How to edit a PDF on a Mac for free

What Preview can and can't do

Preview is a PDF viewer with a set of markup tools. That covers a lot of everyday editing, as long as you only need to add things to the page or rearrange pages. Preview can:

• Add text boxes, shapes, arrows, highlights, notes and freehand drawings with the Markup toolbar.
• Add your signature, created with the trackpad, the camera or an iPhone.
• Fill in forms that have fillable fields.
• Reorder, rotate, delete and insert pages, and combine PDFs by dragging one into another's thumbnails.
• Make a file smaller with the Reduce File Size filter when you export it, and add a password when you save or export it.

What Preview can't do

Preview also saves changes into the file you opened as you work. That's convenient, but it means the original is changed. Make a copy first (in Finder, choose File, then Duplicate), or use File, then Revert To, in Preview to go back to an earlier version.

• Change or delete the text that's already on the page, or change its font. A text box is added on top of the page; the words underneath stay as they are.
• Remove content safely. A white or black shape only covers text, which can still be selected and copied from under it.
• Add page numbers, headers and footers, watermarks or Bates numbers.
• Convert a PDF to an editable Word document, or make a scan searchable so it can be edited.
• Send a document for other people to sign with an audit trail.

How to edit a PDF in Preview

1. 1In Finder, select the PDF and choose File, then Duplicate, so you keep the original. Open the copy in Preview.
2. 2Click the Markup button (a pen tip) in the toolbar, or choose View, then Show Markup Toolbar.
3. 3To add text, click the Text button (a T in a box), drag the text box into place and type. Use the Text Style button (Aa) to change the font, size and colour.
4. 4To highlight, select text and click the Highlight button. Shapes, Sketch and Note add drawings and comments.
5. 5To work with pages, choose View, then Thumbnails. Drag thumbnails to reorder pages, select one and press Delete to remove it, or use Tools, then Rotate Left or Rotate Right.
6. 6Choose File, then Save, or File, then Export as PDF to save a new copy under another name.

How to edit PDF text on a Mac in your browser

To change the words that are already in a PDF, you need a real PDF editor. PDFZyro runs in Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Edge on a Mac, so there's nothing to download or keep up to date.

1. 1Open PDFZyro in your browser and create a free account.
2. 2Click Edit PDF on the Home page and choose the PDF from your documents, or drag it from Finder onto the upload area.
3. 3With Edit text & select chosen in the toolbar (or press V), click the line of text you want to change. Type your change and press Return, or press Esc to cancel.
4. 4To add new text, choose Add text (T) and click where it goes. In the properties panel, choose Sans, Serif or Mono, the size, bold or italic, the alignment and the colour.
5. 5To add a logo or a screenshot, choose Add picture (I) and pick a JPG or PNG. To remove something, choose Whiteout (W) and drag over it: text under the box is removed when you save, not just covered.
6. 6Undo with Command-Z and redo with Command-Shift-Z. When you're done, click Save or press Command-S.
7. 7The edited PDF is saved as a new version, and the earlier version stays in the history. Download it, and it lands in your Downloads folder like any other file.

Pages, forms and signatures on a Mac

Everything else works the same way in the browser. Open a document and use Organize pages to drag pages into a new order, rotate, delete, duplicate or insert pages. Fill & Sign fills in forms, even ones without fillable fields, and adds your signature, which you can draw with the trackpad. Merge combines several PDFs, and Compress makes a large file small enough to email.

For a long rewrite, convert the PDF with PDF to Word and open the .docx in Pages or Microsoft Word for Mac. Text in a PDF is edited one line at a time and doesn't flow onto the next line, so whole paragraphs are easier to rewrite in a word processor.

If you use PDFZyro often, keep it one click away. In Chrome or Edge, choose Install app from the account menu. In Safari on recent versions of macOS, choose File, then Add to Dock.

Is it really free?

Yes. On the Free plan, saving your changes in Edit counts as one of the daily edit, convert, compress or OCR tasks. Organizing pages, adding comments and Fill & Sign aren't counted, and nothing is ever added to your file, not even a watermark. Pro removes the daily limit if you edit PDFs all day.

Other free ways to edit a PDF on a Mac

• Adobe Acrobat Reader for Mac: free for adding comments, filling in forms and signing. Changing the text and pictures on a page needs the paid Acrobat.
• LibreOffice Draw: this free app opens a PDF as a drawing in which lines of text can be changed. It works best with simple layouts.
• Pages: it can't open PDFs. Convert the PDF to Word first, then open the .docx in Pages.
• Print, write and scan: always possible for a form, but slow, and the scan can't be searched or edited.