OpenPdfEdit is a free PDF editor for Mac: one download that runs on Apple silicon and Intel, with no account, no watermark and nothing uploaded. Annotate, sign, fill in forms, redact and reorganise pages on your own machine.
A native macOS app with the whole toolset. You can annotate a PDF, sign a PDF, fill PDF forms, redact a PDF so the words are gone from the file, merge PDF files, split a PDF, organize PDF pages, password protect a PDF and compress PDF files. It also replaces a line of text in place, moves text and images, and compares two documents.
Every one of those happens on the Mac itself. The app does not send a document, or any part of one, anywhere, and it needs no account to open, edit or save a file.
It is free, with two exceptions that are named here and not at checkout: watermarking and OCR are unlocked together by a single one-time payment of 1,000 credits, about $5. There is no subscription, no page limit and nothing of ours stamped on your document.
Every release, with its checksums, is on the releases page. The app does not update itself yet, so a new version is a new download from that page.
The app is not distributed through the Mac App Store; it is a download from the releases page. The .dmg is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS checks it and opens it the first time like any other app. There is nothing to override in System Settings.
The one exception is a build you make yourself from the source. That copy is signed ad hoc and is not notarized, so the first time you open it macOS stops it. Open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about OpenPdfEdit and choose Open Anyway. You only do this once.
If you would rather not install anything, the same PDF editor for Mac runs as a web page in Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Load it once and it keeps working with the network off. One difference between browsers is worth knowing: saving over the original file needs Chrome or Edge, and Safari and Firefox save a copy instead. In Chrome and Edge there is also a PDF editor extension.
What the desktop app adds is the native file dialogs, saving over the original every time, and a list of recent documents that survives a relaunch. OCR is built into the desktop app, where the web app downloads the recogniser once on first use.
OpenPdfEdit is an open source PDF editor. The source is public on GitLab under AGPL-3.0-or-later, the core is written in Rust and compiled natively for macOS, and the build you download is the build everyone gets. You can read it, build it yourself or change it.
It is not in the Mac App Store, and it does not update itself yet. It places a visible signature on a page but does not create certificate-based digital signatures. Editing text replaces a line in place and does not reflow the paragraph around it, because a PDF stores positioned glyphs and not paragraphs. Converting to and from Office formats is not in it.
The PDF editor for Mac is one .dmg for Apple silicon and Intel. Or open it in a browser tab, with nothing to install.
Guides: All guides
Yes. Annotating, editing text, redacting, filling in and signing forms, reorganising pages, merging, splitting and compressing are free, with no account and no page limit. Two tools, watermarking and OCR, are unlocked together by a one-time payment of 1,000 credits (about $5).
Yes. The download is a .dmg from openpdfedit.com/download/mac, and every release is also on the GitLab releases page with its checksums. It is not in the Mac App Store.
Yes. The .dmg is a universal build, so one file runs on both.
No. The download is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other app. Only a copy you build yourself from the source is not notarized; for that one, choose Open Anyway in System Settings, Privacy & Security, the first time you open it.
That depends on what you need, and we would rather describe it than rank it. It is free, the source is public, it works offline and it never uploads a document. It does not create certificate-based digital signatures or convert Office files. If those are what you need, look elsewhere.
Yes. You can replace a line of text in place and move a run of text. An edited line does not reflow the lines around it, and when the original font is not embedded the substitute is named instead of being swapped in quietly.