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1 week ago
2 For most of the years I’ve owned a Mac, Preview was just the app that opened when I accidentally double-clicked a PDF. I’d close it and open the app I actually wanted, usually Adobe Acrobat Pro, but sometimes Smallpdf Pro for quick jobs like merging files and removing backgrounds. Then I got a new multifunctional MacBook Air and forgot to install either paid app. When it came time to open a PDF on the new computer, I used Preview out of quick necessity. From there, I began poking around Preview and exploring its menus to see what it could do beyond simply opening documents.
Within a few weeks, I decided to ditch Adobe Acrobat Pro, like many others have, which I’d been paying $19.99 a month for, and Smallpdf Pro, which cost me another $15 per month. Here’s what Preview took over, and where it still falls short.
How to sign and fill out PDF forms on Mac with Preview
Save your signature once, then drop it into any PDF
I moved signing over first, since I do it most. In Preview, you sign once, and it stays saved. You can draw it with your trackpad, sign a sheet of paper and hold it up to the Mac’s camera, or sign on your iPhone. To add it to a PDF, click the signature button in the Markup toolbar and select it. If you can’t see the toolbar, press Cmd + Shift + A.
To create my first signature, I used my finger on my iPhone, which I felt gave me the cleanest result.
Beginning with macOS Sonoma, forms got a lot easier on Mac. Preview recognizes fillable fields now, so you click a box and type. On a flat scanned form with no real fields, the Text tool still lets you drop a text box anywhere on the page. It’s less elegant than Adobe Acrobat Pro, but the result looks the same when you print it or send it back. Filling out an IRS Form W-9 has never been easier.
Merge, split and reorder PDF pages on Mac for free
Combine files, pull out pages and turn images into pages without uploading anything
Credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / MakeUseOf
I used to upload files to Smallpdf every time I needed to combine two PDFs. Thinking about how many client documents went through that site makes me wince a little now.
Preview does this locally. Open a PDF, turn on the thumbnail sidebar with Option + Cmd + 2, and drag a second PDF into it. The pages drop in wherever you release them. Drag thumbnails up or down to reorder. Select one and hit Delete to remove it.
Pulling pages out works in reverse. Select the thumbnails you want, drag them to the desktop, and Preview makes a new PDF from only those pages. I use this constantly at the end of the month when I need to grab an invoice out of a monthly statement.
You can also drag an image file into the sidebar to turn it into a page. Scanned receipts and screenshots go straight into an expense PDF that way.
Compress a PDF on Mac with Preview
The Reduce File Size filter gets big files under email limits, but it can make photos look muddy
Credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / MakeUseOf
This one surprised me. Go to File > Export, open the Quartz Filter menu, and choose Reduce File Size. This tool isn’t 100% ideal, but I still use it. It compresses images hard, so that photo-heavy documents can look muddy, and it has no slider to adjust how aggressive it is.
For text documents, and for scans that only need to fit under an email size limit, Preview has been enough for me. Save the smaller version under a new file name so you still have the original one that's probably bulky if the result looks rough.
Redact a PDF on Mac so the text is really gone
A black box isn’t redaction, but Preview’s Redact tool deletes the content for good
Credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / MakeUseOf
I used to draw a black rectangle over an account number and call it done. That doesn’t work. The text is still in the file, and anyone can select and copy it. Preview has a real redaction tool that removes the text instead of covering it.
Preview’s Redact tool in the Markup toolbar actually deletes the content. Drag across text, or draw a box over an area, and Preview blacks it out. When you save the file, that content is gone for good. Preview warns you the first time, and it means it, so duplicate the file if you might need the original later.
Apple’s tool is designed around selectable text. If you’re covering part of an image, a photographed signature, or a scanned page, check the exported file by trying to select and copy what’s underneath before you send it anywhere.
During tax season, I have to send forms to my accountant. Now I can redact certain information I’d rather not send via email.
Remove image backgrounds and convert file types in Preview
Cut out a subject as a transparent PNG, convert HEIC to JPEG and resize in batches
Credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / MakeUseOf
I didn’t expect a document viewer to replace what I was using Smallpdf for here, either.
Open an image and choose Tools > Remove Background, or press Cmd + Shift + K. Preview finds the subject and cuts it out in about a second. It uses the same subject detection Apple uses in Photos and on the iPhone, and it handles people, pets, and products on a plain surface well. Fine hair and busy backgrounds sometimes trip it up.
The result saves as a PNG with a transparent background, which is what I need for thumbnails and featured images anyway.
Format conversion lives in File > Export. Preview handles HEIC, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PDF, and a few others, so iPhone photos that a CMS won’t accept become JPEGs in a few clicks. Tools > Adjust Size handles resizing, with a field for exact pixel dimensions. Select several images in the sidebar first, and the resize applies to all of them at once.
Preview can also lock a PDF so it needs a password to open. Choose File > Export, click Permissions, and set a password. The same screen lets you block printing, copying, or editing.
Preview vs. Adobe Acrobat: what Preview can’t do
No text editing, no Word export, and OCR that works best on clean pages
Credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / MakeUseOf
Preview has limits, and they matter if your PDF work goes beyond the basics.
It can’t edit text that’s already in a PDF. You can cover it, annotate over it, or redact it, but you can’t fix a typo inside a paragraph. It also won’t export a PDF to Word. If a client sends you a PDF and asks for tracked changes, Preview won’t get you there.
OCR is where Acrobat still earns its price for some people. Preview does more here than I assumed. Live Text picks up words on a scanned page or photo as soon as you open it so that you can highlight and copy them. That recognition happens only in the viewer, though, and the file itself doesn’t change.
To make a scan permanently searchable, go to File > Export and check Embed Text. The box appears only when the PDF doesn’t already have a text layer. Preview runs OCR across every page and writes a hidden text layer into the new file, so Spotlight, Chrome, and Acrobat can all search it.
On clean, typed pages, that’s been enough for me. Messy scans are another matter. Preview won’t let you review or fix words it misreads, and it won’t straighten a crooked page or clean up specks first. It also can’t OCR a stack of files in one go unless you build a Shortcut or an Automator workflow. If you scan a lot of paper, Acrobat is still better.
Preview is also on iPhone and iPad now, since iOS 26. It handles viewing, markup, and signing. It's missing a few Mac features, like password protection and Quartz filters.
I saved by canceling Adobe Acrobat Pro and Smallpdf
For the past 12 months, I paid $19.99 a month for Adobe Acrobat Pro, about $240 a year. I also paid $15 a month for three months of Smallpdf Pro. That’s $285 last year on tools Preview now handles for free.
Preview keeps growing in the background, too. macOS 27 added 3D editing, which I haven’t found a use for yet, but it shows Apple still treats it as more than a file viewer.
If you have a Mac and pay for a PDF app, go through a month of what you actually did with it. If the list is mostly signing, merging, compressing, and redacting, the free app you’ve been closing has probably had those features the whole time.
