide it and type something new over the top.
You can cover over existing text using a rectangle with a white border like this.You’ll notice you can’t change the rectangle color from being black, but you can put a very fat white border around it so it looks like a white rectangle!
Please note, this is more of a hack than a proper way to edit. The original information that you have edited will still be there. It is just covered over. If someone deletes the box they will see the original document.
This is what led the the recent scandal in Australian Politics when all the private phone numbers of Australian politicians were accidentally leaked. The deleted the phone numbers from public documents by changing the colour from black to white. But they didn’t realise someone could still get the numbers out of the documents.
If you want to totally change the images and text on an existing pdf file you will need an application like Adobe Illustrator that can actually edit the content of pdf files. But if you only want to make small changes, the built-in preview app will do the job!
If you’d like to sign a PDF document with your handwritten signature I have a separate article on how to do that.
Related posts:
How to combine multiple pdf files with OS X Mavericks 10.9How to merge and edit PDF documents in macOS SierraHow to merge 2 pdf files in OS X 10.14 MojaveHow to sign a PDF document in OS X.HELP! Anyone found a good iPad PDF ebook reader?« Older CommentsYarinsays:August 1, 2017 at 3:21 amThis solution may help you
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17954754#17954754
ReplyNyasia Randellsays:September 7, 2017 at 3:39 am Preview is great app to make minor changes in the PDF file. And, it is free too. If you need more advanced features to to create, edit, convert and sign your PDFs, then you may consider tools like Nitro, Skim, PDFpen, etc. The one recommended here is pretty good too https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/193228
Reply![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126568209/113226759.png)
PDFelement for Mac is a simple PDF Editor for Mac, acting as best alternative to PDF Expert.
ReplyWaynesays:September 18, 2017 at 5:15 pm Thanks Merss but it would be a better endorsement if you didn’t work for the company!
ReplyAbhaysays:December 10, 2017 at 5:58 pm nice article !! but i found that microsoft world itself can edit pdfs and all changes can be made in it !!
ReplyWaynesays:December 18, 2017 at 2:09 am True – but this is a free solution.
ReplyJudisays:December 18, 2017 at 5:59 am Wayne, what is the free solution for editing a pdf doc?
mike tuellsays:December 10, 2018 at 5:49 pm My Mac X, El Capitan is 10.11.4 doesn’t have the same menu as your posting begins with. No, “PDF Display”, no “Automatically resize”, no “sidebar”. I’m looking for help after opening a few times a PDF document (w/ 77 pages), and once I’d hidden the sidebar, I can not longer get it to show again. I go to “View”, scroll down to “Show Toolbar”, and a menu bar appears top-of-page; I then click on the “view menu”, and “Hide Sidebar” is at the top of the list and is checked. I have tried clicking on it and the sidebar never reappears. I only could try to close and reopen that PDF document, AND a copy of it, but cannot access the sidebar management options at all.
Replymike tuellsays:December 10, 2018 at 5:59 pm My Q seemed not to have loaded, so I’m trying to post my question again.
My El Capitan 10.11.4 has a different Preview menudropping down from “View”. But I am able to click on “show [or hide] toolbar”. Then I see, up top, a toolbar with “view menu”. The list that drops down begins with the problem. I lists “Hide Sidebar”as checked, but try as I may, I cannot UN-check it and see the sidebar as I had in viewing the PDF document just minutes before.
ReplyWaynesays:December 10, 2018 at 6:46 pm My El Capitan 10.11.4 has a different Preview menudropping down from “View”. But I am able to click on “show [or hide] toolbar”. Then I see, up top, a toolbar with “view menu”. The list that drops down begins with the problem. I lists “Hide Sidebar”as checked, but try as I may, I cannot UN-check it and see the sidebar as I had in viewing the PDF document just minutes before.
Apple have re-named it. It is now called ‘Markup Toolbar’ not ‘Annotations Toolbar’. So you need to click ‘Show Markup Toolbar.’ Does that work?
ReplyJohn ROLTsays:March 5, 2019 at 5:49 am HI all .. I’m trying to edit a large .pdf document, with 257 scanned B&W pages of music. The original comes in at 14MB – quite reasonable considering. My reduced copy is working out at 2MB per page! and lower res as well; I’m guessing that it’s creating the new document with full colour or something so each page is a much bigger piece of data. Seems to be the same whether I copy the original and cut it down, or create an empty .pdf and add pages from the original using drag and drop. Anyone else found this problem or suggest a solution? I’m happy to try another app as long as it won’t suffer the same issue!
Thanks .. John
Reply« Older CommentsThanks .. John
Leave a Reply
Get PDF editor with OCR
PDFpen lets you change anything about your PDF docs.
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?
Grab the best PDF editor
A perfect toolkit that allows you to rotate, combine, highlight, annotate, and change anything about your PDF. Easy squeezy.
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.
Pdf Editor Free
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).
Pdf Editor For Mac Catalina Free
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.