Best Free Font Manager For Mac 2018

In the above video, i have talked about Best Font management apps for Windows and Mac OS. Most of the Windows Font Management apps are Free and for Mac most of them are paid. Font Expert for Mac OS X: Best alternatives Our editors hand-picked the best Mac alternatives to Font Expert, go ahead and check them out, rate them, or add new ones you find fitting. RightFont 5 Professional font managing app that anyone can use. RightFont 5 is an innovative, beautiful and professional font manager app for macOS, helping designers to preview, install, sync and manage their font files. I have been using FontExpert for almost 2 years now and it is the best font manager program I have ever seen or used. As a graphic designer this program is invaluable and I have recommended it to many of my friends and fellow designers. Typeface is a wonderful font manager for macOS that helps you pick the perfect type for your designs. A minimal interface and total focus on your fonts makes browsing your collection exciting and easy.

It's not easy to find a truly free PDF editor that lets you not only edit and add text but also change images, add your own graphics, sign your name, fill out forms, etc. Below, however, is a list of exactly what you're looking for.

Some of these are online PDF editors that work right in your web browser, so all you have to do is upload your PDF file to the website, make the changes you want, and then save it back to your computer. That's ​the quick way — but do bear in mind that, typically, an online editor isn't as fully featured as its desktop counterpart, plus the file is exposed to the internet (which might be of concern if it contains sensitive content).

Because not all of these free PDF editors support the same features, and some are restricted in what you can do, remember that you can process the same PDF in more than one tool. For example, use one to edit the PDF text (if that's supported), and then put the same PDF through a different editor to do something supported in that program (for example, to edit a form, update an image, or remove a page).

Switching Formats

If you don't need to change the contents of the PDF but instead just need to change it to another file format (such as .docx for Word or .epub for an e-book), see our list of free document converters for help. On the other hand, if you have a file you created yourself that you want to save as a PDF file, see How to Print to PDF.

Microsoft Word: A Top Choice

If you already own Microsoft Word 2019, 2016, or 2013, then skip all the suggested programs below: You have a great PDF editor at your disposal right now. Just open the PDF as you would any Word document, give the program a few minutes to convert the PDF, and then edit away.

of 07

Sejda PDF Editor

What We Like

  • Lets you load PDFs from other websites

  • Supports adding hyperlinks

  • Includes a signature tool

  • Lets you insert blank pages into the PDF

  • Can remove pages from the PDF

  • Supports whiting out parts of the page

  • Can insert images and shapes into the PDF

  • Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux

What We Don't Like

  • Can be used on only three PDFs every hour

  • Limited to PDFs with fewer than 200 pages

  • Doesn't edit PDFs larger than 50 MB

Sejda PDF Editor is one of the very few PDF editors that actually lets you edit pre-existing text in the PDF without adding a watermark. Most editors only let you edit the text you add yourself, or they support text editing but then throw watermarks all over the place.

Plus, this tool can run entirely in your web browser, so it's easy to get going without having to download any programs. You can get the desktop version if you'd rather use it that way.

There are some differences between the online and desktop versions that you should know about. For example, the desktop edition supports more font types and doesn't let you add PDFs by URL or from online storage services as the online editor does (which supports Dropbox and Google Drive).

Another neat feature is the web integration tool that lets PDF publishers provide a link for their users that they can simply click to automatically open the file in this online PDF editor.

All uploaded files are automatically deleted from Sejda after five hours.

You can use both the online and desktop versions to convert a PDF to a Word doc or a Word doc to PDF. Open the Tools section in either program to find that option.

of 07

Inkscape

What We Like

  • Can edit PDF text

  • Supports manipulating graphics

  • Includes lots of image-editing tools

  • Works with Windows, macOS, and Linux

What We Don't Like

  • The number of graphics-editing tools can be overwhelming

Inkscape is an extremely popular free image viewer and editor, but it also includes PDF editing functions that most dedicated PDF editors support only in their paid editions.

Inkscape is a very capable image editing program. If you're not already familiar with programs like GIMP, Adobe Photoshop, and other image editors, however, it's probably a bit advanced for you.

In the context of PDF editing, though, you should consider Inkscape only if you want to delete or edit the images or text in the PDF. We suggest you use a different tool in this list to edit PDF forms or add shapes and then plug that PDF into Inkscape if you need to actually edit the preexisting text.

of 07

PDFescape Online PDF Editor

What We Like

  • Works online through your web browser

  • Includes lots of tools

  • Lets you add your own text and images

  • Can delete and add PDF pages

  • Works on any OS

What We Don't Like

Free Font Manager For Mac

  • Can't edit existing text

  • Doesn't edit large PDFs

PDFescape has quite a lot of features. It's completely free so long as the PDF does not exceed 100 pages or 10 MB.

You can't truly change text or edit images using this editor, but you can add your own text, images, links, form fields, etc.

The text tool is very customizable so that you can pick your own size, font type, color, alignment, and apply effects such as bolding, underlining, and italics.

You also can draw on the PDF, add sticky notes, strikethrough text, put white space over anything you want to disappear, and insert lines, checkmarks, arrows, ovals, circles, rectangles, and comments.

PDFescape lets you delete individual pages from the PDF, rotate pages, crop out parts of a page, reorganize the order of the pages, and add more pages from other PDFs.

You can upload your own PDF file, paste the URL to an online PDF, and make your own PDF from scratch.

Best Free Font Manager For Mac 2018

When finished editing, you can download the PDF to your computer without ever having to make a user account. You need one only if you want to save your progress online without downloading the PDF.

PDFescape has an offline PDF editor, too, called PDFescape Editor, but it isn't free.

of 07

PDF-XChange Editor

What We Like

  • Uses OCR to identify the text in the PDF

  • Can import a variety of shapes and images

  • Supports adding QR codes to the PDF

  • Offers a portable version

What We Don't Like

  • Many features require a license

  • Works with Windows only

PDF-XChange Editor offers some great tools, but not all of them are free to use. If you use a non-free feature, the PDF will save with a watermark on every page.

If you stick to just the free features, however, you can still do some editing to the file and save it back to your computer.

You can load PDFs from your computer, a URL, SharePoint, Google Drive, and Dropbox. You can save the edited PDF back to your computer or to any of those cloud storage services.

The PDF-XChange Editor program has lots of features, so it might seem overwhelming at first. All of the options and tools are simple to understand, however, and they're categorized into their own sections for easier management.

One nice feature is the ability to highlight all the form fields so that you can easily spot where you need to fill in. This is really helpful if you're editing a PDF with lots of forms, such as an application.

Although the free version puts watermarks on your edited documents, this program does let you edit existing text, add your own text to the PDF, and add or delete pages from the document.

You can download this program in portable mode to use on a flash drive or as a regular installer.

Many of the features are free, but some are not. If you use a feature that's not covered by the free version (you're told which features are not free when you use them), the saved PDF file will have a watermark attached to the corner of every page.

of 07

Smallpdf Online PDF Editor

What We Like

  • Is completely free

  • Lets you add more text to the PDF

  • Can put white space over areas you want to erase

  • Supports importing shapes

  • Can load and save PDFs from various sources

  • Works with any OS

What We Don't Like

  • Doesn't let you edit existing text

  • Only two PDFs can be edited every hour

One of the quickest ways to add images, text, shapes, or your signature to a PDF is with Smallpdf.

This website allows you to upload a PDF, make changes to it, and then save it back to your computer all without needing to make a user account or pay for any anti-watermarking features.

You can open and/or save your PDF to your Dropbox or Google Drive account, too, in addition to your computer.

You can import three shapes into a PDF with Smallpdf: a square, circle, or arrow. You can change the object's main color and line color, as well as the thickness of its edge.

Text size can be tiny, small, normal, large, or huge, but only three font types are available. You can change the color of any text you add.

When finished editing the PDF, just hit the FINISH button and then decide where you want it saved; you can even generate a share link. You can also run the edited PDF through Smallpdf's PDF splitter tool if you want to extract the pages from the document.

If you edit two PDFs within an hour, you have to upgrade to Smallpdf Pro if you want to keep using the website. Or, you can wait an hour to edit another.

of 07

FormSwift's Free PDF Editor

What We Like

  • Everything is free

  • Doesn't leave a watermark

  • Can erase or redact existing text and images with white or black space

  • Lets you insert your own images

  • Can add your own custom text to the PDF

  • Circles, checkmarks, and 'x' icons can be placed over any text

  • Supports highlighting anything on the page

  • Easy typing, drawing, and signing

  • Works on any OS

What We Don't Like

  • Cannot edit existing text

  • No easy-to-access undo button (but you can delete what you've done)

  • Can upload PDFs only from your computer (not from other places such as Google Drive or Dropbox)

  • Must make a user account to save the PDF

FormSwift's Free PDF Editor is a very simple online PDF editor that you can start using without even making a user account.

It's as simple as uploading your PDF file to the website and using the menus at the top of the page to quickly perform some basic PDF editing functions before downloading it back to your computer.

When you're done editing the PDF, you can download the file as a PDF file, print it directly to your printer, or save the PDF as a Microsoft Word .docx document.

The .pdf-to-.docx conversion didn't work for every PDF that we tried, but in those that did convert successfully, the images were formatted nicely and the text was fully editable.

Another feature offered by FormSwift at formswift.com/snap lets you quickly edit or sign PDFs from your phone by taking a picture of a document. You can then share or download the PDF when you're done. It's not perfect: Most things done through a web app are spotty. It does work, however, with a little patience.

You can upload Word documents and images to FormSwift, too, if you need to edit those instead of a PDF.

of 07

PDFelement Pro

What We Like

Font manager for mac
  • Lets you edit the PDF's text directly

  • Supports adding images, links, and custom watermarks

  • The background of the PDF pages can be edited

  • Headers and footers can be included in the PDF

  • Supports combining several PDFs into one

  • PDF pages can be cropped

  • Supports OCR

  • Can insert, extract, delete, and rotate PDF pages

  • Editing embedded forms is easy

  • Can password-protect the PDF

  • Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS

What We Don't Like

  • Free version places a watermark on the PDF

PDFelement Pro, just as the name sounds, is free but with a major limitation: It places a watermark on every page of the PDF. That being said, the watermark doesn't cover much of the page, and it's important to realize that it supports some truly great PDF editing features.

This program would be a truly free PDF editor if it weren't for the fact that the free edition will not save without first putting a watermark on every single page of the PDF.

Depending on what you'll use the PDF for, however, the features it supports might be enough for you to consider living with the watermarks.

Android
Mac

Today's Best Tech Deals

Picked by Macworld's Editors

Top Deals On Great Products

Picked by Techconnect's Editors

Thanks to OS X 10.3’s Font Book, most Mac users don’t need to buy a font management program. But if you have tons of fonts, share a font library with others, or have lots of fonts flowing through your system (from clients or collaborators, for example) you’ll need more features than Font Book offers. This review looks at some popular third-party font-handling tools.

There are three main font-management tasks: organizing font libraries (which also makes sharing easier), minimizing the number of active fonts in your System folder (shortening font menus and reducing computing overhead), and assuring that your fonts function properly (checking for corruption and duplicates). No one program does it all perfectly.

FontDoctor 7.0

Fonts break, and when they break, systems crash. Missing screen or printer fonts and identically named fonts in different formats confuse applications and printers, causing program crashes and surprise printing results. The solution? Call the FontDoctor.

FontDoctor 7 can organize fonts into tidy libraries (by either copying them or moving them), archive fonts into a single compressed file for safe keeping, and convert TrueType fonts between Mac and Windows formats. But the main reason you will want it is to fix corrupted font files, sort out duplicate fonts (or those with duplicate names), and weed out PostScript printer and screen fonts that have lost their partners. You can also sort duplicate fonts by their ages, saving only the newest ones.

Although FontDoctor can weed out sick fonts, it can’t always tell you how serious their maladies are, and its manual admits that some fonts that it pulls aside as suspicious (due to unusual programming) may, in fact, work just fine.

FontDoctor searches any folder, disk, or mounted volume for fonts in PostScript Type 1, TrueType (Mac, Windows .ttf, and .dfonts), or OpenType format. After scanning them for problems or missing parts, it will fix the fixable and organize them into a neat library. The program also lets you organize your fonts into a series of folders best suited to your workflow. Fonts you don’t want, irreparable fonts, or fragments of fonts (or those that simply don’t correspond to orthodox font programming norms) can be isolated or sent to the Trash.

Well-designed, easy to use, and clearly documented, FontDoctor is cheap insurance against misbehaving fonts, which are devils to identify and impossible to fix without a specialized tool. Although well-organized users may not think they need a font management program, there’s no substitute for a font-repair kit, and FontDoctor 7 is good one. Extensis Suitcase owners already know this, as FontDoctor has been bundled with Suitcase for several years.

FontAgent Pro 3.0

Insider Software has paid attention to its competition, and rolled many of the best aspects of existing font-management programs into FontAgent Pro 3, making it a leading contender.

FontAgent Pro scans your Mac and any connected devices, disks, or volumes, and gathers your fonts—either by copying or moving them—into a new library organized by font family; the exceptions are the few system fonts OS X needs to do its business. You can then organize the fonts into sets for batch activation and deactivation. You also can create multiple libraries with overlapping contents to simplify access to huge font collections.

One of FontAgent Pro’s hallmarks is automatic font activation. Open a document that has a disabled font, and FontAgent Pro will activate that font. For popular applications that don’t support auto-activation (such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, and QuarkXPress), FontAgent Pro features plug-ins that will do the trick. A useful complement would be automatic >activation when you close such a document, but FontAgent Pro does not offer it.

FontAgent Pro borrows a couple of OS X’s font-management tools. For example, its Show Fonts command opens OS X’s Fonts Palette, which is useful for revealing the features of individual (especially OpenType) fonts through its Typography option. However FontAgent Pro doesn’t control which fonts are displayed in the OS X Fonts panel; whether they’re activated or not, if OS X can find them, it will list them.

While FontAgent Pro 3 does not offer any powerful diagnostic tools for analyzing what’s wrong with a font rather than just flagging it as suspicious, it will scan fonts before activation to assure they’re complete and uncorrupted. You can filter any problem fonts out of your library. This is probably all the doctoring most Mac users will ever need.

Master Juggler 3.0.3

Time has passed Alsoft’s MasterJuggler by, and it’s in serious need of an upgrade. It can’t, for example, go out and search your system for available fonts. You have to point it to where all your fonts are stored before it adds them to its library. From there you can gather them into the familiar sets that allow you to activate and deactivate fonts in batches.

It also can’t distinguish between the fonts in any Library/Fonts folder that are truly required by the System (just a small handful), and those that have been put there for all System users to share. It considers them all to be untouchable System fonts. If you want to activate or deactivate these fonts or build them into sets, you’ll have to move them elsewhere first, which is unnecessarily tedious.

MasterJuggler does check fonts for problems, but it doesn’t solve them. It just flags them and leaves you to do the fixing. If you have missing screen fonts, you’ll have to fix them. If you have a corrupted font file, you’ll have to isolate it. If you have duplicate fonts or multiple versions of the same font, you’ll have to take care of the problem.

Best Free Fonts For Mac

MasterJuggler 3 adds a font viewer for seeing individual characters contained within a font, but it’s not well thought out. There’s no single view of the entire character set of a font; to find the character you’re after, you have to know in which Unicode numbering range it’s hidden. This can be far from obvious. You can also drag any character from the viewer into any text-editing application, but you first have to match the point size in the viewer to that of the text, or it comes in at the wrong size.

I thought MasterJuggler 2 was best-of-breed when it came out a decade ago, but version 3 has fallen behind the competition. If Alsoft wants to stay in the race, MasterJuggler will need automatic font collection, automatic font activation, and a more useful way to access the character sets of large OpenType fonts just to stay even.

Macworld’s Buying Advice

If you’re having problems with corrupt font files, duplicate fonts, and mismatched PostScript printer and screen fonts, FontDoctor 7 is the best remedy. While it sometimes mistakenly flags functional fonts, it will most often repair your fonts and organize them into a neat library. However, if you’re looking for a font manager that scours your hard drive for fonts, gathers them into alphabetical folders and auto activates them by project, I recommend FontAgent Pro 3. An added bonus is that the program will scan fonts before activating them to make sure they’re complete and uncorrupted.

Font Manager For Mac

[ James Felici has been using the Mac for over 20 years and was a member of the Macworld start-up team. His latest book is The Complete Manual of Typography (Adobe Press, 2002). ]

For more reviews about font managers, please see our review of Suitcase X1 ( ; February 2004 ).

FontDoctor 7 can analyze, correct, and build a new library from your far-flung fonts, all in one pass. The options shown here can sort identically named fonts by format or age, solve ID-number conflicts, and cull selected screen fonts, among other handy options.FontAgent Pro 3’s interface is clean, but its window isn’t big enough to comfortably see all the functions that it offers, including a preview pane where you can compare typefaces. By resizing the panes, you can customize the display.

Best Free Font Manager For Mac

MasterJuggler 3.0.3’s Samples view shows customizable displays of all the fonts in a set. To compare selected typefaces, though, you have to create a custom set containing just those fonts.

Best Free Font Manager For Mac 2018 Football

Page 1 Next

Comments are closed.