The 6 Best PDF Readers for Mac You Can’t Miss

Regardless of whether you’re using a MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, or MacBook Air, if you are seeking good PDF readers with robust annotation tools, you can not pass by the following introductions.

This article provides a selection of the best PDF readers for macOS devices to optimize your PDF viewing experience, both free PDF viewers and cost-effective applications are included.

The Overview of the Best PDF Viewers for Mac

PDF Reader	AI Support	Reading Modes	Free or Not
PDFgear for macOS	Yes	Day, Night, Eye Protection, Vintage	Free
Preview	No	None	Free
Adobe Acrobat Reader	Yes	None	$19.99/mo
PDF Expert	Yes	None	$79.99/year
Foxit PDF Reader	Yes	Easily change the background color	$159.99/year
Skim	No	None	Free

Preview – Native PDF Viewer on Mac

In macOS, the Preview application is a versatile and powerful tool for viewing, editing, and manipulating PDF files and images.

It provides tools for annotating and highlighting PDFs, as well as adding shapes, arrows, and text notes to PDF files.

Although Preview enables you to read a PDF without additional software download, there are some potential disadvantages:

• For large files or PDFs containing complex layouts, Preview may not perform as well as other dedicated PDF readers, especially when it comes to loading, navigating, and rendering the PDF content.
• Lack of the ability to compare multiple PDF documents side-by-side, create Table of Contents, or perform batch processing of PDF files.

PDFgear – Free AI-featured PDF Reader for macOS

PDFgear is one of the best PDF viewers for macOS devices, including MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac, etc.

It is capable of PDF annotation, allowing you to highlight your PDF files and add notes to your PDF documents easily for a better reading experience.

Additionally, PDFgear for macOS, enhanced with an AI-powered proofreading assistant, can effectively guard against grammatical errors in your PDFs. This app will also help you summarize an article, by extracting crucial sentences and key phrases from PDFs.

Furthermore, it is designed with excellent reading modes, including Day, Eye Protection, Vintage, and Night Mode for comfortable reading under various circumstances.

With all features accessible for free, you can download PDFgear for macOS devices for an excellent reading experience.

Adobe Acrobat – Professional PDF Viewer for Mac

Adobe Acrobat has been one of the best PDF viewers worldwide, as well as Windows, iOS, and Android devices.

The basic features, like annotate and comment a PDF, are here. With an intuitive interface, this application is easy to use and all tools are easy to find where they are.

While Adobe Acrobat is a paid application, and users may need to subscribe to Adobe’s membership to access the full range of features.

This can be a significant ongoing cost, especially for users who only need basic PDF viewing and editing capabilities.

PDF Expert – Go-to PDF Reader for Mac & iOS

PDF Expert is a go-to PDF reader for iPhone, iPad, and macOS devices. You can get the most advanced set of annotation tools for your Mac here.

With PDF Expert, you’ll have access to convenient advanced reading tools, like customizing font size, brightness, and themes like Day, Night, or Sepia for optimal comfort.

The unique “Enhance” feature will make older PDFs look perfect by fixing distortions, removing shadows, and improving contrast in PDF documents.

While just like Adobe Acrobat Pro, PDF Expert is not free to use. You can download it for free for a 7-say free trial, after which, none of the solutions is available, and then you need to pay $79.99 for an annual membership.

Foxit – Easy PDF Reading Tool

Foxit PDF Reader for Mac provides a full set of feature-rich comment tools to mark up, annotate, and hyperlink PDF files.

You can also easily change the background color of a PDF, create stamps for a PDF, rotate PDF pages, read the document out loud, and do PDF word count, etc.

The free version of Foxit PDF Reader has limited features, and the more advanced tools, like summarizing a PDF with AI assistance, require a paid subscription.

Additionally, as Foxit PDF Reader is primarily designed for Windows, it may not integrate as smoothly with macOS devices. This could lead to slow performance issues, especially on older or less powerful Macs, and potentially higher battery consumption.

Skim – Open-source PDF Reader for Mac OS X

Skim is a free open-source PDF reader and note-taking app designed for macOS X. While it excels at helping you read and annotate scientific papers and journal articles in PDF format, Skim is also great for viewing and interacting with any PDF files.

This open-source app offers a wide range of annotation tools, including highlighting, underlining, adding notes, and drawing shapes, making it easy to interact with PDF content.

To use Skim, you’ll need macOS 10.10 or a newer version, which may exclude users with older Mac devices. It may lack some advanced PDF editing features found in any dedicated PDF software.

FAQs

What are the best PDF readers for Windows?

Among many of the best PDF viewers for Windows, we recommend PDFgear software. It is free to download and use, without any email sign-up or watermarks. This app would be the best free PDF reader for Windows 10 and 11.

Can I read a PDF online for free?

Yes. You can access PDFgear online PDF Reader, simply upload your file, and you can enjoy the reading without any ads.

How do I find the best free PDF reader for Mac?

PDFgear is a free PDF viewer for Mac users that offers a full suite of features without any cost. You can access all the functionalities of the software completely free of charge, with no registration, payment, or watermarks required.

Conclusion

You have multiple options to choose from the PDF readers mentioned above. Regardless of your Mac device, you can find a suitable tool to meet your needs.

However, we highly recommend you try PDFgear, a functional yet lightweight and free PDF viewer compatible with macOS devices, offering many advanced editing features.