How to Edit Text in PDF on Mac For Free: Complete Guide

Working with PDFs on your Mac should be simple, but when you need to edit text in these PDF files, frustration can quickly set in.

Whether there are outdated information that needs updating, typos that require correction, or small errors that need fixing, the limited built-in PDF editing capabilities of macOS can leave you frustrated.

Fortunately, there are powerful solutions available that make editing PDF text on your Mac both straightforward and efficient, You can use it to editing existing text in a PDF file, add text or links or even do scanned document modifications.

Does Mac Come with a Native PDF Text Editor?

Mac's built-in Preview app serves as the default PDF viewer and offers some basic editing capabilities, but it comes with significant limitations. While Preview excels at viewing and annotating PDFs, it wasn't designed to be a comprehensive PDF editor.

You can use it to perform basic tasks like:

• Adding annotations and highlights
• Inserting signatures
• Filling out PDF forms
• Adding basic shapes and comments
• Removing or adding pages

However, when it comes to actually editing existing text within PDF documents, Preview falls short.

What Preview can’t do:

• Modifying existing text content
• Change font styles or sizes
• Correcting typos or errors
• Adding new text that matches the original formatting

This is precisely why many Mac users are searching for solutions to edit existing text on PDF. In the following sections, we'll explore free alternatives that provide the full range of PDF text editing capabilities which Preview lacks.

How to Edit PDF Text on Mac With Cisdem PDFMaster

Cisdem PDFMaster is an AI-integrated PDF editor that comes with powerful text editing capabilities. It can read, edit, convert, OCR, translate, compress, sign, protect, and annotate PDFs on Mac.

With the build in PDF editing tools, you can edit existing text, images, and links as you like. You can control the individual properties of the text, meaning you can modify the text size, font, color, and more. 

As an AI-powered PDF editor, PDFMaster can also help you summarize, translate, proofread, and rewrite PDFs to improve your workflow. Below are a few simple steps to help you edit PDF documents in macOS.

Step 1. Download Cisdem PDFMaster on your Mac. Then click on "Open File" to import your PDF document.

Step 2. Once your PDF is open, click "Edit PDF" on the toolbar. Click anywhere to edit the texts or images in the PDF.

• Move PDF text: Select the text you want to move and drag the text block to a desired part.
• Edit PDF text: Search and find the text you need to edit, double-click the text so the cursor is inside the text box. The you can edit, add, or delete existing text as needed.
• Add new text to PDF: click the "Add Text" button in the blue bar, and click on anywhere you want to add text. A text box will show and you can start typing new text.
• If you want to change the font size and text color, drag your cursor to select the text and adjust them from right-click menu.
• If your PDF file is a scanned file or image-based file, you'll need to perform OCR before editing it. Here are more details about how to edit scanned PDFs on Mac.

How to Edit Text in PDF Using Mac Preview

Preview is the default PDF reader that comes pre-installed on every Mac. It offers basic PDF editing capabilities, with it you can add text, annotations or images to a PDF file, However, Preview doesn't allow you to select and edit existing text within PDFs directly.

Adding New Text to PDF in Preview

Step 1. Open your PDF file in Preview

Step 2. Click "View" in the menu bar and select "Show Markup Toolbar"

Step 3. Click on the "Text" button (T icon) in the toolbar.

Step 4. Click anywhere on the PDF where you want to add text

Step 5. Now you can add text to the PDF file

• Customize the text using the format options:
• Change font style and size
• Adjust text color
• Modify text alignment

Adding Annotations in Preview

Preview offers several annotation tools to enhance your PDF:

Notes

• Click the "Note" icon in the toolbar
• Click where you want to add the note
• Type your comment in the yellow note box

Highlights and Markups

• Select the text you want to highlight
• Choose your preferred markup option from the toolbar:
• Highlight text
• Draw on PDF
• Add text boxes to PDF
• Underline
• Strikethrough
• Add shapes or arrows

How to Edit Text in PDF Using Adobe Acrobat on Mac

As the creator of the PDF format, Adobe Acrobat is the go-to choice for PDF editing, it offers the most reliable and complete function for editing PDF text. The only downside is that you have to pay a monthly subscription for this text editing function which starts at $19.99/month.

Step 1. Download and install Adobe Acrobat from the official website

Step 2. Sign in to your Adobe account.

Step 3. Click on the "Tools" tab at the top.

Step 4. Select "Edit PDF" from the Create & Edit section.

Step 5. Open your PDF file.

Step 6. Click on the text you want to edit.

Step 7. Modify the content directly as you would in a word processor, you can Delete, add, or replace text as needed.

Step 8. With the right sidebar you can modify font or text colors, change font type and size and adjust line spacing.

Step 9. Lastly, Click File > Save and choose a location to save your edited PDF.

How to Edit PDF Text on Mac Using LibreOffice (Free)

LibreOffice is a free office suite which used by users on a daily basis. It offers a free, open-source solution also comes with PDF editing functions like editing existing text on PDF files, inserting fillable text boxes, changing text color, etc.

Now follow the tutorials below to edit PDF text on your Mac with LibreOffice.

Step 1. Visit the official LibreOffice website and download the software.

Step 2. Install and launch LibreOffice on your Mac.

Step 3. Click the "Open File" button in the top-left corner and select your PDF document. （If the PDF have many photos or the size is large it may take sometime to load.）

Step 4. Select the text you want to edit in the PDF file and make changes the same way you do with Word documents. (See that, some images will show as black in LibreOffice)

You can use LibreOffice to

• Edit existing text
• Change font styles
• Change font sizes
• Modify text formatting

Step 5. After the editing, go to File > Export as PDF and choose a location to save the edited PDF file.

How to Edit PDF Text Online Using Sejda (Free)

For Mac users seeking to edit text in PDF file without software, we can use online PDF editors to edit PDF text directly in the browser. I personally recommend Sejda, the well-received web-based PDF editing tool. With Sejda, you can change existing text in PDF online without software installation, and without cost.

Here's a how to edit PDF text with Sejda

Step 1. Open Sejda website in your web browser, Click Upload PDF file to add PDF to Sejda.

Step 2. Scroll to find the text you need to edit and click on the text you want to edit

• Direct text editing
• Font adjustments
• Text size modification
• Add new text
• Delete existing text
• Basic formatting options

Step 3. Preview your changes, click Apply changes and click download to saved the edited PDF file.

FAQs About Edit PDF Text on Mac

Can You Edit PDF Text on Mac Without Adobe?

Yes, you can edit PDF text on Mac without Adobe, all the other software or online site we introduced above can edit text in PDF. While Preview only supports adding new text to PDF, tools like LibreOffice provide free PDF text editing capabilities. For online editing, Sejda offers a no-installation solution. And PDFMaster offers almost the same function as Adobe Acrobat while at a cheaper price.

What's the Best Free Way to Edit PDF Text on Mac?

For free PDF text editing on Mac, you have several options:

• Preview: Built-in and free, but limited to adding new text and annotations.
• LibreOffice: Free open-source solution with full text editing capabilities.
• Sejda (Free Version): Online PDF editor with basic text editing features.