How to edit a PDF on Mac for free

1 min read·25 July 2026

On a Mac you already have a powerful free PDF tool built in: Preview. But for merging, splitting, compressing, and signing you can also just use PDFrust in Safari. Here is what you can do without installing anything.

Preview: the built-in Mac tool

Apple's Preview can merge PDFs (drag a PDF onto the sidebar of another PDF), delete pages, rotate, and annotate. Open two PDFs in Preview, open the sidebar, and drag pages from one document to the other.

PDFrust in Safari on Mac

Open pdfrust.com in Safari. All tools work fully in the browser: merge, split, compress, sign, watermark, protect. No download, no installation — and safer than cloud tools that upload your file.

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Sign on Mac

In Preview you can add a signature via Tools > Annotate > Signature. Draw it with the trackpad, the camera, or an iPhone/iPad (via Continuity). PDFrust offers the same feature in the browser.

Compress on Mac

Preview has a built-in "Reduce File Size" filter when printing to PDF, but the compression is aggressive. PDFrust gives more control over the quality level.