How to open and edit a PDF on Mac: the free options

1 min read·24 July 2026

On a Mac you have built-in PDF tools that go further than most Windows users are used to. Preview alone does much more than you might think.

Opening a PDF: Preview

Double-click a PDF and it opens in Preview — macOS's built-in PDF viewer. You can browse through it, search (Cmd+F), rotate pages (Tools → Rotate) and save as PDF.

Annotations and drawing in Preview

Click the pencil icon (Markup) at the top. You can type text, draw shapes, highlight, sign (via trackpad, camera or iPhone) and even insert images. Everything is saved in the PDF file.

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Editing text on Mac

Preview cannot edit text in a PDF — only annotate. For real text editing use LibreOffice Draw (free): open the PDF in it and click a text block. Or convert the PDF to Word via File → Export in LibreOffice.

Merging PDFs on Mac without software

In Preview, drag a second PDF into the thumbnail sidebar (left) of an open PDF. The pages are added. Drag them into order and save. No extra software needed. For more control use PDFrust.