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What are the best PDF viewers for macOS?

12

Options
Considered

60

User
Recs.

Jan 30, 2024

Last
Updated

8 Options Considered

Best PDF viewers for macOS	Price	Platforms	License
-- Preview	-	MacOS	Proprietary
-- KDE Okular	Free	Windows, MacOS, Linux (KDE), BSD	GPL-2.0-or-later
-- Skim	FREE	MacOS	-
-- Calibre	Free	Windows, MacOS, Linux	GPL-3.0-only
-- Google Chrome	Free	Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android, iOS	EULA

KDE Okular

Top Pro

Free and open source

Specs

Platforms:Windows, MacOS, Linux (KDE), BSD

License:GPL-2.0-or-later

Skim

Top Pro

Open source

HarmoniousJanus's Experience

nice alternative to preview See More

Specs

Platforms:MacOS

Top Pro

Free

DebonairThinanMalkia's Experience

I don't think Skim has any serious competition for pdf viewing on Mac. It's fast, easy to use, and has a lot of features. It supports syncTeX for use with creating documents with tex, which I don't think any alternatives use. It also supports AppleScript, which again I don't think any alternatives support. I'm not aware that it's surpassed in any way by any alternative. See More

Top Pro

Supports dual page continuous

Top Pro

Advanced annotation tools

Top Pro

It supports syncTeX for viewing pdf's created with pdfLaTeX

It's possibly the only major pdf viewer on Mac that supports syncTeX. See More

Adobe Acrobat

Top Con

MacOS dictionary lookup unavailable

Top Pro

Professional prepress tools

Specs

Platforms:Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS

License:Proprietary

Exports:.pdf, .ps, .eps, .html, .htm, .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, .jpf, .jpx, .jp2, .j2k, .j2c, .jpc.png, .pptx, .rtf, .txt, .tif, .tiff, .xlsx, .doc, .docx, .xml, .csv

Real-time collaboration:No

Top Con

Very expensive

While there's a free version of Acrobat Reader, it does not allow editing. There's a choice of Standard edition that costs $299, and Pro version for $499. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Available on Windows, OS X, iOS and Android. See More

Top Pro

Excellent compatibility with the PDF standard

Since Adobe is the creator of the PDF standard, it stands to reason that Adobe's Acrobat Reader has the excellent support for it. See More

Foxit Reader

Specs

License:Proprietary

PDF Bob

Specs

Languages:English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian

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