PDFpen vs Preview

Struggling to choose between PDFpen and Preview? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

PDFpen is a Office & Productivity solution with tags like pdf, editor, annotate, edit, mac.

It boasts features such as Edit PDF text, Add text boxes, Highlight and underline text, Add images, shapes and lines, Redact text, Sign PDFs digitally, Scan documents directly into PDF and pros including Intuitive and easy to use interface, Powerful PDF editing capabilities, OCR for editing scanned PDFs, iCloud sync across devices, Good value for the price.

On the other hand, Preview is a Office & Productivity product tagged with pdf, images, documents, viewer, macos, opensource.

Its standout features include View PDFs, images, text files and more, Annotate PDFs with shapes, text boxes, signatures, Basic image editing tools, Fill out and sign PDF forms, Combine PDFs and export as PDF or other formats, Tabbed interface to view multiple files, Quick Look support to preview files, Built-in screen capture tool, and it shines with pros like Free and included with macOS, Fast and lightweight, Supports many common file formats, Useful annotation and editing tools, Easy to use interface.

To help you make an informed decision, we've compiled a comprehensive comparison of these two products, delving into their features, pros, cons, pricing, and more. Get ready to explore the nuances that set them apart and determine which one is the perfect fit for your requirements.

PDFpen

PDFpen

PDFpen is a PDF editing software for Mac that allows users to easily edit, annotate, and sign PDF documents. It has tools for adding text, images, signatures, highlights, shapes, and more to PDFs.

Categories:
pdf editor annotate edit mac

PDFpen Features

  1. Edit PDF text
  2. Add text boxes
  3. Highlight and underline text
  4. Add images, shapes and lines
  5. Redact text
  6. Sign PDFs digitally
  7. Scan documents directly into PDF

Pricing

  • One-time Purchase
  • Subscription-Based

Pros

Intuitive and easy to use interface

Powerful PDF editing capabilities

OCR for editing scanned PDFs

iCloud sync across devices

Good value for the price

Cons

Mac only, no Windows version

Can be slow with large PDF files

No Bates numbering feature

Limited collaboration features


Preview

Preview

Preview is a free and open-source document viewer application for macOS. It allows quick viewing of multiple file formats including images, PDFs, Markdown files, Office documents, and more. Preview has basic editing capabilities and annotation tools for PDFs.

Categories:
pdf images documents viewer macos opensource

Preview Features

  1. View PDFs, images, text files and more
  2. Annotate PDFs with shapes, text boxes, signatures
  3. Basic image editing tools
  4. Fill out and sign PDF forms
  5. Combine PDFs and export as PDF or other formats
  6. Tabbed interface to view multiple files
  7. Quick Look support to preview files
  8. Built-in screen capture tool

Pricing

  • Free

Pros

Free and included with macOS

Fast and lightweight

Supports many common file formats

Useful annotation and editing tools

Easy to use interface

Cons

Limited functionality compared to paid alternatives

Lacks advanced PDF editing features

No OCR for scanning text in images

No collaboration tools