Pdf Writer For Mac

2020-10-27 20:47:12 • Filed to: Choose Right Mac Software • Proven solutions

Pdf Printer Driver Mac
Free Pdf Writer For Apple
Pdf Printer For Mac
Pdf Writer For Mac Free

Wondering how to print PDF on Mac? There are many free PDF printers for Mac that can do this, with no additional settings required. This article reviews the 8 top-rated PDF printer for Mac currently on the market and also outlines their advantages and disadvantages.

PDF Printer Mac that People Hate to Know So Late

CutePDF Professional. Easy-to-use PDF Utility. Seamlessly integrate with CutePDF Writer. Make PDF booklets, impose (n-Up pages), combine PDF files, add watermarks, edit forms, add comments, add headers and footers, rearrange pages, security, digital signature, scan, FTP and much more. Now includes the Form Filler for Free!; One-Off License Fee.
So Mac users should get an alternative to CutePDF Printer in order to print PDF files on Mac devices. One of the best tools for working with PDF files is PDFelement by the popular developer Wondershare. It is the complete PDF tool that allows you to read, edit, annotate, sign, and print PDF files easily and quickly.

#1. PDFelement

PDFelement is a complex PDF tool that allows for editing, annotating, creating, and converting PDFs. It also lets users protect PDFs with passwords, digitally sign PDF forms, and print to PDF. It is equipped with one of the best printing functions, capable of printing any edited PDF file. It features embedded page boxes that you can alter and adjust, which allows users to set the printing size during the printing process. The following steps are about how to print PDF on Mac easily.

Step 1: Open and Print

Open the file that you want to print to PDF with PDFelement. Click 'File' > 'Print' or use the Command+P keyboards to open the print command window.

Just click Print and select CutePDF Writer as your printer. It’s that simple. Select a file in any application that prints and open it. Choose “File” “Print”.; Choose “CutePDF Writer” as the printer in the print dialog box, and click “Print”. (Do Not select 'Print to File' option.)Enter a new file name for your PDF.

Step 2: Set Printing Options and Save

Set the printing options you prefer. Click the PDF button on the print window and choose Save as PDF from the drop-down menu. Name the PDF file and select a location to save it to.

Videos on How to Print PDF on Mac

Benefits of PDFelement:

You can easily modify the text, pages, and images, as well as insert or delete objects from your PDF.
You can effortlessly combine multiple PDFs into a single PDF file, or split a single PDF into multiple different files.
Passwords and permission restrictions are used to protect PDF documents.
Fill and edit an existing PDF form, or create a new one with various fields, buttons, and boxes.
Convert PDFs to a wide range of file formats or vice versa.
It supports macOS10.12, 10.13, 10.14 Mojave, and 10.15 Catalina.

#2. Adobe^® Acrobat^® - Adobe PDF Printer Mac

Adobe^® Acrobat^® makes it possible to create and print PDFs from any application on Mac. When you install Acrobat, you are also installing a virtual printer known as Adobe PDF. It is important to note that when you print to this printer, it converts your document to an Adobe PDF file on Mac instead of printing sheets of paper. You can do this through the following steps.

Step 1: Choose 'File' > 'Print'. Choose Adobe PDF in the printer popup menu on your Mac system.
Step 2: Click on 'Save as Adobe PDF'. A dialog box will open and you'll have to select either Adobe PDF or another PDF reader.
Step 3: After making your choice, you will be prompted to name the PDF file and select a location to save it to. Type a name for your PDF file and click 'OK' to save it.

However, Adobe Acrobat XI has now ended all support. This is why it's important to be aware of the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat.

#3. Mac Computer Built-in PDF Printer

You can use the built-in printing feature on Mac to create PDF files directly, or print webpages, documents, or any type of file as a PDF document without the need for additional software. The easy process of printing to PDF takes only a couple of steps to complete. You simply export your document as a PDF using the Mac print function. The following steps outline how to do this.

Step 1: Open the file you would like to print to PDF.
Step 2: Click on the file menu, and select 'Print' or alternatively you can use the Command+P shortcut to open the Print dialogue box.
Step 3: Find the PDF button in the lower left-hand corner and select 'Save as PDF'. Click on 'Save' in the dialog box and save it to your desired location.

#4. PDF Writer for Mac

This program installs a printer drive on Mac, which enables users to create any PDF file by using the 'Print' option within the most popular file formats. Note that it does not use ghostsc_x_ript to generate PDF files but it uses the Mac internal PDF capabilities which are designed to create synergy among different PDF tasks.

Advantages:

It offers a simple way to create PDFs just by printing.
It supports to merge multiple images in order to create one PDF file.
It undergoes frequent updates.

Disadvantages:

The PDF writer for Mac only comes with the print function.
It is based on CUPS-PDF and the output file size can be quite large.

#5. CUPS-PDF

CUPS-PDF is an open source backend module for CUPS and it is a great tool if you want to print files to PDF format. The CUPS-PDF package for Mac is the standard version in macOS. In any program, you just need to choose the print command, select the PDF button on the dialog box, and then choose the ' Save as PDF' option. It will give you a virtual printer in which it prints a PDF file when a normal print task is sent to it. It is important to note that it is possible to create a desktop printer and use it to create PDF documents as well.

Advantages:

CUPS-PDF is free and saves time.
It is valuable for automating your print PDF mac task.

Disadvantages:

It can be a bit confusing for users trying to save a document as a PDF.
Navigation is not as easy as with some other printers.

#6. iPubsoft PDF Creator for Mac

You can also create PDFs from other file types, such as image files like jpg, tif, ico, gif, bmp, pcx, cur, xpm, tga, or text files such as Word documents. It includes many high-quality features for converting PDF documents while retaining the original formatting. You can also convert PDFs to other file types while maintaining the original layout and quality.

Advantages:

It supports the ability to merge multiple PDF documents into a single PDF document.
The created PDF document will still have the same format and layout of the original document.
The features are easy to use.

Disadvantages:

It does not maintain the formatting of excel or word documents.
It does not support adding encryption to PDF files.

#7. CUTEPDF

CutePDF is one of the most sought after free print to PDF solutions, and has an easy name to remember! It works as a stand-alone interface that can work with ghost script to help you create a PDF file without buying writer software. It has a virtual printer for all print support applications on your computer. To print PDF with the CutePDF printer, it is important to first install a PS2PDF converter which is a postsc_x_ript driver that supports processing PDF printing tasks. Printing with the CutePDF involves using the 'Print' button and selecting the destination folder to save the output file.

Advantages:

There are two versions - the free version and the paid version. However, the free version has almost identical features to the paid version.
It is fast and has the capability to re-size printed PDF files to a more email-friendly size.

Disadvantages:

To get the password to protect feature, you will need to upgrade the program to the paid version.
It does not have a text editing tool. Therefore, it isn't possible to alter your PDF documents.

#8. Bullzip PDF Printer

Bullzip PDF printer has the capability to give you a high-quality output every time. It has the most features compared to its competitors. With Bullzip, it is possible to password-protect your PDF files, add a watermark, and merge multiple documents. This application includes translation features that support multiple languages. It is simple and easy to use, even for beginners, and it is a very valuable tool to have in a corporate setting. To print on Bullzip PDF printer, you will need to choose the Bullzip printer driver, customize the output PDF file and save it.

Advantages:

It has an easy to navigate interface with great capabilities for adding security and display settings via a dialog box.
It has the ability to encrypt PDF files.

Disadvantages:

It is not possible to deploy the output search function in the exported files and there's no way users can control the output's file zoom level when opened with Adobe reader.

Free Download or Buy PDFelement right now!

Buy PDFelement right now!

0 Comment(s)

Business • Updated on Nov.17, 2020

Editor’s note: After another round of testing, we stand by our picks. We also added a little information about our thoughts on online PDF editors.

PDF is a necessity in macOS. Without PDF, you can’t easily create & share portable documents. In fact, almost every native macOS application lets you export content into PDF.

Preview in Mac is a great PDF viewer and annotator, but it’s not enough for editing. Normally, people got to convert the PDF file to something else and do the editing after. That isn’t the most convenient option either.

That is why a fully-fledged PDF editor for Mac is a necessity indeed! Unlike the common thought, there is an impressive variety of PDF editing programs to choose from.

And, Adobe Acrobat Pro is most people’s go-to option.

Jump to:

Disclosure: We sometimes use affiliate links which means that, at zero cost to you, we may earn a commission if you buy something through our links.

Why Adobe Acrobat Pro DC isn’t enough?

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC has been the standard for PDF editing for quite a long time. Considering that Adobe built the format, it’s quite not surprising. Anyway, it’s not really a great reason to keep using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC as the macOS PDF editor.

The Good: Acrobat Pro DC is undoubtedly one of the powerful PDF solutions out there. You can get the best of the Adobe ecosystem as well. If you use Adobe Reader to view PDF documents, you can have the benefits of a familiar UI as well.

The Bad: Even then, Acrobat Pro DC does not offer the best User Interface in town. Sure, it gets the job done, but that’s not enough. We cannot recommend Acrobat Pro DC when you want to edit multiple documents and manage everything with ease.

The Ugly: Acrobat Pro DC is damn expensive. It comes with a monthly subscription charge of $14.99. Adobe Pro 2017, an older, standalone version, is available for a hefty price-tag of $449. These rates are way beyond what a normal user can afford.

We believe these reasons are enough for anyone to look for an Adobe Acrobat alternative — or one better PDF editor for Mac.

How to choose the alternative to Acrobat Pro DC

As we said, there are a huge number of PDF editors for macOS. As always, we wanted to pick the best ones. To navigate through the immense collection of options, we had a proper criteria as well.

The PDF Editor must have a Simple User Interface. It must be non-distracting as well as focused. We always recommend a UI that works well with single-document and multi-document management.
Easy & Advanced PDF Editing is a must-have option in a PDF tool. Automated selection recognition is great since it enables easy editing of other components like images, boxes, shapes and signatures.
Security of the PDF documents is also an important concern. The PDF editor should have an option to enable the basic security features. For instance, there must be a way to password-protect PDF.
Feature-rich: The ideal PDF editor shouldhave additional features as well. On top of the list are Optical Character Recognition and Digital Signing. You may, indeed, go for a minimal editor, though.
Price: Not everyone wants to or cannot spend around $100 on a PDF editor. So, we have included a variety of PDF editors that come with varying price tags.

So, we have chosen the best Mac PDF editors based on this criteria.

The pick: PDF Expert (the fastest, easiest & made-for-all)

PDF Expert is a fast, robust and beautiful PDF editor. If you are looking for a feature-rich PDF editor that is available on multiple platforms, PDF Expert could be the right candidate. We chose PDF Expert as the best pick after testing it for more than a few weeks.

After the testing period, this tool has become our go-to option for editing PDF documents with ease. The package has some downsides and room for improvement, of course. Even then, we believe PDF Expert must be your first choice if seamless editing is your priority.

PDF Expert comes from Readdle Inc, a developer who makes wonderful apps for Apple devices. Many of the products, including the Spark email app, are popular on iOS and macOS. So, in terms of security and privacy, you don’t have to worry at all.

Here are a few reasons why we think PDF Expert is your best choice at PDF editing on Mac.

Intuitive User Interface

As you can see, PDF Expert offers a clean and intuitive User Interface. You can simply drag-and-drop a file to get started. From the top-left side of the window, you can open options like Bookmarks, Thumbnails, Outline, and Annotation. Unlike the other PDF editors, we have tried, this one doesn’t scare us with the big number of toolbars.

Instead, everything is organized very efficiently. So, whenever you want a particular feature, you can access that single module. Altogether, we love this UI so much.

Easy PDF Editing

PDF Expert lets you edit PDF documents without any fail. There are actually four main options in the toolbar — Text, Image, Link and Redact. Making things easier than ever, PDF Expert automatically detects the type of content you’ve selected. If you’ve selected an image, for instance, you will see options to rotate, replace, export and crop the photograph.

Like the same way, you edit other parts of the PDF document. The Redact feature is also quite helpful, which works in a single click. I’ve found this feature really useful while sharing confidential data with friends.

Smart Annotation & Page Management

You get some smart Annotation features in this package. You can fill out content, provide signatures digitally and export all your annotations with ease. You can add signatures using text, trackpad or by even uploading an image of the signature. Either way, you get awesome results. PDF Expert has a page manager, with options such as Add Page, Append File, Copy, Paste, Rotate, Delete and Share.

You can easily arrange multiple pages by dragging and dropping them. You can also extract individual pages from a complete PDF document. Altogether, it checks all the important boxes.

Multi-Platform Support

PDF Expert is available for both macOS and iOS. It also enables content-sync between the devices, you know. If you want to access documents that you created using PDF Expert for macOS, you can easily do it from an iPhone or iPad. You can download the apps from the App Store, and everything is kept in sync. It’s a great way to access cloud storage; everything is done via iCloud.

It’s as seamless as it gets. I always love a software product when it can offer the same amazing UX on iPhone and Mac. PDF Expert does exactly that.

Enhanced Security & Utilities

PDF Expert has an in-built method for password-protecting PDF files as well. This is a great way to secure your PDF file without further complication. It’s so simple that you can go to File –> Set Password and pick the password of your choice. You can also use it to reduce the file size of a PDF file.

When we checked, PDF Expert was able to reduce the file size by 75%, which is quite a great deal. Because you get Touch Bar support, accessing these options is easy as a piece of cake.

What Could be Better

There are a few things that we didn’t like in PDF Expert. We understand that PDF Expert is a minimalistic PDF editor but it has left out some basic features as well.

You cannot create PDF documents using PDF Expert. You can technically add a new page in the PDF file and add text, but that’s something inefficient. We’d have really loved to see some additional set of PDF creation features in the program.
PDF Expert could have included a basic version of Optical Character Recognition. It’s disappointing that the program does not even support plug-ins, which can bring in the feature. It lacks other types of plug-ins as well.
There are only four editing options in PDF Expert. At times, these may not be enough for most people. We’d have loved to see some extra toolbars in there.
It would be better if PDF Expert had better options for bulk actions. As of now, that’s NIL.

Also, PDF Expert lacks options for customization and control. The features are basic — very basic, at times.

Availability & pricing

PDF Expert is available for macOS and iOS. You can download the Mac version from the official website and the iOS version from App Store.

PDF Expert for macOS is priced at $79.99 while the iOS version can be bought for $9.99. If you ask us, both apps have been priced quite reasonably. The PDF Expert license actually lets you run the app on 3 Macs.

Verdict

Pros

Simple design and UI
Smart editing options
Multiplatform Support

Cons

Lacks advanced features
Cannot create PDF Files

If you are looking for a simple yet effective PDF editor for Mac, PDF Expert is the best option. It brings all the necessary editing features, never compromising the performance as well. It isn’t for you if you want technical features like OCR, though. Overall, for the price you’re paying, PDF Expert is worth it.

Upgrade pick: PDFpenPro (the most powerful)

There are times when you need more than a basic PDF editor. PDFpenPro is the best choice for that occasion. It comes with a great set of features inside, including the option to create awesome PDF files. If you can spend more for a comprehensive PDF suite, PDFpenPro could be a potential option.

Unlike the top pick we suggested for most people, PDFpenPro is made for advanced users, it is an upgraded version of the PDFpen software. You get a lot more options than simply changing the text or adding some comments. We think it’s suitable for you if you have to handle too many PDF documents.

[ Further reading: Case Study: Tim Ferriss & PDFpen ]

Precise Control UI

PDFpenPro has been designed to create PDF files with precision. The UI has been optimized for professionals. When you open the program, you can see the blank screen where you can insert content like text, images, shapes and others. Like we saw in PDF Expert, PDFpenPro too offers different viewing options. It has a multi-tabbed UI for managing multiple files as well.

Nevertheless, we should admit that the UI isn’t that intuitive. We needed time to figure out how the tools work. It also lacks automated recognition options.

Advanced Editing Options

PDFpenPro checks all the boxes when it comes to editing PDF files. You can take care of a wide variety of content like text, images and others. All the editing options are included in the same toolbar. It’s also easy to navigate between multiple pages of the document. We also loved the Precision Edit tool in PDFpen, which lets us select even the minute elements in a document and remove them easily.

When it comes to annotations, there are five different ways you can annotate documents using PDFpenPro. From simple drawing and scrabbling over the document, to adding your notes, comment boxes, links, bookmarks, or attachments. There is even an option to add an audio annotation, which is adding audio comments to the document. We also loved how you can use your iPad to bring richer content.

PDFpenPro allows you to turn websites into PDF in a single click. Thanks to the wider compatibility, you can export PDF files to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint as well.

DocuSign Support

PDFpenPro is your upgrade pick if you have to deal with PDF signing a lot. Apart from the native option to put and manage signatures, the latest version now offers DocuSign integration. It means you can now make use of this signature-management system to request digital signs from others. Because DocuSign comes with full legal compatibility, you don’t have to worry at all.

On any day, this powerful integration can help you save a few hours. Personally speaking, this is one of the best signing options I have seen in a PDF editor.

Efficient Scanning & OCR

Optical Character Recognition is perhaps themost important advanced feature inside PDFpen. It has been designed to extract an impressive variety of data from sources like a scanned image. To use this feature, you can open the image in the software and begin the OCR option. In a few minutes, PDFpenPro will help you convert the content into editable text.

It’s quite a time-saver and PDFpenPro offers great speeds too. PDFpenPro offers much control over the OCR process. You can decide the quality and resolution with ease.

[ Further reading:Best OCR Apps for Mac and Windows ]

Availability & Pricing

PDFpenPro is available for both macOS and iOS.

PDFpenPro costs $124.95. Still, you can download a free trial from Smilesoftware and get a single license that can register only on one Mac.

You can actually find its standard version, PDFpen, on Setapp.

Verdict

Pros

Advanced PDF Editing
OCR and DocuSign support
Versatile Editing Control

Cons

UI could be better
An expensive package

PDFpenPro is made for professionals, and there’s a steep learning curve. Even then, PDFpenPro offers many features you can’t find in other tools. The best example would be OCR, which works great in this program. It is just that you should be ready to pay something extra.

Pdf Printer Driver Mac

Other apps we considered

Here are some of the top apps we considered as the best Mac PDF editor. They did not, however, make it to the top list.

Preview

Preview is the pre-built PDF and image viewer in macOS. It’s something that you can securely use for viewing and annotating PDF documents. The best part? It’s quite integrated to the system that you get the maximum level of performance. The main limitation here is that Preview does not actually let you edit the PDF files. It has a bunch of effective options for annotation.

You can do a few things like adding text and shapes to the document. Once done, Preview can neatly export the files to PDF as well. Considering that you are not paying anything to get this program, we’d love to keep it aside. So, if you just want to bring some annotations and text boxes to a PDF document — without affecting the existing text, Preview would be fine.

Preview is free and is built into macOS.

ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac

Are you looking for a fully-fledged suite for OCR? Then, ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is a great choice for. The problem is that you cannot expect standard features here. The whole program has been made for OCR needs, an area in which you can expect the best results. In just a few seconds, the program would convert a scanned image to editable text.

As far as OCR technology is concerned, ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac works just great. It was able to do the OCR for even some of the low-quality images we’d tried. But, of course, if you have a better-quality image, the results would be better. We would not recommend the program for standard editing needs, though. The price tag is relatively higher too.

ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is available for $119.00.

Wondershare PDFelement Pro for Mac

Wondershare PDFelement Pro for Mac is one of the most well-priced PDF editing suites out there. It makes some compromises in performance and features, though. However, the best part of the app comes with full support for OCR and PDF conversion. These two features are great when you consider the overall price tag of the app.

If you ask us what matters the most here, it’s Batch Processing. Wondershare PDFelement Pro for Mac is one of the very few editors that allow complete support for batch processing. You can convert and deal with a lot of PDF files at once. The UI is also quite similar to that of PDF Expert, but we wish it had an enhanced level of performance.

Priced at $99, Wondershare PDFelement Pro is available for macOS and Windows.

Foxit PhantomPDF

Foxit PhantomPDF is one of the smoothest PDF editors we’ve seen so far. It packs so many features into a smaller-looking tool. Nevertheless, compared to other PDF editors we’ve covered, Foxit PhantomPDF comes with a larger footprint. Multitasking is not easy when you have Foxit PhantomPDF running in background. It also checks the boxes of OCR and automated recognition.

It’s comparatively easier to do PDF editing in Foxit PhantomPDF. We think, however, that the AI could be an impressive one. As of now, the User Interface looks so rudimentary and you will need some time to get used to the deal. Keep that aside, Foxit PhantomPDF is a great PDF editor for teams as well. It has options for real-time collaboration features.

Foxit PhantomPDF is available for Windows and macOS. It has a hefty price tag of $99.95 for Mac.

Kdan PDF Reader Pro

Kdan PDF Reader is another app which makes it to our list of PDF editors for Mac. It is quite popular with over 44,000 App Store ratings. It provides a wide range of document functions for business and daily life. It has both desktop and mobile apps, so you can work anytime, anywhere. It provides you with the feature to create and edit PDFs with features such as handwritten comments, highlighting, striking through, underlining texts, and more.

The highlight of this app is the Robust Reading Engine which provides you with a comfortable reading experience with features such as smooth page scrolling and the option to change the theme and page background so that your eyes don’t strain up.

Kdan PDF Reader’s individual plan can be purchased at $59.99 for a year.

What about online PDF editors?

Online PDF editors are the next best choice that people make when they can’t afford Acrobat Pro DC. It’s an awesome option too — until you lose the internet connection. The problem with online editors is that you’d need a fast, reliable Internet connection at all times.

There are also some security concerns. You basically have to upload the PDF document to a third-party server for editing it. It’s not the ideal option when you are dealing with confidential files. Besides, not all online PDF editors are offering satisfactory features. A lot of them ask for paid subscriptions as well.

Personally speaking, I think online PDF editors are just good for page management of PDF documents. If you need deeper editing or bulk editing, you can’t count on them. More importantly, most people like to edit their files in a native environment, which isn’t the case with most online PDF editors.

So, it makes sense to check out some of the actual native macOS PDF editors out there.

The bottom line

Free Pdf Writer For Apple

So, these are the best Mac PDF editors you can find today. We have tried to suggest PDF editors that work well for particular needs. We hope it helps you choose the right one.

Pdf Printer For Mac

If you are still confused and want a PDF editor that’s easy and effective, you can go with our pick, PDF Expert. As far as you don’t need anything fancy out there, that choice won’t go wrong. However, if you think you need more features and a better UI to manage documents, we recommend PDFpenPro, which packs some powerful features too.