Business • Updated on May.11, 2020
- WPS PDF to Word Converter. It’s available for Windows and Mac as well, so you’ll be able to convert documents on almost any platform. 5 Best Funny Apps For Android in 2018.
- Best PDF reader for Mac of 2018; Best PDF reader for Mac of 2018. (Portable Document Format) is to send important information to another person quickly and easily. File converter and page.
- OLM to PST Converter is one the most widely solution to import Outlook for Mac emails in Windows version of Outlook. Check out the top 10 Best OLM to PST Converter for Outlook 2019. Download and convert OLM to PST effortlessly using the #1 converter.
- Part 2: Best 10 PDF to Word Converter for Large Files Free Download If you need to convert large PDF files to word, then you had better turn to PDF to word converter for Mac or Windows for help. Now, here are some excellent offline PDF to word converter software you can get.
The best Mac video converters also optimize files for specific devices such as smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles. The program you choose should also let you create files specifically designed to be shared online.
Editor’s note (May.11, 2020): Recently PDFpenPro turns 12. The big upgrade we have tested, and we are confident it’s still our upgrade pick since the core functionality hasn’t changed, and add more features and improvements than ever!
PDF is a necessity in macOS. Without PDF, you can’t easily create & share portable documents. In fact, almost every native macOS application lets you export content into PDF.
Unfortunately, dealing with PDFs can be a pain at times, especially if you need to sign them, merge them or anything else.
That is why a fully-fledged PDF editor for Mac is a necessity indeed! Unlike the common thought, there is an impressive variety of PDF editing programs to choose from.
And, Adobe Acrobat Pro is most people’s go-to option.
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Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links where we may receive a small commission for at no cost to you if you decide to purchase one. However, these are the tools we fully test and recommend when it comes to Mac PDF editors and the commissions help us provide free content. You can read our full affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy.
We know Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is great, but…
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC has been the standard for PDF editing for a long time, and it’s not a surprise, considering that Adobe built the format. Anyway, that’s not really the most practical reason to keep using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC as your default macOS PDF editor.
The Good: Arobat Pro DC is undoubtedly one of the most powerful PDF solutions out there. It also syncs you with the Adobe ecosystem as well. If you are someone who uses Adobe Reader for opening PDF formats, you can have the benefits of a uniform user interface as well.
The Bad: The UI of Acrobat Pro DC is not the most user friendly. Sure, it gets the job done, but that’s not enough. We would not recommend Acrobat Pro DC when you want to edit multiple documents and manage everything with ease. If you are new to editing PDFs, it might take some time for you to get used to the interface.
The Ugly: Acrobat Pro DC is damn expensive. It comes with a monthly subscription charge of $14.99. Adobe Pro 2017, an older, standalone version, is available for a hefty price-tag of $449. These rates are way beyond what a normal user can afford.
We believe these reasons are enough for you to look for an Adobe Acrobat alternative — one which is feature rich and easy on your pocket.
Criteria for choosing alternatives to Adobe Acrobat?
We have looked at the following features and abilities of the PDF Editors reviewed here:
- Interface: Does it have a simple User Interface? Can you work with single-document and multi-document management?
- Editing: Is the PDF editing process as smooth as it gets? Does the text you add maintain the style and formatting of the original PDF? Can the PDF editor search the PDF? Can you edit other components like images, boxes, shapes and signatures? Can you add hyperlinks or attach documents?
- Collaboration: What markup tools are available? Can you highlight, underline, or strikethrough text? Can you easily add comments and other elements to the PDF?
- Signing: Can you add a signature easily? Can you do it using text, trackpad or even import an image of the actual signature?
- Saving: Can you resize or compress the PDF? Can you delete pages? Can you export pages to other formats?
- OCR: Can PDF editor read a scanned page with Optical Character Recognition technology – and can you edit that?
The pick: PDF Expert (fastest & easiest to dive in)
As the developers put it, PDF Expert is a fast, robust and a beautiful PDF editor. We tested it on different PDF files and read feedback from other PDF users online, and we came to know how this app stands out from the many other PDF editors out there.
Without further ado, let’s share our experience with PDF Expert.
The user interface
As you can see, PDF Expert offers a clean and intuitive user interface. You can simply drag-and-drop a file to get started. Once added to the interface, you can decide what type of editing you want — Annotations or Editing. There, you also get the option to merge PDF files, sign them, and fill forms.
On the left, top side of the screen, you have viewing mode controls. For instance, you can enable the sidebar for accessing features like Bookmarks, Thumbnails, Annotations and Outline. This sidebar is a great feature when it comes to navigating within the PDF document.
Besides, PDF Expert offers different viewing modes as well:
1. You can display one or two pages in the same-screen. This is great when you want to compare pages and make the edits.
2. PDF Expert has a Split View option as well. In this view, you can view/edit two PDF documents at the same time. You can arrange the documents side by side either horizontally or vertically.
2. PDF Expert has a Split View option as well. In this view, you can view/edit two PDF documents at the same time. You can arrange the documents side by side either horizontally or vertically.
This is a helpful feature when it comes to document management.
PDF Expert has a dedicated option for changing the page order of the PDF document. We’ll discuss that later.
In short, we are really impressed by the intuitive UI of PDF Expert.
Editing PDF files
Now to the main highlight of this app — editing PDF files.
There are actually four main options in the toolbar — Text, Image, Link and Redact.
One thing we love about PDF Expert is that it automatically detects the type of content you’ve selected. If you’ve selected an image, for instance, you will see options to rotate, replace, export and crop the photograph.
Similarly, you can add/manage links within the PDF document. You can set up links to the web and other pages in the document. If you ask us, PDF Expert has kept this section as minimal as possible. You won’t have trouble in making edits even with a complex PDF file.
The Redact feature is also quite helpful. In a single click, you can white out sensitive content in the PDF file. We found this feature really useful while sharing confidential data.
Annotating PDF files
Annotating PDFs is probably the second most popular thing you do with PDFs after viewing and reading. Whether you’re a student annotating a book or an architect, marking up a blueprint, you can highlight, underline, strikethrough, add shapes, lines or your own stamps, and export all your annotations with ease. Once again, you can count on the toolbar to access a top-class collection of tools.
Best Pdf Converter For Mac
It’s very easy to add signatures to PDF Expert. You can do it using text, trackpad or even upload an image of the actual signature. Either way, you get awesome results. Other annotation features also work great in this PDF editing suite.
Managing pages in PDF
As we mentioned earlier, PDF Expert has a dedicated viewing option for managing pages. This comes as a handy feature when you want to take care of large PDF documents.
The app offers a bunch of options such as Add Page, Append File, Copy, Paste, Rotate, Delete and Share. You can easily arrange multiple pages by dragging and dropping them. You can also extract individual pages from a complete PDF document.
Last but not least, PDF Expert offers an option to add page numbers on the header and footer areas as well.
Multi-platform support
PDF Expert is available for both macOS and iOS with content-sync between the devices.
If you want to access documents that you created using PDF Expert for macOS, you can easily do it from an iPhone or and iPad. The app can be downloaded from App Store and everything is kept in sync. It’s a great way to access cloud storage: everything is done via iCloud. It’s as seamless as it gets.
Additional features in PDF Expert
There are a few advanced features that we should talk about.
PDF Expert has an in-built method for password-protecting PDF files. This is a great way to secure your PDF file without any complications. You can access it from File> Set Password, and pick a password of your choice.
PDF Expert also has an option to reduce the file size of a PDF file. While doing so, you can adjust the image quality as well. In our test, PDF Expert was able to reduce the file size by 75%, which is great!
Last but not least, PDF Expert comes with Touchbar support as well. So, if you have a compatible MacBook, you’ll love it.
What could be better
There are a few things that we didn’t like in PDF Expert. We understand that PDF Expert is a minimalistic PDF editor but it has left out some basic features as well.
- You cannot create PDF documents using PDF Expert. You can technically add a new page in the PDF file and add text, but that’s something inefficient. We’d have really loved to see some additional set of PDF creation features in the program.
- PDF Expert could have included a basic version of Optical Character Recognition. It’s disappointing that the program does not even support plug-ins, which can bring in the feature. It lacks other types of plug-ins as well.
- There are only four editing options in PDF Expert. At times, these may not be enough for most people. We’d have loved to see some extra toolbars in there.
- It’d also be better if PDF Expert had better options for bulk actions. As of now, that’s NIL.
Also, PDF Expert lacks options for customization and control. Everything is basic – too basic, at times.
Availability & pricing
PDF Expert is available for macOS and iOS. You can download the Mac version from the official website and the iOS version from App Store.
PDF Expert for macOS is priced at $79.99 (and you can get 20% discount here) while the iOS version can be bought for $9.99. If you ask us, both apps have been priced quite reasonably. The PDF Expert license actually lets you run the app on 3 Macs.
Verdict
PDF Expert, according to our repeated tests and collected feedbacks from other users, it is faster than Preview. It allows you to edit & manage PDF documents with ease, never compromising the performance as well. It’s true that it lacks advanced tech like OCR but that’s something you should be convinced about. Maybe you could use it along with an online OCR to fill the gap?
Overall, for the price you’re paying, PDF Expert is worth it.
Upgrade pick: PDFpenPro (most powerful)
PDFpenPro is an upgraded version of the PDFpen software which increases the number of features, making it one of the most powerful picks you can get for a Mac computer.
Even though PDFpenPro comes with a higher price tag – it can be considered as a 3-in-1 tool. It’s a tool ideal for viewing PDF files, editing PDF documents, and even using OCR software within the PDFpenPro to scan other formats and turn them into PDF format.
Once you start viewing and editing your PDF documents using PDFpenPro – you won’t have to reach out for another PDF tool to sort things out.
Down below, you can find all about the comprehensive features of the PDFpenPro version.
Editings
PDFpenPro features almost any of the basic PDF tool features you can think of.
It’s a very versatile tool that allows you to add and edit the text in a number of ways, add signatures, correct text, turn any document into PDF, or even turn a website into PDF.
However, it goes beyond that.
You can make interactive forms right within the PDF document, make a portfolio package of your existing PDF documents, or even export the PDF file into any other format (including Excel or even PowerPoint).
When you’re reviewing documents, you can choose between drawing, highlighting, scribbling, or correcting the text.
Each one of these ways has at least 3 or 4 tools you can use to edit the PDF document your way – without facing any limitations.
By being able to add or draw objects, add file attachments, copy & paste text, edit existing text, and move whole text blocks as one – you could easily create a newspaper page from scratch. This just shows the true power of PDFpenPro as it has no limitations to the ways you can edit the documents.
One of the most helpful features is definitely the ability to re-order PDF pages in a simple manner before saving or extracting the PDF into any other format (even Excel or PowerPoint).
Even though we were mostly using PDFpenPro to edit existing PDF documents, creating a new PDF document from scratch was very simple. We weren’t only able to open a blank PDF document but PDFpenPro also features various blank templates to make your PDF documents look better.
Usability
Even though PDFpenPro has a lot to offer – you won’t ever feel overwhelmed using it. All tools are located within the top taskbar.
The taskbar is wisely placed at the top so it is not in the way, and yet its size won’t take a lot of the space or shift your focus from the work.
This way, you won’t feel overwhelmed with the number of tools facing you in the interface – but you’ll know that all-powerful features of PDFpenPro are two clicks away.
The interface relies on the multi-layer menu which also features a lot of pop-up windows to ensure that the main interface doesn’t get preoccupied throughout the use.
Some would say that this is a very simple interface – but we say it is efficient and effective. With such interface, you will be able to stay productive, organized, and efficient at all times – whether you’re doing a quick edit to a document or you’re fully taking the PDF document apart and doing multiple edits at a time.
On top of the narrow menu on top of the PDFpenPro – we were also able to quickly find plenty more features using Mac’s taskbar “Edit” button. But our productivity really strived when we learned quick two-key shortcuts to our most commonly used tools.
Annotations
There are 5 different ways you can annotate documents using PDFpenPro. From simple drawing and scrabbling over the document, to adding your notes, comment boxes, links, bookmarks, or attachments.
Probably one of the most powerful annotation features in the software is audio annotation. You can add audio annotations to PDF so everyone who reviews the PDF after you can listen to your feedback at particular sections of the PDF pages.
PDFpenPro allows quick editing & reviewing of PDF documents, even without having to type to leave your feedback.
If you have an iPad – drawing or writing in your own handwriting across the PDF documents is also a great feature to either mark the pages or leave quick annotations.
OCR scanning
PDFpenPro has OCR (optical character recognition) integrated into the software so you can easily convert any document (including images of text) into PDF documents.
But not only this. You can then use other tools included in PDFpenPro to fully edit the document without any limitations after you’ve turned it into the PDF document.
This powerful piece of software is included in PDFpenPro which is still a lightweight software.
With the variety of features available within PDFpenPro – there’s no doubt that it’s one of the most powerful PDF tools for Mac users.
It took us only a couple of seconds to clear the OCR layer on the page to gain full control over the PDF document we opened just seconds ago. As shown in the image above, we were able to edit, change, or remove anything from the PDF document, including text, images, and the page structure.
DocuSign support
There is one feature in PDFpenPro 12 that’s worth the upgrade, and in fact, we believe that many people who use PDF for work will need.
It’s the way to sign PDF documents as if they were right in front of you.
This doesn’t only allow easy signing of legal documents, but it also increases the security since it relies on the trusted e-signature service for businesses – DocuSign.
You will need to log into the DocuSign every time you re-open the PDFpenPro, but once you sign it – you will be able to sign hundreds of documents in a matter of minutes.
All it takes is a couple of clicks to access the DocuSign from the menu and you’ll be able to send the document in seconds.
Therefore, you won’t have to rely on third-party software to work with your PDF files or you won’t have to go back to old-school print & scan way to sign documents.
What could be better?
PDFpenPro is a powerful software and it’s really good at what it does – but we found a couple of flaws that could slow you down or just annoy you, so you’d have to want to be aware of them.
The biggest issue was with text editing. If you always use a different font than a default font on your Mac computer (like we do) – we found that the PDFpenPro had an issue remembering our font.
Therefore, we had to manually change back to our font with each text edit. As you can imagine, this takes a lot of effort and it will slow you down.
However, if you stick to a default text font – you’ll be fine.
Luckily, we haven’t noticed other issues similar to this one – so PDFpenPro is still a very efficient tool.
Also, PDFpenPro’s support is very active and they’re really good at eliminating any sorts of bugs so this isn’t something you should worry about a lot.
What we think is missing in PDFpenPro, and yet we’d like to see it – is the ability to organize your tools in the bar. Adding a ‘favorite’ section where users can lay out their most used tools would be useful.
Other than that, PDFpenPro is very solid and includes everything you would need to take full control over PDF documents.
Availability & pricing
PDFpenPro is available only for Mac computers (including iPad and iPhone support) and you would need a Mac computer running at least the Mac OS 10.13 version.
The price of PDFpenPro is $124.99 (one-time payment). However, the PDFpen standard version costs $74.95.
And if you already own the standard version, the PDFpenPro upgrade will only cost you $35.
Verdict
We believe that the PDFpenPro is very close to offering everything Abode Reader does at a relatively more affordable one-time price. And since it’s specialized for Mac users – our opinion is that Smile did a really good job at integrating the PDFpenPro with the existing Mac taskbar to provide productive & efficient use with no clutter.
Even then, PDFpenPro offers solid OCR, a new DocuSign support, and many features that give you better control everything in a PDF file. It is just that you should be ready to pay something extra.
Other Mac PDF editor apps worth mention
Here are some of the top apps we considered as the best Mac PDF editor. They did not, however, make it to the top list.
Quicklook or Preview
MacOS comes with built-in features to let you fill and sign a PDF. Depending on your macOS version, this PDF editing tool is integrated to the built-in Quick Look (showing you the preview of a PDF when you hit the spacebar). Or, you can open the PDF file through the Preview app and use it to access features such as highlight, underline, strikethrough, page rotation, among others.
You can also add text and shapes to the document. Once done, Preview can neatly export the files to PDF as well. Considering that you are not paying anything to get this program, we’d love to keep it aside. So, if you just want to bring some annotations and text boxes to a PDF document without affecting the existing text, Preview should work just fine.
Are you looking for a fully-fledged suite for OCR? If your answer is yes, then ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is a great choice. The problem is that you cannot expect standard features here. The whole program has been made for OCR needs, an area in which you can expect the best results. The program would convert a scanned image to editable text in just a few seconds.
As far as the OCR technology is concerned, ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac works just great. To test its capabilities, we also tried some low-quality images and it was able to perform OCR on some of them. However, the results are always better if you have a better-quality image. We would not recommend the program for standard editing needs, though. The price tag is relatively higher too.
ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is available for $119.00.
Wondershare PDFelement Pro for Mac is one of the most well-priced PDF editing suites out there. It makes some compromises in performance and features, though. However, the best part of the app comes with full support for OCR and PDF conversion. These two features are great when you consider the overall price tag of the app.
If you ask us what matters the most here, it’s Batch Processing. Wondershare PDFelement Pro for Mac is one of the very few editors that allow complete support for batch processing. You can convert and deal with a lot of PDF files at once. The UI is also quite similar to that of PDF Expert, but we wish it had an enhanced level of performance.
Priced at $99, Wondershare PDFelement Pro is available for macOS and Windows.
Foxit PhantomPDF is one of the smoothest PDF editors we’ve seen so far. It packs so many features into a smaller-looking tool. Nevertheless, compared to other PDF editors we’ve covered, Foxit PhantomPDF comes with a larger footprint. Multitasking is not easy when you have Foxit PhantomPDF running in background. It also checks the boxes of OCR and automated recognition.
It’s comparatively easier to do PDF editing in Foxit PhantomPDF. We think, however, that the AI could be an impressive one. As of now, the User Interface looks so rudimentary and you will need some time to get used to the deal. Keep that aside, Foxit PhantomPDF is a great PDF editor for teams as well. It has options for real-time collaboration features.
Foxit PhantomPDF is available for Windows and macOS. It has a hefty price tag of $99.95 for Mac.
Kdan PDF Reader is another app which makes it to our list of PDF editors for Mac. It is quite popular with over 44,000 App Store ratings. It provides a wide range of document functions for business and daily life.
It has both desktop and mobile apps, so you can work anytime, anywhere. It provides you with the feature to create and edit PDFs with features such as handwritten comments, highlighting, striking through, underlining texts, and more.
The highlight of this app is the Robust Reading Engine which provides you with a comfortable reading experience with features such as smooth page scrolling and the option to change the theme and page background so that your eyes don’t strain up.
Kdan PDF Reader’s individual plan can be purchased at $59.99 for a year.
What about web-based online PDF editor?
Online PDF editors are the next best choice that people make when they can’t afford Acrobat Pro DC. It’s an awesome option too — until you lose the internet connection. The problem with online editors is that you’d need a constant Internet connection.
There are also some security concerns. You basically have to upload the PDF document to a third-party server for editing it. It’s not the ideal option when you are dealing with confidential files either. Also, not all online PDF editors are offering satisfactory features.
Personally speaking, I think online PDF editors are just good for page management of PDF documents. If you need deeper editing or bulk editing, you can’t count on them. More importantly, most people like to edit their files in a native environment.
So, it makes sense to check out some of the actual native macOS PDF editors out there. If you’re a Windows user, check the best PDF editor for Windows 10 review here.
Wrap up
So, these were the best Mac PDF editors you can use in 2020. We have tried to suggest PDF editors that work well for particular needs. We hope it helps you choose the right one.
If you are still confused and want a PDF editor for Mac that’s easy and effective, you can go with our pick, PDF Expert.
If you are looking for a powerful solution that provides similar capabilities as Adobe Acrobat, then it is the time to evaluate the upgrade pick – PDFpenPro – as your Adobe Acrobat alternative.
Business • Updated on March 15, 2020
It’s far enough in 2020 for you to notice that you can’t directly open a PDF file with Pages, Office, TextEdit, or XYZ app on your Mac as it will be a display of gibberish above. Considering how tricky PDFs can get, it becomes really taxing to view and edit PDFs on Mac.
What!!!
Did you say “retyping PDF”?
It is too valuable to waste time re-entering PDF data into Microsoft word or spreadsheets on Mac — especially when it comes to maintaining the original formatting of the document.
So it’s necessary to have a powerful Mac PDF converter tool in 2020 so that you can finally stop re-typing other documents and get back to what’s really important – your work and productivity.
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PDF Converter: what we tested
We looked at the following criteria to pick the best PDF converter for Mac from the lot.
- Ease of use: When we want to use my PDF converter, we want to simply drag-n-drop-n-go. we expect to need a Mac app that should be dead simple to use each time.
- Export options: With this category of apps, this is the single most important feature. A good PDF converter should convert a PDF into a different format such as images, text/RTF, Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. that are compatible with Apple iWork as well.
- Converting quality: While much emphasis is placed on the ability to convert PDF files, equally as important is the ability to keep the original formatting and produce high-quality results. Besides, the best programs quickly and batch processes the task to provide a pleasant conversion experience.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) — The ability to apply Optical Character Recognition (or OCR) is extremely important as it takes an image that looks like text and converts it to actual, computer-readable text. A Mac PDF Converter that integrates OCR technology will save you tons of hours when it comes to dealing with scanned PDFs.
Best for most: Wondershare PDF Converter Pro for Mac
Among all the apps that we tested, Wondershare PDF Converter Pro for Mac was the clear winner.
The reason why it stands out of the competition is because of some of these features that it possesses, and the number of file types that it converts your PDF to is unparalleled.
Wondershare PDF Converter Pro for Mac helps you convert text-based and scanned PDF into following file formats:
- PDF to iWork Pages(.pages)
- PDF to Microsoft Word(.docx)
- PDF to PowerPoint(.pptx)
- PDF to Excel(.xlsx)
- PDF to RTF(.rtf)
- PDF to Text(.txt)
- PDF to ePub (.epub Book format.)
- PDF to HTML(.html)
- PDF to Images (JPG, BMP, TIFF, GIF)
Installation and interface
You can download a free trial version to test out the software. The trial version only allows you to convert the first five pages of a PDF, and OCR function isn’t available.
About the User Interface, it is sleek, not many options, which makes it easy to use. Just select the output format that you desire and click on Convert. Easy at it sounds.
The software also uses drag and drop functionality that all Mac users love, which makes it not only easy, but much gets the work done with much better pace.
OCR PDF
After you purchase Wondershare PDF Converter Pro, you can turn on “OCR” support, and download and install the plugin first.
Drag-n-drop your scanned PDF files to it. You can also import the whole folder for conversion.
When a scanned PDF file is uploaded, the program will automatically detect it and promote you to perform OCR to make it editable.
The program will ask you to choose the right OCR language for the output documents.
Another worth-mentioning feature is the fact that optical recognition system has the ability to scan and recognize the text from your PDFs or images for 20+ languages, so chances that your text will be converted with strange characters or symbols are quite low.
Batch-file processing
Best Pdf Converter For Iphone
PDF Converter Pro can queue as many as PDFs for conversion at one time, and you can easily select which individual pages should be picked up for conversion or define a range.
We liked PDF Converter Pro’s ability to specify different format for each PDF I uploaded and then convert them simultaneously.
PDF Converter Pro even supports password-protected PDF. If the document has security set up to prevent you from printing it, changing it, or copying its text, PDF Converter Pro ignores the restrictions.
We tested the application against PDF documents with all security measures enabled, save printing and PDF Converter Pro dealt with them with the same speed.
Conversion quality
We tried converting about twenty different PDFs, a few ebooks, and regular documents that were converted from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We even converted scanned fax from a few months ago.
We tried working with one of the most common formats — DOCX — and as you can see, the resulting Word file (right) looks a lot like the original PDF (left). This is very common with this type(complex layouts) of file conversion.
We also tried working with PPT files. We started with a PowerPoint that we saved to PDF via PowerPoint, it converted back into a PowerPoint well. The background and title became a background image, but the text was editable.
Coming to Mac’s native document format, we tried playing around with Pages. We picked a lost Pages document with only a PDF copy. When we tried to convert it back. It wasn’t 100% perfect. Some text that was centered needed to be re-centered, and some of the text ends up in separate boxes, but some of that is because of the way the original was constructed.
The EPUB also worked very well. We downloaded a few public domain ebooks, and each one converted with ease. There were no real issues with the converted files.
Well, for the most part, this software does a great job of converting PDFs to other formats properly. And it does a much better job than other software I’ve used, especially with poor quality PDFs that were scanned from faxes.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
For the most part, this software does a great job of converting PDFs to other formats properly. And it does a much better job than other software I’ve used, especially with poor quality PDFs that were scanned from faxes. However, there was one part that was a bit disappointing.
The app takes a while to work on PDFs that are large with many elements. So if you are doing batch conversion, then you might have to wait for a while to get the results.
However, the speed might see an improvement if you are on newer Macs with faster processing and more memory.
Pricing and availability
You can download Wondershare PDF Converter Pro trial version now to give it a whirl, or get the lifetime version at the list price $39.95 from their official website.
The trial limits access to features such as OCR, but it should be enough for you to get a hang of things at Wondershare PDF Converter.
Best with OCR: OCRKit
Our second pick is the OCR Kit Pro. This app is useful for converting scanned or printed documents into searchable PDF files (also RTF, HTML and text). It produces documents after you drag in graphics. It couldn’t be simpler to use.
It supports about 25 languages and offers different options for you to customize the conversion.
OCRKit combined the scanned image visuals with the interpreted text. It made it easy to search for text and find it within the context of the original document. The product’s output is something many users will find of value.
It is beneficial if you are someone who works with extracting a lot of texts out of PDFs. The app also has support for PDF compression, so if you are emailing large PDFs, this feature can be of great aid.
The app comes with automatic language selection to increase precision. It also has automatic rotation to determine the angle of each document, so you won’t have to waste much time trying to figure out the orientations of specific files. Automation here is of great aid!
OCRKit also has AppleScript support, which means that advanced users can use the app for programmed batch conversions.
The following file formats are currently supported by OCRKit: PDF, HTML, RTF, and TXT.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
OCRKit made it to our list of top PDF converters due to excellent OCR abilities. However, we did wish that the app had a more modern interface.
Sometimes, you wonder where the app is performing its operations. We also wished that the app gave us an option to directly access the output files without having to locate them.
The app doesn’t really have an interface, so the work is done by going to the File option and then choosing Open to select a PDF you want to work on. The presence of a simple interface might have made the interface more straightforward.
There is also no preview or some kind of an editor, which can make the app a bit confusing to use.
However, if your needs are straightforward, then this app could be a good choice.
Pricing and availability
OCRKit comes with a 14-day free trial. It should be enough for you to fully evaluate the app before you decide to purchase. Once you have made up your mind, you can go ahead with the purchase.
You can purchase a license of OCRKit at $39.99.
Other options we considered
Here are some of the other options that we considered for PDF editing and converting other than our top picks.
Preview for Mac
Preview is Mac’s built-in viewer. It lets you open images, PDFs, and other formats such as PNG, TIFF, BMP, PDF, AI, FAX, XBM, and JPE. You can convert these supported formats to PDF by following a few simple steps.
Open Preview on your Mac and go to File. Then, click on Open to add the target file to the Preview app. Now, scroll through the thumbnails to select the file you want to convert to the PDF. Mark these thumbnails and then go to File and choose Export as PDF. Once you do that, a print window pops up, letting you choose your destination to save your newly created PDF while.
Although Preview is a handy app to get to know your files better and convert them to PDF, it is not really the ultimate app to convert files into other formats as the export options to other formats are quite limited.
Lighten PDF Converter Master for Mac
Lighten PDF Converter is a lightweight and simple to use application that enables you to transform read-only documents.
The software supports batch conversion, as well as a full preview of each file — thanks to the integrated PDF reader.
The software enables you to draw table areas in the reader area to highlight or preserve certain formatting particularities.
Several output formats require additional settings, such as JPG, TXT, CSV or XLSX. In case you convert the PDFs to images, you may select to extract only the images from the input files, then resize each picture to fit the page format.
Moreover, the Standard version does not have OCR function, so scanned PDF will be converted as an image instead of editable text in Word. TO use the OCR feature, you need to get hold of the OCR version.
The standard version can be purchased at $29.99, and the OCR version comes at $34.99. There’s also an iOS version available.
You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you are unhappy with your purchase.
Solid Converter Mac
Solid Converter Mac is another Mac app to convert PDF files to other formats. It lets you easily convert your PDFS into editable Word documents. It even lets you convert scanned PDFs to editable and well formatted Word documents using its Solid OCR feature.
Other conversion options include conversion to Excel files, PowerPoint, HTML, Text, and iWork Pages.
The app also comes with advanced features for converting or removing headers and footers in a document. Options such as table recovery allow you to reconstruct border and borderless tables with apt formatting.
It also supports form recognition, which means that you won’t miss out on those forms, and can work on them quickly through editable text boxes.
Other Solid Converter Mac features include Rotated Text Recovery and Hyperlink detection, which makes it much easier to work on the app. It also lets you save time by selecting and converting multiple PDFs to your desired format through batch conversion.
Solid Converter Mac has all the tools you need in a PDF converter. Besides, it’s quite fast and easy on your computer’s resources. Solid Converter Mac won’t be cumbersome to run if you have a Mac loaded with apps, with little memory left.
The app also has decent localization features as it is available in 11 languages.
Solid Converter Mac comes with a 15-day working trial, after which you have to purchase the app for $99.95. The results that you get during the trial period are watermarked. They have a 90-day money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied with the workings of the app.
Smallpdf for Mac
Smallpdf for desktop is another app that aims to “simplify your PDF tasks”.
It provides you with an optimal reading experience, faster compression, and automatic upgrades.
Smallpdf performs the most common conversion tasks with ease. It has a PDF converted, which also compresses PDFs to save more space. There’s a split and merge feature that comes handy if you are working with multiple PDFs at the same time.
The conversion PDF files have been optimized to include popular file options such as Word Excel, PPT, and JPG. It also works vice-versa — you can easily convert the same files to PDF.
Besides conversion features, Smallpdf for Mac lets you sign PDFs, unlock, and protect them.
A 14-day free trial is available for Smallpdf, after which you have to pay $108 per year or $12 per month.
PDFelement for Mac
PDFelement for Mac is an app that brings to you what Preview cannot.
It makes editing stuff in a PDF as easy as editing a Word file. You never really realize that you are editing a PDF file. It takes all the elements of a PDF into context, be it images, blocks, tables, captions, fonts — anything.
PDFelement has annotating tools to make working with PDFs easier. If you are taking it to the office, or for work purposes, then the digital signatures come handy.
However, one of the most exciting features of PDFelement is the ability to convert PDFs to other formats. It can convert a PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, ePub, Text, Pages, HTML, and RTF. Yes, every other format out there is usable for various applications.
Another great feature that we liked about PDFelement was its ability to collaborate. It lets you collaborate more effectively with you by sending across your work and having them reviewed by them.
If you are someone who works with a team on projects that require extensive editing, then PDFelement could help you out with it.
The monthly plan for the standard version of PDFelement comes at $6.99, whereas you might have to shell out $9.99 for a Pro plan.
There are also quarterly and annual plans available.
Acrobat Pro DC PDF Converter
Has a PDF list really been complete without the addition of Acrobat DC?
Adobe Acrobat DC is used by millions of organizations around the world to create and edit PDFs and convert them to other Office formats.
Besides providing all the essential features of a PDF editor and converter, Acrobat DC also comes with features to increase your work efficiency. It can convert existing forms to fillable forms, which saves a lot of time with line-drawing.
You can also compare two PDF files in a single interface to figure out how different is one PDF file from the other.
If you have a PDF mixed up at all places, you can easily rearrange pages and delete them. You can also rotate pages to fit a particular style.
With useful sync features across devices through mobile apps, Acrobat DC can be a beneficial tool for your organization.
What about online pdf converters
Online conversion services don’t require software installation. They’re mostly free, fast, and convenient. But some important notes: first, they tend to be less secure if your PDFs contain sensitive or confidential information; second, the quality of the output documents is not great.
They also lack other advanced features such as batch conversion, OCR, PDF comparison, and more. Be prepared to wait longer if you have dozens of PDFs to be converted.
Wrap up
By now, you must have an idea of what could work for you. You would need an app that performs the basics as well as advanced functions. The pricing could also be a factor.
If you have been an Adobe user and are now looking for something different, then Wondershare PDF Converter Pro for Mac could definitely be an option as it is decently priced and has all the features that you need in a PDF converter. It is also fast.
As far as the PDF OCR is concerned, just make sure you download the OCR plugin and install it first.
Wondershare PDF Converter Pro is continually being updated too. We can’t wait to see what else is done to improve this fantastic application.
Solid Converter Mac and OCRKit are also good and manage to do their respective jobs well.
With constant updates and excellent support, most of our top picks are all set to help you increase your productivity and change the way you have been working with PDFs.
They are a PDF revolution.