Now that work from home is the new norm, you would want to invest in a capable PDF Editor on your main work machine. You may ask why? Using a PDF editor, you can fill out necessary forms, sign that NDA agreement, add stamps, highlight relevant paragraphs in an e-book, and even use stamps to approve or reject a proposal. While the Mac ecosystem offers plenty of excellent PDF editors, two options always come on top – PDF Expert and Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Display PDF documents in 4 modes. Adobe Reader for Macintosh display PDF documents in 2 modes: single and single continuous. As the best Adobe Reader for Mac, PDFelement lets you view PDF files in 4 modes: single, single continuous, facing, and facing continuous. For me, facing is really helpful when you need to check the info side by side. Adobe Reader Mac performs the same function as Windows version. Thus, it gives you the ability to open PDF files directly on the interface. It is easy to use and all you have to do is to import the file into the interface and it does the rest. Download free Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software for your Windows, Mac OS and Android devices to view, print, and comment on PDF documents.
Both PDF Expert and Adobe Acrobat are solid, feature-rich PDF editors for Mac. While they offer every possible function for PDF editing software, the overall experience of using them could be different. Both the software have their take on interface design, cloud integration, and more. How about we compare them to see which one deserves to be on your Mac dock?
In this post, we will compare PDF Expert to Adobe Acrobat Pro on Mac. The comparison will cover the user interface, features, export options, cloud integration, price, cross-platform availability, and more. Let’s get started.
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Read MoreCross-Platform Availability
PDF Expert is developed by a company named Readdle. It’s mostly known for developing productivity tools for the Apple ecosystem. PDF Expert is available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Adobe Acrobat is accessible onevery platform, including iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac.
Download Adobe Acrobat for MacDownload PDF Expert for Mac
User Interface
User Interface plays a major role in any PDF editing software. After all, you won’t want to spend most of your time finding that hidden option in a rather confusing interface. Thankfully, PDF Expert and AdobeAcrobat have done a commendable job with presenting a user-friendly interface and easily accessible options.
Starting with PDF Expert, every option and feature is thoughtfully laid out. You don’t have to go through dozens of menus to find a relevant feature. The app is mostly divided into two sections – Annotate and Text. I like how PDF Expert offers several themes, such as Day, Night, and Sepia. Out of them, Sepia is my favorite as it delivers a book-like experience with a light brown background.
Adobe Acrobat Pro’s home screen might look busy to new users. I like how Adobe offers a bunch of options when you select a PDF file in the app. You can directly share PDF, sign PDF, edit, or even organize it from the home menu.
I also like the menu icons. They look better compared to PDF Expert and serves the purpose.
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Read MoreEdit a PDF
Let’s talk about the editing capabilities of both software. When you open a PDF in Adobe Acrobat, it takes you to the main editing interface. You get a bunch of options to choose from the side menu. One can addimages, manipulate text, add web links, crop PDFs, add header and footer, watermark, and more.
Adobe For Mac Price
Acrobat also allows you to combine files before finalizing the editing process. I like all the options on the right side than the top. Well, that's my preference, and yours might differ.
Adobe also offers fill & sign options. I think it's a mature solution with all the bells and whistles. You can add a signature, initials, and even small details required in forms like cross marks, bullet points, etc.
PDF Expert offers several annotate tools. You can use highlighters, strikeout, and even underline tool with several colors. The options allow admins to make or call out changes instantly. I hardly use the Pen tool though. My favorite function is Notes. You can attach a note to any part of the PDF. It’s useful when reading an eBook or reviewing a research report.
PDF Expert delivers a better e-sign experience than Adobe. You can virtually sign your signature using a trackpad. I like it and prefer the solution compared to Adobe. The color options are limited to Purple,Black, and Blue.
Other options include the ability to add text, images, links, and even remove the sensitive information using the Redact tool.
Other Features
Adobe also offers stamps function, and it’s nicely categorized in categories such as dynamics, signature stamps, and standard business ones.
Other features include scan and OCR, comments functions to point out changes. I like the compare files option, which allows you to compare the edited PDF file with the original one.
PDF Expert’s stamp menu offers a better built-in choice. Of course, you can make custom stamps as well. You can also add a password to a PDF. Overall, when it comes to the number of features, Adobe has the upper hand here.
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Click here to see our PDF articles pageShare and Export
Adobe wins this round comfortably. In Adobe Acrobat, you can export Word file, Spreadsheet, Image, and even plain text in PDF file format. Adobe also offers a way to invite others to make edits to a PDF. It’s blissful while working on group projects and wants everyone to take a look and review the PDF file.
PDF Expert pales in comparison here. There are limited sharing and export options.
Price
Readdle is offering seven days of free trial for PDF Expert. After that, the whole suite costs $80. Adobe Acrobat comes with a free trial of 7 days as well. It costs $15 per month. The software is a part of Adobe Creative Suite of apps for which the subscription costs $60 per month.
Wrapping It Up
Are you still confused between the two? Allow me to simplify it for you. PDF Expert has better UI, more editing features, and it overall feels intuitive to use. Adobe marches ahead with several export options, and the sharing capabilities are unmatched compared to rivals. But when it comes to pricing, PDF Expert’s one-time purchase will be cheaper in the long-term. Which one are you are going to choose, and why? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Next up:Looking for a more comprehensive list of PDF editors on Mac? Read the post below to find the top five PDF editors for Mac.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Read NextTop 5 PDF Editors for MacAlso See
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Adobe Pdf Mac Pro
'What is the best free PDF Editor for Mac?'Here we've compiled the top 5 PDF editor Mac tools to work with your PDFs efficiently. We've found the best 5 free PDF editor for Mac to help you modify your files, including tools like PDFelement Pro for Mac.
Choose Your Best PDF Editor for Mac
1. PDFelement Pro-Clean and Powerful PDF Editor
PDFelement Pro is one of the best programs for all solutions to edit PDF files on Mac. With this tool, you can edit, add, modify, and delete texts, graphics, and images in PDF format. You can also convert your PDF files to Word, Excel, EPUB, Images, and more formats. You can annotate and mark all the screen content with a variety of markup and annotation tools. It allows you to fill out your existing PDF forms, creates PDFs, and extract data from PDFs forms. The advanced OCR feature helps you to edit and convert scanned PDF and remove data from scanned PDF.
Features | PDFelement Pro | PDF Expert | Adobe® Acrobat® DC Mac |
|---|---|---|---|
| OS Compatibility | Mac, iOS, Windows and Android | Mac | Mac, iOS, Windows and Android |
| Price | from $79 / perpetual | $79.99 / perpetual | $180 / year |
| Easy Editing | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Simple User Interface | |||
| Markup Features | |||
| Convert PDF | Microsoft Office files, Pages, ePub and image formats | Microsoft Office files and image formats | |
| PDF Forms | Create and fill out | Create and fill out | Create and fill out |
| Create PDF | |||
| Perform OCR | |||
| Customer Support | Free one-to-one Support and online help center | Online help center | Sledom get time resoponse |
2. PDF Expert - Beautiful and Robust PDF editor
PDF Expert by Readdle is a start product in the Mac App Store. It has been rewarded as 'Editors' Choice,' 'App of the Year' and 'Top 1 Paid App'. It provides advanced reading experience on Mac. The cool thing is that you can compare two PDF files in the 'split view mode.' You can also mark up while reading. PDF Expert also provides tools to combine PDFs. Add, remove, extract, rotate, copy, and reorder pages to make your PDF files' best arrangement. Fill out PDF forms and sign electronically.
3. Adobe® Acrobat® DC Mac - Powerful but Expensive Choice
As the leading brand in the PDF industry, the PDF editor of Adobe® Acrobat® is no doubt with reliable quality. From the product interface, we can see, it has a wide range of toolset. You can edit, comment, fill&sign, convert, combine, and secure PDFs. With the help of Action Wizard, Pro users can customize an action and run it so that you can deal with piles of PDFs with the same story. It is also integrated with Adobe Sign. If you have an Adobe suite already and enough budget, then Acrobat DC is a better choice.
4. Foxit PhantomPDF Mac - New Product by Old Brand
Foxit published PhantomPDF Mac in recent years. Been dedicated to Windows solution of PDF for years, it's Mac version deserves a trial. This PDF editor mac allows you to edit text, convert, annotate, compress, OCR, and sign PDFs. You can also fill out forms and protect PDFs with a password.
5. PDFpen Pro
PDFpen Pro is an all-purpose PDF editor for mac. You can edit, mark up, OCR, and protect PDF and create PDF forms. Edit text and images, annotate PDFs with the highlight, notes, and hand-drawings. OCR scanned PDFs into editable text. There's also a redaction option that can black out your sensitive information.
Three Light-weighted PDF Editing Software for Mac
6. Preview - Mac Built-in Markup Tool
Preview is a light-weighted PDF annotation tool, which is built-in on Mac. You can add text, notes, shapes, and highlighting to jot down your thoughts and compress, convert and combine PDFs. It also allows you to organize pages like add, delete, and move. To protect your PDF documents, you can add a password. However, it has fewer features compared with professional pdf editors on Mac. It doesn't support batch process and OCR. The most important is that it can't edit existing text in a PDF. Therefore, it's the only suitable for those who only want to mark up PDF files. If you are looking for PDF editing software on Mac, it is not your choice.
7. Adobe Reader DC
Adobe Reader DC is a free PDF reader on Mac. As its name conveys, it only allows you to view, comment, and sign PDFs. If you want to enjoy the editing feature, you need to upgrade to Adobe Acrobat DC.
8. FineReader Pro for Mac
FineReader Pro for Mac is an OCR product from ABBYY, a leading company in the OCR area. The highlight of the program is converting scanned PDFs with great accuracy. If you often deal with scanned files, then FineReader Pro for Mac is your best Choice. You can convert those documents into editable formats like Docx, xlsx, pptx, and more.
Two Minority Free PDF Editors Mac
9. PDF Editor Mac
PDF Editor Mac is a free pdf editor mac from the individual developer. Although it may not have a beautiful interface and is not intuitive, it has the standard features for light users. You can edit, rotate and annotate PDF documents.
10. Skim
This software is a free PDF annotation and reader for Mac that allows you to make several modifications. It lets you perform tasks such as highlighting, underlining, and adding sticky notes to better view PDFs.