Edit PDF Text on Mac for Free: What Preview Can Do

You can’t edit the text, and two Apple pages still say “editing”

The annotate article in the Preview User Guide opens with this sentence: although you can’t edit the text of a PDF in Preview, you can use the markup tools to provide feedback or write down something you want to remember. The same article calls those Markup tools editing tools for suggesting changes and responding to suggestions. Separately, the Mac User Guide page “Preview files on your Mac” says the Preview app is for reading, annotating, signing and editing PDFs and images, and that it has tools for reading and editing. Get Started says you can view, edit and manage PDFs and images, and that you can add annotations and signatures and combine or split PDF files. The jobs those two pages then describe are highlights, notes, shapes, text, signatures, form fields and page changes. They do not give steps for clicking a sentence that is already in the PDF and replacing its words. This guide keeps both wordings. “Editing” on the Mac User Guide and Get Started pages means the jobs those pages list. It does not cancel the annotate article’s limit on the text of the PDF.

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A text box is new text on the page

The Markup table’s Text tool says to type your text, then drag the text box where you want. Text Style changes the font, or the font style and color. The form article’s opening line is that in Preview you can add text and signatures to PDFs. The Mac User Guide’s Markup section says to use the Markup toolbar to add highlights, notes, shapes and text. The same Mac User Guide page also documents Markup without opening Preview first: select the file and click the Markup button in the Finder toolbar, or press the Space bar for Quick Look and click Markup there. Those windows can draw, add text, shapes and highlights, and insert a text box, speech bubble, arrow or other shape. Each of those is an object you add. None of those sentences is a procedure for changing the original line underneath.

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Fill a field, then use a text box only if the form refuses typing

The form article’s steps are: open the PDF form, click a field, then type. If a PDF will not allow you to type directly into the form, add a text box. The Markup table lists a Form Fill tool with the description “Type your text in the fields of a PDF form.” The Mac User Guide uses a broader sentence: click any PDF form field and type directly, Preview automatically detects fillable fields, and no printing or separate app is needed. Enhanced AutoFill is a further feature on the form article. You click AutoFill Form, or click a field, then click your name so matching contact information is filled from Contacts. Another person’s card can be chosen with Choose Other. The article says not all PDFs support this feature. A form that accepts typing, a form that needs a text box, and a form that accepts AutoFill are three documented cases. This guide does not collapse them into one.

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A signature is placed artwork, with a deletion side effect

The form article says you can capture a signature with the trackpad, the built-in camera, or an iPhone or iPad. Trackpad: click Trackpad, sign with your finger, press any key, then click Done. A Force Touch trackpad can sign with a heavier line if you press more firmly. Camera: hold the signature on white paper level with the blue line, then click Done. iPhone or iPad: click Select Device if more than one is available, sign with a finger or with Apple Pencil on iPad, then tap Done. Apple says that device has to meet Continuity system requirements and points to its Continuity article. VoiceOver can add a description such as Initials, or a custom description, before you click Done. You then click the signature, drag it, and use the handles to adjust the size. If iCloud Drive is on, signatures are available on your other Macs that have iCloud Drive turned on. Deleting one is broader than the open PDF: the article says the signature is deleted from all apps that use Markup on that Mac, and from your other Macs that use iCloud Drive. The Mac User Guide’s shorter sign steps match the same three creation methods and say to click Markup, then the Signature button.

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Highlight, notes and redaction leave different things behind

The highlight article says the highlight, underline and strikethrough tools draw attention to text, often together with speech bubbles and notes. You can apply a style to a selection, or turn on highlight mode so later selections pick up that style. Control-click and Remove clears a highlight, underline or strikethrough. View > Highlights and Notes lists each highlighted section in the sidebar. A note is separate text: show Markup, click the Note tool, type, then click the page to close it. You can recolor it, drag it, edit it by clicking it, and remove it from the sidebar with the Delete key. A speech bubble is Tools > Annotate > Speech Bubble. The note’s author name defaults to your macOS login name. Preview > Settings > PDF changes the Name field, or the “Add name to annotations” checkbox removes the name. Redaction is the Markup tool that selects text to remove it from view. Apple says you can change the redaction while you edit, and that once you close the document the redaction becomes permanent. The same note says table-of-contents entries that link to redacted text are not removed. Crop, also in that Markup table, hides part of a PDF inside a frame you draw. This guide did not close a redacted file, extract its text, or inspect a table of contents. Apple’s permanence sentence and the table-of-contents exception are both quoted limits, not a result from a saved file on this site.

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Copy is documented. Replacing the selection is not

The Select and copy article says you can select and copy text, then paste it into another document such as an email or a text document. The steps are Tools > Text Selection, drag, then Edit > Copy. Holding Option while you drag copies a vertical portion, which Apple says is useful for a column in a table. Rectangular Selection copies a portion of the page as a graphic image. The same article says the Text Selection and Rectangular Selection tools in the Markup toolbar can also select and copy text. The Markup table’s Text Selection row uses a wider phrase: select text to copy or delete, and it points to the Select and copy article. That article, checked the same day, does not include delete steps and does not include typing new words into the selection. The current troubleshooting page gives two checks when selection fails: the Text Selection tool may not be selected, and the PDF may require a password, which you enter after Tools > Show Inspector. The Preview User Guide page at the macOS 10.15 address adds a third check: the text might be an image instead of actual text, and you can’t select the text in that case. The current troubleshooting page does not include that image sentence. Use the current page for the tool and the password. Use the macOS 10.15 page only for the image sentence it still prints.

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Save so the marks stay editable, and keep a way back

The annotate article distinguishes two saves. File > Save, File > Export, or File > Export to PDF saves the PDF and allows annotations to be edited later. Automatic save does the same: PDFs are saved with editable annotations when they’re saved automatically. File > Print, then Save as PDF, flattens annotations so they can’t be edited. The combine page’s warning is the reason to duplicate first: changes you make to a Preview document are saved automatically. If you need an earlier state, the revert article says Preview periodically saves versions. File > Revert To can offer Previous Save, Last Saved or Last Opened, depending on what you did in the file. Browse All Versions shows a timeline. Restore replaces the file with the version you chose. Holding Option and clicking Restore a Copy creates a new file from that version. Done leaves the file unreverted. The same article points to a separate page if document versions conflict in iCloud Drive. This guide does not restate that page. The combine guide on this site covers the thumbnail and Finder steps for merging pages. Merging is a page operation. It is not the text edit this guide is about.

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When the sentence itself has to change

Preview’s documented route for words that are already in the PDF stops at the annotate sentence. If the task is to change that sentence, compare an edition whose own pages document existing-text editing, and keep that claim labelled as vendor documentation until a saved output is tested. Our Apple Preview record, the Preview versus PDF Expert comparison, and the Mac Acrobat-alternatives page separate markup, forms and page organization from changing an original paragraph. PDF Expert and PDFgear for Mac are candidates on those pages. This guide does not restate their prices and does not report a test of either app. The PDF editor directory and the replacement checklist are the next checks. Choosing one of them is a scope decision. It is not evidence that Preview failed a file we opened.

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Scope of this guide

We read the linked Apple Preview User Guide and Mac User Guide pages on 23 October 2026 and wrote this guide from them. We did not install, run or time Preview, open a PDF, add markup, fill a form, sign a file or save an output for this guide, and nothing here is a hands-on test result. Menus can differ by macOS version and by whether Markup is open in Preview, Finder or Quick Look; check what your own screen shows. The pages checked do not display a separate price for Preview.