TL;DR
To edit a PDF on your Mac:
- Fill in a PDF Form: Open the PDF, click text boxes or checkboxes to fill in, then save.
- Highlight Text: Click the Highlight button, select text, and choose a color if needed.
- Insert Text: Open Markup Toolbar, click Text, add a text box, and type your content.
- Insert Signature: Click Sign in the Markup Toolbar, add or create a signature, then place it.
Tried and Tested ✅: The methods and steps mentioned in this article have been tried and tested firsthand by Ojash Yadav on his MacBook Pro M3 and rechecked for errors on Hashir’s MacBook Air M2.
Editing PDFs on my Mac used to feel like a challenge, especially when I needed to sign something or fill out a form. But then I learned how simple it is with Preview. Here’s how you can do it too.
How to Edit a PDF Using Preview
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Here, I’ll explain how you can use Preview’s features to edit a PDF on your Mac.
1. Fill in a PDF Form
Here’s how to fill in a PDF form on your Mac using Preview:
- Launch the PDF with fillable fields in Preview.
- Look for elements like text boxes or checkboxes. These are interactive sections you can edit.
- Click a fillable text box.
- Once clicked, start typing to input your information.
- Click checkboxes to select or deselect them as needed.
- After making all necessary changes, click File in the menu bar, and select Save to store your modifications.
2. Highlight Existing Text on a PDF
With Preview on Mac, this task becomes effortless. Here’s how:
- Launch the desired PDF document in Preview.
- Locate and click the Highlight button in Preview’s menu bar.
- Use your mouse cursor to drag and select the text you want to highlight.
- To change highlight color, click the arrow icon next to the Highlight button.
- Choose your preferred color from the drop-down menu.
- If you’ve previously highlighted some text and wish to change its color, right-click the text and choose a new color from the drop-down menu.
3. Insert New Text on a PDF
Here’s how to add new text to a PDF using Preview:
- Launch the desired PDF document in Preview.
- Click the Show Markup Toolbar button in Preview’s menu bar.
- It will display a markup toolbar under Preview’s menu bar. Choose the Text button to add a text box to the document.
- Use your mouse to drag and place the text box in the desired location.
- Double-click inside the text box to start typing or editing the content.
- To customize the appearance of your text, click the Text Style button in the top right corner.
4. Insert a Signature to a PDF
With Preview on Mac, inserting your signature into a PDF is simple and secure. Here’s how:
- Launch your desired PDF document in Preview.
- Click the Show Markup Toolbar button in Preview’s menu bar.
- Click the Sign button.
- If you already have a signature saved in Preview, select it, and it will be added to the document. Drag to reposition and resize it as needed.
- If you don’t have a signature saved, you can draw your signature using the Trackpad or Camera to upload an image of your signature.
- Once created or uploaded, click Done.
- Then, click the Sign button again and you’ll see your signature there.
- Click the signature to insert it into your document and adjust its position and size as necessary.
How to Edit a PDF Using QuickLook
Here’s how to edit a PDF on your Mac using QuickLook:
- Select a PDF file in Finder and press the Spacebar to open it using QuickLook.
- Once the PDF is open in QuickLook, click the Markup button in the top right corner.
- Use the free drawing or pen tools to sketch or annotate directly on the document.
- Click the Shapes icon to add different shapes.
- Click the Signature icon to add a saved signature image to the document.
- Adjust the orientation or crop sections of the PDF as needed.
- After making your desired edits, click Done to save the modifications directly to the PDF file.
Via Third-party PDF Editing Apps
Focusing on business users, Nitro PDF Pro offers tools for editing, converting, and signing PDFs. It also emphasizes collaboration, making it easy to review and markup documents as a team.
- Open Nitro Pro and click on the File tab in the top left corner.
- Choose Open and select the PDF file you want to edit.
- Once the file is open, click on the Edit tab at the top of the screen.
- Select Edit Text to modify the text in the PDF. You can click on any part of the document that has editable text and start typing to make changes.
- For image editing, click Edit > Add Image, then choose the image you want to insert. You can also delete or resize existing images.
- To adjust the layout, you can move elements around by selecting them and dragging them to a new position.
Edit PDFs Like a Pro on Your Mac
Whether annotating, redacting, inserting text, or merging multiple documents, the right solution to edit a PDF on your Mac is just a few clicks away. Here are some more tips for you:
- You can add text to a PDF by typing directly or copying and pasting text from another document.
- To print a PDF, first make sure you have a printer set up on your Mac.
- If you share photos often, consider converting HEIC files to JPG on your Mac for easier sharing.
