How To Easily Edit PDFs On Mac: Offline & Online Ways (2023)

Although PDFs are convenient to read, these files can certainly be tricky to deal with, if you want to make some quick changes. That’s where you need a PDF Editor, a simple program that lets you make changes in the text, add/remove pictures, highlight specific things, fill out forms, sign & do a lot more.

While the easiest method to edit a PDF on Mac is to use the built-in Preview tool. The application is capable of basic image editing like resizing, cropping, removing backgrounds, combining two photos, batch conversion, correcting colors, and performing export tasks. Let’s check out how to use Apple’s Preview?

Method 1: Easily Edit PDFs On Mac With Preview

Preview comes pre-installed with your macOS and lets you open, edit, and manage PDF files easily. Using the free PDF editor program, you can perform a variety of tasks such as merging PDF docs, highlighting text, adding signatures, comments, and so on.

To get started with Preview, follow the short guides below:

Add Texts Or Notes With Preview:

1. Navigate to the PDF file you would like to edit and right-click on it > Open with > Preview.
2. Head towards the Tools tab > Annotate > Text/Note.
3. Once the typing box appears, add the desired text.
4. Close the box and simply move the text/note to the desired location.
5. If you want to customize the text, choose View > Show Markup Toolbar > A.

Select how you want to customize the fonts, colors, and style of the text.

Merge PDFs With Preview:

1. Navigate to the PDF file you would like to edit and right-click on it > Open with > Preview.
2. Head towards the View tab > Thumbnails.
3. Once you see the thumbnails of all the Pages in the sidebar.
4. Start dragging & dropping PDFs on the sidebar, you wish to combine.
5. Go to the File tab > Export as PDF to Save it!

To know more about how you can combine or merge PDFs on Mac, check out the complete guide here!

Split PDFs With Preview:

1. Navigate to the PDF file you would like to edit and right-click on it > Open with > Preview.
2. Head towards the View tab > Thumbnails.
3. Once you see the thumbnails of all the Pages in the sidebar.
4. Simply drag the page you wish to remove from the thumbnails panel to the desktop.

If you want a dedicated program that can help you split PDFs easily, you can check out the list of best options, here!

Method 2: Edit PDFs On Mac With QuickLook

When Apple introduced the macOS Mojave in 2018, it added the capability to edit PDF files using the QuickLook app. It is an amazing app that lets you open a preview of any multimedia file without opening the associated software with it. To edit PDF using QuickLook, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the PDF file you would like to edit.
2. Select it and hit the Spacebar.
3. As soon as the Preview of the file appears.
4. Locate the Pencil icon. (It might be present on the top-right corner of the screen)
5. Once you hit the Pencil icon, a set of editing options will appear.
6. You can draw, add shapes, manipulate text & do more.
7. To edit the text in your PDF, hit the ‘T’ icon from the set of editing options.
8. A text tool box will pop-up on your screen.
9. You need to move this box to the PDF file where you would like to add the text.
10. Input the desired text and you can customize it using the drop-down box that appears beside the text.

Position the text and click on Done to save the changes! You have successfully edited the PDF on Mac!

Method 3: Easily Edit PDFs On Mac With PDF Editor Program

While it can be difficult to find the right PDF Editor Software that brings a perfect blend of editing & management features to perform all the tasks. We suggest using PDFelement, an excellent PDF editing tool that lets you create, convert, edit, and sign PDF docs without any hassles. Its features set include:

• Create PDFs from files.
• Combine or merge PDFs.
• Split PDFs into multiple pages.
• Convert PDFs in more than 300 file formats.
• Capability to export data from scanned PDFs.
• Readymade templates.
• Tools for annotations & add comments.
• Spell-check and capability to auto-fill.
• Create & manage digital signatures.
• Store & share files with complete encryption.
• Highly compatible with the new macOS 11 Big Sur version.
• Free customer support.

Apart from PDFelement by Wondershare, you can try using the following software to edit PDFs on Mac easily.

• PDF Expert 
• Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
• PDFpenPro 11 

Method 4: Easily Edit PDFs On Mac With Online PDF Editor Tools

Although there are a plethora of websites & online PDF editing tools that lets you read, write, and manage PDF documents as per your needs. One of the most recommended and popular utilities of all time is – PDF Buddy. The online PDF editor tool has a wide range of features to manipulate a PDF doc in a variety of ways. You can:

• Add a new text.
• Add/remove photos.
• Merge PDFs on Mac.
• Combine PDF documents.
• Add signatures.

Head towards the PDF Buddy website > Simply drag and drop PDF files you want to edit on your Mac > Perform numerous edits to your PDF file. Apart from this, you can try using programs like Smallpdf, Docfly, Sejda, Soda PDF, and more!