PDF editor for the Mac (Yosemite) that ISN'T Adobe Acrobat?

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HungarianStan


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Like the title says, I've got ideas that need me to be able to edit PDFs (not merely annotate or sign them, but actually change text or move it around within the PDF itself, not as a "layer" on top of the text), and for that, need an editor. I've used Adobe before for Windows but it's a VERY old copy and I don't have a windows machine anymore anyway.

With that in mind, are there any apps that you all have used for PDF editing on the Mac? Price is an issue, naturally, since I don't want to buy Adobe's offering; but I figure anything less than that will do.

Folks?
 
IWT

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Everybody has their favourite, of course, but I have found PDFpen to be excellent. If you are seriously into editing and creating PDFs, you might find the few additional features in the pro version (PDFpenPro) useful. Both versions are pay-for. The standard version will almost certainly do all you need and the pro version gives you that bit extra.

Read all about it here: https://smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/index.html

Ian

EDIT: This app is specifically designed for the Mac.
 
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IWT said:
Everybody has their favourite, of course, but I have found PDFpen to be excellent. If you are seriously into editing and creating PDFs, you might find the few additional features in the pro version (PDFpenPro) useful. Both versions are pay-for. The standard version will almost certainly do all you need and the pro version gives you that bit extra.

Read all about it here: https://smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/index.html

Ian

EDIT: This app is specifically designed for the Mac.
Click to expand...

Looks interesting. I'll have a thought on it. Thanks!
 
Randy B. Singer

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Mencelus said:
...are there any apps that you all have used for PDF editing on the Mac? Price is an issue, naturally...
Click to expand...

There are a bunch of them:

PDFpen/Pro ($75/$125)
PDFpen: Mac PDF Editor - Edit, Sign, and Correct PDFs
PDFpenPro: Mac PDF Editor - Create PDF Forms, PDF Table of Contents

PDF Studio Pro ($129)
PDF Studio - PDF Software for Mac, Windows and Linux

PDF Nomad ($40)
https://sintraworks.com/index.php/sintraworks/pdfnomad_home/
(Can't erase static text. But you can OCR a page and then edit.)

Wondershare PDF Editor Pro ($100)
Wondershare PDF Editor Pro for Mac | OFFICIAL
Buy PDF Editor for Mac - Wondershare official online shop

PDF Editor Pro ($99)
PDF Editor Pro for Mac | MacAppware - Mac optimizer, Mac fonts, Mac logo design, Mac bundles and more

PDF Converter Mac ($100)
PDF Converter for Mac | Nuance

iSkysoft PDF Editor Pro ($100)
[OFFICIAL] iSkysoft PDF Editor for Mac: Edit PDF like a Word Processor
(I've always found iSkysoft to be a sketchy company...)
Speaking with spammers | Macworld

Cisdem PDFManagerUltimate for Mac ($70)
[OFFICIAL] Cisdem PDFManagerUltimate for Mac: PDF Editor, PDF Reader and PDF Converter

None of these products are inexpensive. Though they are all quite a bit less than Adobe's Acrobat for the Macintosh.

Personally I have settled on Nuance's PDF Converter for the Mac, because Nuance purchased Caere's OmniPage Pro and integrated it into the product, thus giving it the very best optical character recognition (OCR) engine available on the Macintosh.

However, most Mac users that I know have gone with PDFPen.
 
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chas_m

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The OP is missing the point of PDFs a bit -- there's a reason why they are difficult/expensive to edit -- because the whole idea of the format is to PREVENT this.

PDFs are great for sending proofs to clients, or storing documents you're not going to change. PDFs are LOUSY as a format you're going to do any "messing with" in the future -- the recommended method is to convert the PDF file's text back to Word (or some other standard) format, make your changes, then re-convert the amended document to PDF.

If you're trying to change a complex laid-out PDF document, you will spend much time tearing your hair out, as it is usually faster to just re-create the document from the original text (which you've converted using the method above) and just re-layout the file in the new way you want to change it.
 
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chas_m said:
The OP is missing the point of PDFs a bit -- there's a reason why they are difficult/expensive to edit -- because the whole idea of the format is to PREVENT this.

PDFs are great for sending proofs to clients, or storing documents you're not going to change. PDFs are LOUSY as a format you're going to do any "messing with" in the future -- the recommended method is to convert the PDF file's text back to Word (or some other standard) format, make your changes, then re-convert the amended document to PDF.

If you're trying to change a complex laid-out PDF document, you will spend much time tearing your hair out, as it is usually faster to just re-create the document from the original text (which you've converted using the method above) and just re-layout the file in the new way you want to change it.
Click to expand...

Actually, on occasion, I'd like to change a word or two. Sometimes THREE. Not rejiggering entire documents. So, no, I do not "miss the point" with PDFs; I'd like software that lets me, on occasion, change them.

In my work, it's occasionally useful to be able to change a PDF to fit the context of what I'm doing. Everything properly attributed, everything properly cataloged, but better to, say, edit out a particular chart or graph or whatever that isn't relevant to the topic at hand. Or to change certain words to better reflect things as needed.

So, again, I understand what PDFs are for. I'd also like to be able to alter them on occasion.
 
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chas_m

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As I would have thought was implied throughout my post, but apparently needs spelling out: I'm not knocking any of the recommended software Randy and others have suggested. I own and use PDFpen myself.

I was just saying, not being there and seeing exactly what you're talking about, that while minor fixes to a PDF are fairly easy to do with the software mentioned (can even sometimes be done in Preview, or Adobe Illustrator albeit that's rather an expensive option), even PDFPen is not going to make PDFs magically completely reworkable. Didn't want you to be misled before spending money if that was what you needed, that's all.
 
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Randy B. Singer said:
There are a bunch of them:

PDFpen/Pro ($75/$125)
PDFpen: Mac PDF Editor - Edit, Sign, and Correct PDFs
PDFpenPro: Mac PDF Editor - Create PDF Forms, PDF Table of Contents

PDF Studio Pro ($129)
PDF Studio - PDF Software for Mac, Windows and Linux

PDF Nomad ($40)
https://sintraworks.com/index.php/sintraworks/pdfnomad_home/
(Can't erase static text. But you can OCR a page and then edit.)

Wondershare PDF Editor Pro ($100)
Wondershare PDF Editor Pro for Mac | OFFICIAL
Buy PDF Editor for Mac - Wondershare official online shop

PDF Editor Pro ($99)
PDF Editor Pro for Mac | MacAppware - Mac optimizer, Mac fonts, Mac logo design, Mac bundles and more

PDF Converter Mac ($100)
PDF Converter for Mac | Nuance

iSkysoft PDF Editor Pro ($100)
[OFFICIAL] iSkysoft PDF Editor for Mac: Edit PDF like a Word Processor
(I've always found iSkysoft to be a sketchy company...)
Speaking with spammers | Macworld

Cisdem PDFManagerUltimate for Mac ($70)
[OFFICIAL] Cisdem PDFManagerUltimate for Mac: PDF Editor, PDF Reader and PDF Converter

None of these products are inexpensive. Though they are all quite a bit less than Adobe's Acrobat for the Macintosh.

Personally I have settled on Nuance's PDF Converter for the Mac, because Nuance purchased Caere's OmniPage Pro and integrated it into the product, thus giving it the very best optical character recognition (OCR) engine available on the Macintosh.

However, most Mac users that I know have gone with PDFPen.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! Lots of options there!
 
Randy B. Singer

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chas_m said:
...while minor fixes to a PDF are fairly easy to do with the software mentioned (can even sometimes be done in Preview, or Adobe Illustrator albeit that's rather an expensive option), even PDFPen is not going to make PDFs magically completely reworkable. Didn't want you to be misled before spending money if that was what you needed, that's all.
Click to expand...

Preview is a pretty powerful PDF utility. I use it all the time for some purposes to quickly work with PDF's. But there are two very important things that it cannot do.

One is erase an existing bit of text in a PDF. (Presumably so that you can replace that text with new text.)

The other is OCR a PDF and turn it back into a word processing document.

Those abilities are limited to true PDF editors. That's what the programs in the list that I gave are.
 
Randy B. Singer

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Mencelus said:
Thanks a lot! Lots of options there!
Click to expand...

It's surprising how many options there are, isn't it?

That said, PDFpen probably outsells all of the others combined.

And while Adobe Acrobat for the Macintosh is outlandishly priced, it does things that none of the others can. (e.g. it can remove copy protection.) It also can open some PDF's where none of the others can. (I don't know why.)

I have Acrobat, and a couple of the others. Each has its pluses and minuses.

It used to be you could purchase the excellent scanner, the Fujitsu ScanSnap, and it would come with a full copy of Adobe Acrobat, for less than the price of just purchasing Adobe Acrobat by itself. Sadly, the latest ScanSnap for the Macintosh doesn't come with Acrobat, even though the ScanSnap for Windows still comes with Acrobat for Windows.
 
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Mencelus said:
Like the title says, I've got ideas that need me to be able to edit PDFs (not merely annotate or sign them, but actually change text or move it around within the PDF itself, not as a "layer" on top of the text), and for that, need an editor. I've used Adobe before for Windows but it's a VERY old copy and I don't have a windows machine anymore anyway.

With that in mind, are there any apps that you all have used for PDF editing on the Mac? Price is an issue, naturally, since I don't want to buy Adobe's offering; but I figure anything less than that will do.

Folks?
Click to expand...

I've tried many and so far my preferred one is PDF Studio. Although it's not (by far) the prettiest (wondershare is much slicker), it does all I need to do, ie mostly commenting, moving images around, add/delete pages, etc. All in all, my preferred option (after Acrobat... but for the price...)

BTW, I switched from Acrobat DC pro as it was lagging terribly on my MPB mid-2015 (for no reason... 16gb ram...)

Give it a try!

https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/
 
chscag

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Not at those prices. :( PDFpen 8 in the Mac App Store is $74.99 and can easily do everything PDF Studio can. Also, PDFpen occasionally is bundled with other software which sells for less than the cost of PDFpen alone.
 
Randy B. Singer

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chscag said:
Not at those prices. :( PDFpen 8 in the Mac App Store is $74.99 and can easily do everything PDF Studio can. Also, PDFpen occasionally is bundled with other software which sells for less than the cost of PDFpen alone.
Click to expand...

On top of that, PDFPenPro can currently be purchased at half price ($62) as can PDFpen not Pro ($37):

https://shop.macworld.com/sales/pdfpenpro-8-for-mac-3

At that price it is a steal.
 

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