PDF software list on Mac, 4 PDF editors across the board!

So, how to choose the right PDF software for you?

First of all, you need to consider your specific needs. If you simply view and read PDF files, then Preview is already enough. If you need more complex editing and management features, then Adobe Acrobat Pro may be more suitable. If you're a student or researcher, then Skim may be a good choice. If you are looking for a professional and fast multifunctional PDF software on Mac, then UPDF will be a good choice for you. Next, we will also recommend suitable PDF software for you through the function requirements.

PDF reading

When reading PDF documents, we should be most concerned about the smoothness of the document reading and compatibility with the content of PDF documents.

For PDF opening speed, in the system software,merge two pdf pages into one page mac Preview is the fastest. However, as Preview is a general-purpose software (not only can view PDF, but also images, TXT, Word, etc.), which also leads to the existence of compatibility issues. For example, the content of the annotations or the body of the content may be lost, especially for PDF files with permission passwords (restricting the annotation, editing and other functions), compatibility is poor. In terms of compatibility, Acrobat is the best choice, but due to the software itself is complex, in the open and zoom documents may be lagging, in addition, the performance requirements of Mac computers is also high.

For core reading needs, I'd particularly recommend UPDF, which combines the professional compatibility of PDF with the performance of Preview, and the embedded preview technology of the Mac system (which you can set up in UPDF's Settings), meaning that UPDF has outstanding performance in viewing large documents such as engineering drawings.

It is recommended to use UPDF to zoom in and out of large documents to view details. You can use the command key + sliding mouse to zoom quickly, and fast double-click zooming is also supported.

Acrobat can open these engineering drawings normally, but when zooming to view localized content, it tends to lag and the zoom speed does not follow the mouse.

For this type of engineering drawings of PDF documents, Skim processing is also very good, but in the test 2.44 GB of documents, the product directly crashed, can not be opened.

PDF annotations

PDF annotation function in each professional PDF reader or PDF editor are essential features. Although Adobe Acrobat in the annotation function is very comprehensive, but the overall experience and operation of a single, unable to meet the user's annotation function of a richer demand.

Preview provides the basic annotation features, more accurately said that the markup function, but still, as mentioned above, poor compatibility, especially after the addition of annotations after the use of other PDF software to open the PDF easily lead to data loss.

Skim is mainly annotation features, which provides the basic annotation features, but the overall more concise, support for the relatively few types of annotations. This piece to focus on recommending the UPDF software.

UPDF provides a quick visualization of the operation, but also provides a wealth of annotation presets, such as highlighting the recommended color. In particular, it is worth mentioning that the UPDF annotation categories have been redesigned and organized, and for each annotation provides a note function, which is convenient to carry out a more detailed description. The overall design is closer to the way annotations and notes operate. In addition, UPDF also provides a note management operations, easy to manage the content of the notes within the document. If you have an in-depth need to take notes on PDF, I highly recommend using UPDF.

UPDF support for annotations: note pad notes, highlight text, strikethrough text, underline text, wavy text, text comments, text box notes, text markup notes, pencil notes (eraser), rectangle, ellipse, polygon, straight line, arrows, rich Sticky Notes, business and office signatures, signature operations.

PDF Editor

Usually, when we refer to PDF editing, we are referring to the text and image content in the PDF document to edit. For PDF native content editing, you really need to use professional PDF editing software. In this regard, I recommend the use of Adobe Acrobat and UPDF. Preview and Skim may not be able to meet the professional needs, so they are not recommended for such editing operations.

Commonly used PDF editing, including non-scanned document editing and editing of scanned documents, here on the need for OCR functionality. Acrobat and UPDF support OCR operations, both support for paragraph recognition and font matching operations. UPDF as a rookie in the last two years, in the text editing and Acrobat there are still some gaps, but in the same type of PDF editing software, UPDF is still in a leading position. The two software in the PDF image editing gap is relatively small, can support the picture of the add, replace, crop and extract operations. UPDF in the picture of the add and replace the outstanding performance, support for direct drag and drop for the picture of the add and replace operations.

In addition to common text and image operations, some special graphics within the document (path elements), both support the move, delete operations, this is also a lot of other software does not have the function. At the same time, Acrobat and UPDF both support editing and adding links to the operation, you can add the document to jump to the page and web page operations.

UPDF editing with a quick search operation, you can better find the content to be modified.

PDF organization page

Usually when we deal with PDF documents, we will encounter a lot of operations on PDF pages, such as page insertion, replacement, extraction, splitting, rotation and deletion operations. Page operations for many PDF software will have simple support, this Acrobat advantage is relatively large. UPDF can meet all of the above mentioned features, but Acrobat in some of the more in-depth operations on the support of the better, such as Acrobat support for splitting by the top bookmarks, the other three have not yet done. Which mentioned Preview and Skim in this regard are simple support.

PDF cropping

When dealing with PDF documents, we often encounter the page size of the crop processing. In the overall cropping operation, Acrobat support for some of the more professional, support for crop box, work box, crop box and bleed box, these are more used in the printing and printing industry. If your needs are this professional direction, we recommend that you use Acrobat, this is also more professional. If only a simple crop, we recommend that you use UPDF, according to the margins and the size of the crop box for cutting, while supporting flexible multi-page cutting operations, so that you can carry out different pages of the crop operation, this piece of software does not recommend the other two.

PDF Tools

In addition to the features mentioned above, PDF professional software generally also provides a lot of operational tools, such as adding, editing and deleting watermarks, backgrounds, headers and footers. These operations mentioned above, Acrobat do a more comprehensive, but I think a lot of setting options for the average user is not very friendly. This piece of UPDF to do closer to the user, the overall operation is more simple. In particular, UPDF's watermark tiling function is also more to meet our daily needs, compared to Acrobat, UPDF has streamlined many operations, which is also more from the user experience considerations. If you have a need for some of the finer degree of property operations, we recommend that you use Acrobat.

PDF conversion

Acrobat and UPDF as a professional PDF editing software, not only for PDF annotation and editing operations, but also for PDF conversion operations.

Acrobat: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, HTML, RTF, embedded PostScript, PostScript, plain text and XML 1.0.

UPDF: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV, images, HTML, RTF, TXT and XML.

Acrobat supports low version of Word format (.doc), UPDF only supports high version (.docx). However, UPDF to Word supports a variety of layout settings, flow mode, layout mode and precise mode, so that it can meet your different needs for Word format. And Acrobat and UPDF both support the scanned PDF document into other editable formats.Preview and Skim are not yet supported.