What alternatives are there to Adobe PDF Reader? I am trying to determine what FOSS PDF editor with extensive capabilities would perform similarly cross-platform, specifically macOS. I’d like for there to be signature capabilities as well as the ability to “check boxes” like Adobe. I wasn’t able to find any discussions on this.
MacOS has a native PDF editor - it is quite basic but still has a bit more options than let’s say Firefox. It is the standard default application that opens PDFs out of the box, it is the standard Finder viewer app.
If not, there’s PDFgear, which I was going to try on my Windows PC. It’s free but I doubt that it is legit in terms of privacy, although I have not looked into it or tried it yet, so you might want to check it out depending on your needs
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I think libreoffice draw is the best editor by far maybe not a annotation thingy (xodo on android is nice )
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In my view, the easiest option is to use the built-in Apple Preview, as it effectively accomplishes most tasks. Unfortunately, all FOSS alternatives for macOS that I am aware of have certain limitations in terms of convenience or functionality. Although Okular can be run on macOS, it is quite unstable and buggy, offering little to no advantages over Apple Preview in terms of functionality.
For use cases requiring advanced PDF editing akin to Adobe Acrobat, there is no FOSS option at all. It makes little difference which of the common PDF editors for macOS—such as PDF Expert, PDFelement, Master PDF Editor, etc.—you choose. These are all proprietary, and none of them particularly stands out in terms of privacy. It is advisable to avoid Acrobat, as Adobe products are generally known for having some of the worst privacy policies.
To reiterate, I do not recommend any of the tools mentioned: they show no signs of respecting their users privacy and, in my opinion, the majority of these paid tools are exorbitantly priced for what they offer.
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