Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite
2

What free software/app is there to edit pdf files on Mac OS X?

Specifically I am looking to edit an existing PDF file and re-save it in PDF format.

share|improve this question
4  
Are you aware that you can create a PDF file from any document you can print in OS X? If that's not sufficient, what additional features do you need in your PDF files? – scottishwildcat Jun 20 '11 at 19:07
I have one pdf file I want to edit it and save it back in pdf. – Umesh Kacha Jun 20 '11 at 19:19
Hmm, okay... I'm not aware of any free software for OS X that will allow you to directly edit PDFs. smilesoftware.com/PDFpen is probably the cheapest/best-known option, but that costs $60. If you don't need to maintain the resolution independence of the original document, you could edit it in a free graphics application like GIMP and save it back out as a PDF bitmap, but I guess that's not what you want... – scottishwildcat Jun 20 '11 at 19:25
1  
@Umesh Kacha I recognize English may not be your first language, but this is not "creating" pdfs. This is editing pdfs. You may want to edit your question. – ghoppe Jun 20 '11 at 20:01
+1 for PDFpen. Besides that, there's only Acrobat Pro. – René Jun 20 '11 at 20:08
show 1 more comment

4 Answers

up vote 9 down vote

PDF creation is built into Mac OS X.

Open the app you want to create a PDF from and choose "File > Print" or "Cmd+P" and choose "PDF > Save as PDF..." from the dropdown in the bottom left of the panel.

You can then use the Preview app to rotate, crop, combine files, and more.

share|improve this answer
While this will create basic PDFs, you can't employ advanced PDF features like layers (to name but one) if you do it this way, hence my comment on the original question. – scottishwildcat Jun 20 '11 at 19:22
up vote 1 down vote

I can't recommend any free solution since I don't use them, but want to second PDFPen as the best in class at any price. It looks like SamucoPDF is the least expensive app in the app store currently, but it has mixed reviews on the text editing.

If you really have more time than money, you might check out Stanza Desktop or Calibre both of which offer to accept PDF as input into file formats that are easier to edit with TextEdit or another editor you may have accessible. Once you've edited, you can print to pdf since the OS provides that to any app that can print.

share|improve this answer
Why don't you use the built-in PDF Creation? Does the PDFPen offer something more? In iPad, I use Readdle product called PDF Expert that I like very much, it has a search over all documents and all kind of note-taking/modification/etc but no idea about Mac -products. PDFPen is also for iPad but odd that never heard about it. – hhh Oct 25 '12 at 23:12
1  
The specifics here are to edit existing PDF and I feel PDFpen is one of the best solutions for that use case. Preview doesn't edit files in a meaningful manner. You can mark up things, draw on them, add a signature, but not really edit, merge or change things like a word processor can. Clearly print to PDF is the best option if you just want to make a PDF, and Preview can merge two or more documents into one, but editing requires additional software. – bmike♦ Oct 25 '12 at 23:26
Roger +1, thank you for the info. – hhh Oct 26 '12 at 0:09
up vote 1 down vote

The best solution is indeed, Preview... It's built into Mac OSX and is the easiest to use if you want to create/edit/view PDF files.

Thanks Apple for thinking this through! :)

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

You can just use Apple's Preview application, built-in in Mac OS X.

If you need more advanced features, I recommend Skim.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.