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Best Free Text Editor For Mac

2020-12-28 17:34:15 • Filed to: macOS 10.14 Solutions • Proven solutions

Text editor for Mac. The world's best text and source code editor, on Mac. Purchase options. That's right – UltraEdit includes UltraCompare for Mac at no extra cost! UC Pro offers 2 and 3 way file compare and merge, folder compare and sync, hex compare, table/Excel compare, local/remote sync, Git integration, and a whole. We all use text editors to take notes, save web addresses, write code, as well as other uses. Every operating system comes with a default, basic text editor, but most of us install our own enhanced text editors to get more features.

We all use text editors to take notes, save web addresses, write code, as well as other uses. Every operating system comes with a default, basic text editor, but most of us install our own enhanced text editors to get more features. In this article, we’ve gathered links to many different text editors used for different purposes.

From a general perspective, while looking at text editors for macOS 10.14, we are not specifically referring to the text as we have it in the document text. A large chunk of text editors on the market, particularly those that offer greater capabilities, will turn out to also come with extremely robust features for code compiling. This is where their true potential lies. Today, we will look at 10 best free text editors on macOS 10.14.

  • Bluefish is a free text editor. It can be used on many operating systems like Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and Solaris. This easy to use system can be used for programming and websites developments. Bluefish can be used for.
  • Sublime Text is another promising coding editor for Mac OS. Initially, many coders and other users are interested in the flexible interface settings and quick change of layouts during a coding process. Sublime can be operated with several tabs and pages switching promptly from file to file.

Top 10 Free Text Editors for macOS 10.14

1. Brackets

This is a free text editor macOS 10.14 that is open source and maintained by Adobe Systems — one of the major companies in the industry. One of the outstanding features of Brackets is its beautiful interface. Its unique Extract offering lets you grab font, gradients measurements, and so on from a PSD file into a CSS that is clean and ready for use on the web.

Pros

  • It comes with extension support which contains a huge and growing library
  • Brackets have inline editors and previews

Cons

  • It is slow
  • Brackets still do not have certain elementary text editor commands
  • Its updater is problematic

2. TextWrangler

Developed by Bare Bones, TextWrangler is another best text editor on macOS 10.14. This tool can be regarded as a lightweight version of BBEdit, also designed by Bare Bones. It has all the features needed by hardcore developers to carry out operations in specific columns in a CSV, or in a server admin for scriptwriting.

Pros

  • It offers basic text editing as well as manipulations
  • TextWrangler is a free yet ideal alternative to BBEdit
  • It has an inbuilt FTP or STFP browser
  • It is robust and fast to start up

Cons

  • It isn’t maintained any longer

3. Vim

This software is a command line-based text editor for macOS 10.14. One of the most renowned text editors on the market, Vim does not have a steep learning curve. It features a stack of documentation that assists a user in learning how to use the app conveniently. Vim is designed with a quick reference, help documents, along with a tutorial that runs for 30 minutes to get you acquainted with it.

Pros

  • It has capabilities and features for command-based text editing
  • It is easy to use
Mac

Cons

  • Vim requires great effort to customize
  • It offers poor support for external tooling

4. Komodo Edit

It is an open-source text editor on macOS 10.14 that is free and offers a powerful user interface. Komodo Edit is a fantastic tool for writing code and carrying out other operations. The software provides many useful tools, which help you edit, like the capacity of tracking changes, multiple sections, autocomplete, and skin and icon sets.

Pros

  • It is an extremely professional and comprehensive tool
  • It has inbuilt FTP
  • Free and open-source, Komodo Edit supports a limited Vim mode

Cons

  • It isn’t very lightweight
  • It includes project files to project code

5. Sublime Text

Though this app is a commercial text editor to create text file macOS 10.14, it has an evaluation version that can be used for an unlimited period; this makes it free in reality. Sublime Text features a Python Application Programming Interface and allows multiple languages. Furthermore, the software’s capabilities can be enhanced with the aid of plugins, which are often developed by communities and offered via free software licenses.

Pros

  • Sublime Text comes with an easy-to-use interface
  • There are 22 different themes you can select from
  • It has a distraction-free mode, consisting of placing only the text in your screen

Cons

  • It does not allow printing of files
  • Sublime Text 10.14 has inadequate language support
  • It takes time to load large files on Windows

6. Atom

This is another free text editor macOS 10.14 that is written in Node.js as well as embedded in GitControl. Atom can be employed either as a plain text editor or as a source code editor. By using plug-ins, the software works well in several languages, including HTML, Objective-C, C/C++, CSS, Java, Go, JavaScript, C#, PHP, Python, and many others. This makes it a versatile tool for a lot of developers.

Pros

  • It allows multi-tabbed editing, multiple panes, and auto-completion
  • The software offers a user interface that is friendly

Cons

  • It does not have text UI
  • It is extremely slow to start-up

7. TextMate

TextMate basically employs the extremely robust capabilities of the UNIX command console in a user-friendly and neat GUI. This provides you with the best of the two worlds — as a committed programmer or a beginner code user. TextMate integrates features such as auto-indentation, search and replace within the project, dynamic outlines, column selection, among others.

Pros

  • The program features an extensive library of plugins
  • It is free and open-source

8. GNU Emacs

Emacs, first launched in 1976, is popular for its unique techniques for getting the job done. It employs a programming language called Emacs-Lisp, which has the most fundamental functions of editing for expanding the capabilities of the program beyond its humble text-based origin. Some of these expansions are an email client, file manager, newsreader as well as games such as Tetris and Snake.

Pros

  • It can be entirely controlled using the keyboard
  • It lets you debug, manage files, and compile

Cons

  • It has a long learning curve
  • Its extensibility can, occasionally, be a source of distraction to your work

9. Visual Studio Code

Compared to other text editing apps, this software is a newcomer. It is a lightweight text and script editor that, along with many other spectacular features, comes with a dark theme. If you do not like text editors like Vim and Emacs, Visual Studio Code is a perfect alternative.

Pros

  • Visual Studio Code offers JavaScript IntelliSense support
  • It has a lot of plugins for enhancing its functionality
  • The software features integrated Git control, data integrity, and support for distributed and non-linear workflows

Cons

  • Its autocomplete, as well as code check offerings, aren’t as robust as those of WebStorm
  • Visual Studio Code has a terrible auto import

10. UltraEdit

Developed by IDM Computer Solutions, UltraEdit is a great program that works with remote files perfectly. It isn’t only fast but also stable and easy to use. It handles big files efficiently of sizes over 1GB. UltraEdit comes with an array of features that help you in carrying out operations such as highlighting of syntax, sorting of file or data, editing of column or block, and so on. The software also supports SSH/telnet.

Pros

  • UltraEdit works very well with large files
  • It is easy to use and fast

Cons

  • The themes that were released in version 20 had an adverse effect on specific aspects of syntax coloring

Best Free All-in-One PDF Editor for macOS 10.14

PDFelement is an all-in-one PDF File Management program for macOS 10.14 with versatile tools for editing documents in Portable Document Format. This is the best app for you to carry out operations like editing, cutting, copying, pasting, and deleting PDF files. It also helps you include text and pictures in PDF documents. PDFelement allows you to modify font attributes like size type and style.

Hundreds boardanne 28 online, free games jewel quest. Other features:

  • PDFelement for Mac lets you insert, remove and update custom watermarks as well as backgrounds
  • You can use the app for inserting, updating or removing headers as well as footers
  • This software is an excellent annotator and document converter
  • It helps you insert as well as edit hyperlinks
  • The program allows you to generate and manage library containing pre-built and custom stamps
  • You can use PDFelement for Mac to create and edit fillable PDF forms
  • It lets you fill PDF forms
  • The software offers support to create, edit, and include digital signature on documents in PDF

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2020-12-28 17:33:53 • Filed to: macOS 10.15 • Proven solutions

If you use text editors a lot, you may find the built in macOS 10.15 text editor a little lacking in terms of features. Fortunately, there are a lot of free options you can download and use. The following are just 10 of the best we could find.

Top 10 Free Text Editors for macOS 10.15

1. Sublime Text 3

This is one of the most popular text editors for Mac OS X 10.15 and the reason is very simple; it has a lot of very useful features. For example, it is a very easy to use, has features that allow for folding and syntax highlighting and it has a very high level of customization. These features come at a cost since although the Sublime Text 3 has a free trial version; the premium version is very expensive.

Pros

  • It is very easy to use
  • Has a lot of useful features
  • It offers numerous customization options
  • Allows users to assign custom keyboard shortcuts

Cons

  • Some of the plugins you have to use with this editor may affect its performance
  • At $80 the premium version may be out of reach for many

2. Brackets

Brackets is another very popular plain text editor for macOS 10.15. It is particularly beloved by web designers and was designed by Adobe. One of Brackets' best features is the 'Live Preview' feature that allows a live view of how CSS or HTML code appears in Chrome.

Pros

  • It is free and open source
  • It has a variety of free extensions to expand functionality
  • It has a lot of great features
  • Lightweight and easy to install

Cons

  • It is useful mostly to front-end developers
  • It doesn't have some fundamental useful commands you'd find on an ordinary text editor

3. Atom

Atom is a free text editor for Mac Catalina that has features as good and as useful as Sublime Text 3 but is completely free to use. It is also Open Source, which means it will be completely free to use and continues to be upgraded to include even more useful features. It is built on JavaScript, CSS, HTML Node.js integration and runs on Electron.

Pros

  • It is completely free to use and open source
  • Has a lot of features found on some premium tools
  • It user interface is very pleasant
  • Has a lot of customization options

Cons

  • It has too many packages that can slow it down
  • Can take up too many resources on your Mac

4. UltraEdit

If you are looking for a text editor that is versatile UltraEdit is the best tool for you. It supports a large variety of languages including JavaScript, Python, Perl, PHP and many more. But it is a relatively older text editor, having been released 25 years ago and this age could raise reliability concerns.

Pros

  • It supports numerous languages
  • It is regularly updated
  • It is fast and easy to use
  • Can handle large files easily

Cons

  • At $99.95 for the premium version it is pricey
  • You may have to purchase some features separately

5. BBEdit 12

Developed by Bare Bones software, BBEdit is another text editor for Mac that has been around for quite a while. It has dozens of customization options and numerous very useful features including built-in tools used for text manipulations.

Pros

  • It is very reliable and dependable despite its age
  • It offers great performance
  • It has a variety of built-in tools and languages
  • It is fast and very easy to use

Cons

  • The premium version will cost you $49

6. Coda 2/ Nova

Coda 2 is a text editor that is designed for web developers and as such you will find that it has multiple useful features for web developers. These features include code folding, syntax highlighting, indentation guides, find and replace and project- wide autocomplete among others. This text editor recently received an upgrade, allowing it to perform faster and adding new features to its already great arsenal of features.

Pros

  • It has a very useful search function that is also very reliable
  • It allows users to access and edit files remotely
  • Designed for web developers with features that can help make their work easier

Cons

  • It has limited features when compared to similar editors
  • At $99 the premium version is very expensive

7. Textastic

This is a text editor that combines power and a simple to use, friendly interface. This makes it the ideal tool for beginners although some of its powerful features may be ideal for every level of user. It comes packed with features, but perhaps the most useful is the ability to work in multiple tabs.

Pros

  • It supports a large number of scripts and markup languages
  • Allows users to work with multiple features
  • Can sync with iCloud

Cons

  • It may not be as powerful as the other tools on this list
  • It lacks SSH and Python support

8. TextMate

This is another simple to use text editor that may be appealing to both novices and expert users alike. It has powerful project management features and a simple to use interface to allow users to find those features quickly.

Pros

  • It is Open Source
  • It works with Xcode
  • Lightweight and easy to install

Cons

  • At $56.25 the premium version is quite costly

9. Visual Studio Code

This Microsoft text editor's features are so compatible with the Mac that users don't feel any different than when using it on Windows. Its main features include a fast source-code editor, a keyboard centric code editing approach and being able to highlight syntax for 30 different languages.

Pros

  • It is free to use
  • Supports a lot of languages
  • It has a simple and easy to understand user interface
  • It is updated regularly and has various plugins for added performance

Cons

  • It can be a bit complicated to learn how to use
  • You may have to install too many plugins to get all the features you want

10. CodeRunner 2

This is a text editor that is specifically designed for Mac users and one of the most affordable Mac text editors in the market. It supports a wide range of languages and a lot of features while somehow remaining lightweight and very easy to use.

Pros

  • It supports a lot of different languages
  • It has a clean and simple to use interface
  • It is highly customizable
  • Has all the necessary IDE features

Cons

  • It may not be the ideal to use for big projects or big files
  • It has numerous features but not as much as the other premium tools on this list

Best Free Coding Text Editor For Mac 2017 Free

Best PDF Editor for macOS 10.15

If you use text editors on a daily basis, chances are that you may also need a PDF editor. One of the best PDF editors to use for any project is PDFelement . This tool is designed to make it easier for you to not just create, but also manage and edit PDFs with ease. PDFelement allows users to carry out several functions including converting PDF documents to several other formats including Text, HTML, Word and many others.

Best Free Coding Text Editor For Mac 2017 Full

Some of the features that make PDFelement the best tool include the following;

  • It has highly effective editing tools to help you edit text, images, pages, links and watermarks on any PDF document
  • An OCR function is very useful for converting scanned PDFs into editable formats
  • You can use PDFelement for Mac to annotate a PDF document in numerous ways including commenting, highlighting, adding stamps, filling and drawing
  • It also comes with numerous document protection features for documents with sensitive information. You can add a digital signature or password protect the PDF
  • It allows you to easily print and share a PDF document
  • Additional document creation, merging and numbering features make it a complete PDF editing suite
  • It can also be used to convert PDFs to a variety of other formats including Word, TXT, HTML, PowerPoint and Excel among others

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So, here comes a Mac supported Text Editor for the flashy programmers who like speed and optimization in a single code editor. Coda supports OS X 10.7.5 and later versions of Mac and is one of the very few code editors that have been carefully designed for the Mac systems only. UltraEdit is one of the best and most versatile text editors for Mac out there. For starters, UltraEdit supports a ton of different languages including C, Objective C, Javascript, XML, PHP, Perl, Python, and more. Just like BBEdit, UltraEdit has been around since ages and is celebrating its 25 year’s anniversary this year.

Sep 21, 2016 Other options include the following: Crimson Editor – A very small editor for Windows containing a directory tree view window Geany – A small and fast IDE for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X that supports code folding, code navigation, a build. Notepad2 – A fast, light-weight text editor like Notepad. Nov 17, 2020 On top of the list are Optical Character Recognition and Digital Signing. You may, indeed, go for a minimal editor, though. Price: Not everyone wants to or cannot spend around $100 on a PDF editor. So, we have included a variety of PDF editors that come with varying price tags. So, we have chosen the best Mac PDF editors based on this criteria.

If you’ve ever written an article in Microsoft Word and tried moving the text into a CMS, you have probably spent a lot of time scouring for untidy formatting and obstructions that result from this cross-platform conversion.

So, we figured it was time to introduce you to the magic of Markdown editors, and why you should be using them right now.

When it comes to formatting, most people will use the built-in editor of their content management system to create headings, italicize the text, and build lists.

Fair enough, but guess what? You don’t need to rely on a complicated toolbar or apply text formatting. You can use a Markdown editor instead.

In this post, we’ll give you a detailed explanation of what a Markdown editor is, and then provide you with an ultimate list of the best Markdown editors.

The end goal is to equip you with a minimalist writing tool that allows you to pen down your thoughts, and then export them to a CMS like WordPress without stressing too much about their appearance.

Let’s get started.

Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Hire yourself and start calling the shots.

What Is a Markdown Editor?

A Markdown editor is an intuitive and lightweight text-to-HTML conversion tool for web content writers.

You can use it to format lists, headers, and for emphasis, as well as to incorporate links and images.

The idea is to produce web content that is as easy to read as plain text.

Markdown editors have existed since the turn of the decade but only became popular after John Gruber of Daring Fireball introduced Markdown back in 2004.

After getting frustrated having to write long, laborious HTML codes to format his content, he worked with the late computer programmer Aaron Swartz to create a plain text formatting syntax that would quickly and easily translate content into HTML. That’s how Markdown was born.

The language uses an easy-to-learn syntax to accomplish the same goal that HTML does. However, it’s simpler than hypertext markup, and you don’t need to worry about closing or opening text.

To make a piece of text web-ready, Markdown uses characters and symbols you’re already familiar with. So, if you know how to make an emoticon or create a hashtag, you can leverage Markdown.

Today, Markdown comes packaged in tools that don’t require you to memorize the syntax outright, so even someone with no HTML experience can use a Markdown editor to create content for the web.

Advantages of Using Markdown Editors

Aside from speeding up the formatting process, markdown editors offer the following benefits:

1. You can collaborate

If you are writing on Microsoft Word and require the input of other people, you’ll need to send the document to them and then have them send it back to you so that you can merge the changes.

With a collaborative Markdown editor, this is quite straightforward as multiple users can work on the same document in real-time.

2. You can export in multiple formats

Markdown is much easier to compose than HTML. With that said, you might still want to export the content in the HTML format.

The best Markdown editor will make it easy to write your content and quickly export it to PDF, web pages, or Rich Text Format.

3. You can work on any platform

Since there are dozens of really good Markdown editors for all platforms (Linux, Mac, Windows, web, etc.), you can pretty much write and edit text from any device and location.

This can bring a massive difference in your productivity. If you have a cloud-based folder for storing copies of your work, switching devices should become effortless, with no distortion in your workflow or user experience.

Best Markdown Editors to Install

Thanks to the rise of the Markdown language, every major platform has a decent range of Markdown editors. Below, we’ll break down some of the absolute best (platform-wise) as well as highlight their unique features. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at your options.

Best Markdown Editors for Mac

Here are some of the best Markdown editors for Mac users:

1. Byword

Byword is a minimal text editor with complete Markdown support, including subtle syntax highlighting, easy keyboard shortcuts, tables, cross-references and even footnotes.

Its “Format” menu includes options for paragraph indent, quote level, lists, and more, so you don’t have to memorize the syntax for these styles.

Another notable feature is the “Typewriter Mode” that keeps the line you’re writing at the center of your Mac’s display, while “Line and Paragraph Focus” dim all content other than the existing paragraph, letting you focus in a distraction-free environment.

When it comes to publishing, you can post your content to Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Medium, and even Evernote from the tool. Documents can be exported to PDFs, Rich Text Format, and Word documents.

Price: $10.99

2. Ulysses

Ulysses is a full-featured Mac OSX Markdown editor with uniquely streamlined features that cover the whole writing process. With a few characters, you mark vital passages, comments, or headlines. Even links, footnotes, and images are inserted with ease using Ulysses’ Plain Text Enhanced function.

In addition, you’ll find several other features waiting unobtrusively in the tool’s background.

There’s a “Typewriter Mode” that keeps your focus on the sentence in front. There’s also a character and word counter, accessible through a small icon on Ulysses’ taskbar. You can even create word count goals and link them to deadlines that keep you on track.

Ulysses also has a powerful publishing function that’s quite simple to use. You can post your work directly to Medium and WordPress, either as a draft or a published blog post. And it’ll also let you export the final document to a whole array of other handy formats, including HTML, DOCX, Text Bundle, Rich Text Format, Plain Text, and ePub.

Price: 14-day free trial, $4.99/month, or $39.99/year

3. MacDown

MacDown is a robust tool that offers syntax highlighting, live preview, and a minimalistic appearance that makes it easy to apply Markdown formatting.

The editor’s author, Tzu-Ping Chun, released MacDown after announcing that one of his favorite MarkDown editors, Mou, was shutting down its development. Chun started from the ground up, dedicating weekends to put together his own solution, and MacDown was the result.

Despite its simple design, MacDown is fully featured with highly customizable language rendering, auto-completion, and lots of Markdown syntax. Plus, exporting to HTML or PDF delivers consistently good results.

Price: Free

Best Markdown Editors for Windows

You can install and use the following Markdown tools directly on your Windows device without having to configure anything beforehand.

1. Caret

Caret is a simplistic editor with an emphasis on productivity and a clean UI. Its editor is set up to help you with fences, HTML, lists, emphasis, and more. The tool also has the capability to complete code, emoji, HTML, and file paths.

The tool’s sidebar shows a folder’s data, with your work in progress listed at the top edge of Caret. You can use it to jump to a specific document, activate typewriter mode, or activate the dark mode to work during the night.

Also, working on Caret can be a great way to learn Markdown, as the syntax is always on display, but there’s also an option to activate a preview pane if you prefer. Moreover, you can export documents to PDF and HTML.

Price: Free trial, $29

2. ghostwriter

ghostwriter gives you a distraction-free environment for writing captivating content, including a clean interface and a full-screen option.

You can preview your work in HTML, use the “Focus Mode” to narrow your attention to a single paragraph, and even create your own custom style sheet to preview how your content will appear on the internet.

The tool also has a built-in processor that enables you to export documents to HTML. Alternatively, you can export to Word, PDF, ODT, and other formats by installing a document converter like Pandoc.

ghostwriter has built-in dark and light themes that deliver an aesthetic user experience out of the gate. And if that wasn’t enough, it lets you build your own! With support for background visuals, you can create the environment you prefer for your writing.

Price: Free

3. Typora

Typora is one of the fastest and most versatile Markdown editors in existence. It doesn’t have separate tabs or windows to display how the syntax is rendered and to view plain text. You can start typing straight away and apply formatting from the integrated menu bar.

The tool is ideal for writing content for the web, but that’s not all it’s capable of. If you need an easy way to write research papers for work, Typora also supports the insertion of graphs, tables, and mathematical formats.

Documents are saved in the default Markdown format (.md), but you can import and export to several different formats using Typora. Supported file export formats include DOCX, Rich Text Format, OPL, OpenOffice, PDF, Epub, LaTex, HTML, and more.

Price: Free

Best Markdown Editors for Linux

If your computer or smartphone is running Linux, you can use one of the following Markdown editors.

1. Remarkable

Remarkable is an excellent Markdown editor with a plethora of features. You can use it to work with both the standard and Github-flavored Markdown language. Advanced-level formatting is also possible as the tool comes with spell checking, word count, and MathJax support.

The software also provides you with a range of styling options, so you can configure it to your writing preferences as well as various keyboard shortcuts to speed up your work. Additional Markdown features include subscripts, abbreviations, footnotes, and other similar elements.

Besides all that, Remarkable can convert links into hypertext and displays a live preview for inserted visuals. You can also toggle the fullscreen mode, customize the preview using CSS, and export your documents to HTML and PDF.

Price: Free

2. Haroopad

Haroopad is an open source processor that supports the creation of web-friendly text. You can use it to author various types of content, including reports, presentations, slides, blogs, and more.

Its standout features include fenced code syntax highlighting, viewer and editor font size control using shortcuts, flowchart drawing, and styling based on CSS. The last software update also added some new functionality to Haroopad, such as the ability to display the number of tasks due in the app badge.

The tool will let you import files from YouTube, Pastebin, Twitter, and many other resources, and export them to HTML or PDF. Moreover, you can use your work as an email directly from Haroopad or post to Evernote or Tumblr.

Price: Free

3. UberWriter

UberWriter is one of the best open-source Markdown editors and packaged with several features that make writing web-friendly text a hassle-free experience. The UI is centered, and the word length in a row is restricted to increase the content’s visibility. Also, you’d find that there are no buttons or menu bars to keep the writing distraction free.

At the bottom of its layout, UberWriter displays the character and word count at the right, and its three screen modes on the left. The first of these – Focus – enables users to zoom in on the sentence where the cursor is placed. Fullscreen takes the toolbars away from your view, and Preview showcases the content after it’s been converted to Markdown language.

Other nifty features include spell check and inline preview, which enable you to see links, images, footnotes, and other elements by clicking on them.

Finally, UberWriter lets you export documents in all the popular file formats, including PDF, ODT, and HTML. Rich Text Format, OpenDocument XML, MediaWiki markup, and DOCX support is also included.

Price: Free

Best Online Markdown Editors

If you’re looking for a convenient way to turn plain text into HTML, an online Markdown editor might be the most appropriate option. Below are some of the best web-based tools for creating Markdown files.

1. HackMD

HackMD is a collaborative Markdown editor that lets you and your teammates write and edit content from any internet-enabled device. You can use the panels in the editor’s toolbar to add links, headings, quotes, and other types of formatting.

The tool’s menu bar consists of several Markdown shortcuts, and it’s also compatible with legacy editors like Emacs and Sublime.

To use the editor, you just need to sign in with Google, Facebook, or another platform that HackMD’s login page supports. After that, you can write Markdown code, and even create notes that can later be assigned to others for collaboration. People can join as registered users or guests to work on these notes with you.

In terms of exporting your content, HackMD lets you save files in Gist, Dropbox, and Google Drive. You can also download the content directly on your computer in ODF (beta), HTML, Raw HTML, or Markdown language.

Price: Free

2. StackEdit

This is another powerful online Markdown editor that features a visual toolbar for different kinds of formatting, including lists, emphasis, and bold. Whatever you write is automatically converted into Markdown in the left panel of the tool. In the right panel, you can preview what the text will appear like when it’s posted on the web.

A notable trait of StackEdit is its ability to save the documents you make to your web browser. The next time you use it, your work will be present and accessible in a tiny panel situated on the left hand of the dashboard.

What’s more, you can connect it to Dropbox or Google Drive to save your work in the cloud. To import a document, StackEdit allows you to provide a URL or your PC’s hard drive.

Price: Free

3. Dillinger

Dillinger had to make our list of the best Markdown editors. It’s a simple and modern tool that converts your Markdown content to HTML and vice versa. All you have to do is compose your text or place your document in the left panel, and choose the format you want for the final document.

You also get several export/import options, all of which can be accessed from the navigation at the top of the screen. With these features, it is simple to export your work to Google Drive, Dropbox, Medium, and Github, as well as convert files into .md, PDF, or HTML.

In addition, Dillinger provides you with a distraction-free mode that removes everything except the Markdown sentence from your view, so you can focus on producing high-quality content for your web properties.

Price: Free

Summary: The Best Markdown Editors You Can Use Right Now

So, there you have it – the top Markdown editors for every platform you could possibly use for your writing.

While most people will write in a text editor, it’s hard to ignore the appeal of a dedicated Markdown tool. You can easily convert your writing into web-friendly content, you can see a live preview of your work, and you can save your documents in various formats.

Let’s take a quick look back at the Markdown editors that best suit your needs:

Best Mac Markdown Editors:
1. Byword
2. Ulysses
3. MacDown

Best Windows Markdown Editors:
1. Caret
2. ghostwriter
3. Typora

Best Linux Markdown Editors:
1. Remarkable
2. Haroopad
3. UberWriter

Best Online Markdown Editors:
1. HackMD
2. StackEdit
3. Dillinger

What’s your take on using Markdown editors instead of the built-in editor of a CMS? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Business • Updated on Nov.17, 2020

Editor’s note: After another round of testing, we stand by our picks. We also added a little information about our thoughts on online PDF editors.

PDF is a necessity in macOS. Without PDF, you can’t easily create & share portable documents. In fact, almost every native macOS application lets you export content into PDF.

Preview in Mac is a great PDF viewer and annotator, but it’s not enough for editing. Normally, people got to convert the PDF file to something else and do the editing after. That isn’t the most convenient option either.

That is why a fully-fledged PDF editor for Mac is a necessity indeed! Unlike the common thought, there is an impressive variety of PDF editing programs to choose from.

And, Adobe Acrobat Pro is most people’s go-to option.

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Disclosure: We sometimes use affiliate links which means that, at zero cost to you, we may earn a commission if you buy something through our links.

Why Adobe Acrobat Pro DC isn’t enough?

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC has been the standard for PDF editing for quite a long time. Considering that Adobe built the format, it’s quite not surprising. Anyway, it’s not really a great reason to keep using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC as the macOS PDF editor.

The Good: Acrobat Pro DC is undoubtedly one of the powerful PDF solutions out there. You can get the best of the Adobe ecosystem as well. If you use Adobe Reader to view PDF documents, you can have the benefits of a familiar UI as well.

The Bad: Even then, Acrobat Pro DC does not offer the best User Interface in town. Sure, it gets the job done, but that’s not enough. We cannot recommend Acrobat Pro DC when you want to edit multiple documents and manage everything with ease.

The Ugly: Acrobat Pro DC is damn expensive. It comes with a monthly subscription charge of $14.99. Adobe Pro 2017, an older, standalone version, is available for a hefty price-tag of $449. These rates are way beyond what a normal user can afford.

We believe these reasons are enough for anyone to look for an Adobe Acrobat alternative — or one better PDF editor for Mac.

How to choose the alternative to Acrobat Pro DC

As we said, there are a huge number of PDF editors for macOS. As always, we wanted to pick the best ones. To navigate through the immense collection of options, we had a proper criteria as well.

  • The PDF Editor must have a Simple User Interface. It must be non-distracting as well as focused. We always recommend a UI that works well with single-document and multi-document management.
  • Easy & Advanced PDF Editing is a must-have option in a PDF tool. Automated selection recognition is great since it enables easy editing of other components like images, boxes, shapes and signatures.
  • Security of the PDF documents is also an important concern. The PDF editor should have an option to enable the basic security features. For instance, there must be a way to password-protect PDF.
  • Feature-rich: The ideal PDF editor shouldhave additional features as well. On top of the list are Optical Character Recognition and Digital Signing. You may, indeed, go for a minimal editor, though.
  • Price: Not everyone wants to or cannot spend around $100 on a PDF editor. So, we have included a variety of PDF editors that come with varying price tags.

So, we have chosen the best Mac PDF editors based on this criteria.

The pick: PDF Expert (the fastest, easiest & made-for-all)

PDF Expert is a fast, robust and beautiful PDF editor. If you are looking for a feature-rich PDF editor that is available on multiple platforms, PDF Expert could be the right candidate. We chose PDF Expert as the best pick after testing it for more than a few weeks.

After the testing period, this tool has become our go-to option for editing PDF documents with ease. The package has some downsides and room for improvement, of course. Even then, we believe PDF Expert must be your first choice if seamless editing is your priority.

PDF Expert comes from Readdle Inc, a developer who makes wonderful apps for Apple devices. Many of the products, including the Spark email app, are popular on iOS and macOS. So, in terms of security and privacy, you don’t have to worry at all.

Here are a few reasons why we think PDF Expert is your best choice at PDF editing on Mac.

Intuitive User Interface

As you can see, PDF Expert offers a clean and intuitive User Interface. You can simply drag-and-drop a file to get started. From the top-left side of the window, you can open options like Bookmarks, Thumbnails, Outline, and Annotation. Unlike the other PDF editors, we have tried, this one doesn’t scare us with the big number of toolbars.

Instead, everything is organized very efficiently. So, whenever you want a particular feature, you can access that single module. Altogether, we love this UI so much.

Easy PDF Editing

PDF Expert lets you edit PDF documents without any fail. There are actually four main options in the toolbar — Text, Image, Link and Redact. Making things easier than ever, PDF Expert automatically detects the type of content you’ve selected. If you’ve selected an image, for instance, you will see options to rotate, replace, export and crop the photograph.

Like the same way, you edit other parts of the PDF document. The Redact feature is also quite helpful, which works in a single click. I’ve found this feature really useful while sharing confidential data with friends.

Smart Annotation & Page Management

You get some smart Annotation features in this package. You can fill out content, provide signatures digitally and export all your annotations with ease. You can add signatures using text, trackpad or by even uploading an image of the signature. Either way, you get awesome results. Farm kissinganne 28 online, free games to play. PDF Expert has a page manager, with options such as Add Page, Append File, Copy, Paste, Rotate, Delete and Share.

You can easily arrange multiple pages by dragging and dropping them. You can also extract individual pages from a complete PDF document. Altogether, it checks all the important boxes.

Multi-Platform Support

PDF Expert is available for both macOS and iOS. It also enables content-sync between the devices, you know. If you want to access documents that you created using PDF Expert for macOS, you can easily do it from an iPhone or iPad. You can download the apps from the App Store, and everything is kept in sync. It’s a great way to access cloud storage; everything is done via iCloud.

It’s as seamless as it gets. I always love a software product when it can offer the same amazing UX on iPhone and Mac. PDF Expert does exactly that.

Enhanced Security & Utilities

PDF Expert has an in-built method for password-protecting PDF files as well. This is a great way to secure your PDF file without further complication. It’s so simple that you can go to File –> Set Password and pick the password of your choice. You can also use it to reduce the file size of a PDF file.

When we checked, PDF Expert was able to reduce the file size by 75%, which is quite a great deal. Because you get Touch Bar support, accessing these options is easy as a piece of cake.

What Could be Better

There are a few things that we didn’t like in PDF Expert. We understand that PDF Expert is a minimalistic PDF editor but it has left out some basic features as well.

  • You cannot create PDF documents using PDF Expert. You can technically add a new page in the PDF file and add text, but that’s something inefficient. We’d have really loved to see some additional set of PDF creation features in the program.
  • PDF Expert could have included a basic version of Optical Character Recognition. It’s disappointing that the program does not even support plug-ins, which can bring in the feature. It lacks other types of plug-ins as well.
  • There are only four editing options in PDF Expert. At times, these may not be enough for most people. We’d have loved to see some extra toolbars in there.
  • It would be better if PDF Expert had better options for bulk actions. As of now, that’s NIL.

Also, PDF Expert lacks options for customization and control. The features are basic — very basic, at times.

Availability & pricing

PDF Expert is available for macOS and iOS. You can download the Mac version from the official website and the iOS version from App Store.

PDF Expert for macOS is priced at $79.99 while the iOS version can be bought for $9.99. If you ask us, both apps have been priced quite reasonably. The PDF Expert license actually lets you run the app on 3 Macs.

Verdict

Pros

  • Simple design and UI
  • Smart editing options
  • Multiplatform Support

Cons

  • Lacks advanced features
  • Cannot create PDF Files

If you are looking for a simple yet effective PDF editor for Mac, PDF Expert is the best option. It brings all the necessary editing features, never compromising the performance as well. It isn’t for you if you want technical features like OCR, though. Overall, for the price you’re paying, PDF Expert is worth it.

Upgrade pick: PDFpenPro (the most powerful)

There are times when you need more than a basic PDF editor. PDFpenPro is the best choice for that occasion. It comes with a great set of features inside, including the option to create awesome PDF files. If you can spend more for a comprehensive PDF suite, PDFpenPro could be a potential option.

Unlike the top pick we suggested for most people, PDFpenPro is made for advanced users, it is an upgraded version of the PDFpen software. You get a lot more options than simply changing the text or adding some comments. We think it’s suitable for you if you have to handle too many PDF documents.

[ Further reading: Case Study: Tim Ferriss & PDFpen ]

Precise Control UI

PDFpenPro has been designed to create PDF files with precision. The UI has been optimized for professionals. When you open the program, you can see the blank screen where you can insert content like text, images, shapes and others. Like we saw in PDF Expert, PDFpenPro too offers different viewing options. It has a multi-tabbed UI for managing multiple files as well.

Nevertheless, we should admit that the UI isn’t that intuitive. We needed time to figure out how the tools work. It also lacks automated recognition options.

Advanced Editing Options

PDFpenPro checks all the boxes when it comes to editing PDF files. You can take care of a wide variety of content like text, images and others. All the editing options are included in the same toolbar. It’s also easy to navigate between multiple pages of the document. We also loved the Precision Edit tool in PDFpen, which lets us select even the minute elements in a document and remove them easily.

When it comes to annotations, there are five different ways you can annotate documents using PDFpenPro. From simple drawing and scrabbling over the document, to adding your notes, comment boxes, links, bookmarks, or attachments. There is even an option to add an audio annotation, which is adding audio comments to the document. We also loved how you can use your iPad to bring richer content.

PDFpenPro allows you to turn websites into PDF in a single click. Thanks to the wider compatibility, you can export PDF files to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint as well.

DocuSign Support

PDFpenPro is your upgrade pick if you have to deal with PDF signing a lot. Apart from the native option to put and manage signatures, the latest version now offers DocuSign integration. It means you can now make use of this signature-management system to request digital signs from others. Because DocuSign comes with full legal compatibility, you don’t have to worry at all.

On any day, this powerful integration can help you save a few hours. Personally speaking, this is one of the best signing options I have seen in a PDF editor.

Efficient Scanning & OCR

Optical Character Recognition is perhaps themost important advanced feature inside PDFpen. It has been designed to extract an impressive variety of data from sources like a scanned image. To use this feature, you can open the image in the software and begin the OCR option. In a few minutes, PDFpenPro will help you convert the content into editable text.

It’s quite a time-saver and PDFpenPro offers great speeds too. PDFpenPro offers much control over the OCR process. You can decide the quality and resolution with ease.

[ Further reading:Best OCR Apps for Mac and Windows ]

Availability & Pricing

PDFpenPro is available for both macOS and iOS.

PDFpenPro costs $124.95. Still, you can download a free trial from Smilesoftware and get a single license that can register only on one Mac.

You can actually find its standard version, PDFpen, on Setapp.

Verdict

Pros

  • Advanced PDF Editing
  • OCR and DocuSign support
  • Versatile Editing Control

Cons

Best Free Text Editor For Mac

  • UI could be better
  • An expensive package

Imac Text Editor

PDFpenPro is made for professionals, and there’s a steep learning curve. Even then, PDFpenPro offers many features you can’t find in other tools. The best example would be OCR, which works great in this program. It is just that you should be ready to pay something extra.

Other apps we considered

Here are some of the top apps we considered as the best Mac PDF editor. They did not, however, make it to the top list.

Preview

Preview is the pre-built PDF and image viewer in macOS. It’s something that you can securely use for viewing and annotating PDF documents. The best part? It’s quite integrated to the system that you get the maximum level of performance. The main limitation here is that Preview does not actually let you edit the PDF files. It has a bunch of effective options for annotation.

You can do a few things like adding text and shapes to the document. Once done, Preview can neatly export the files to PDF as well. Considering that you are not paying anything to get this program, we’d love to keep it aside. So, if you just want to bring some annotations and text boxes to a PDF document — without affecting the existing text, Preview would be fine.

Preview is free and is built into macOS.

List Text Editors Mac

ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac

Are you looking for a fully-fledged suite for OCR? Then, ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is a great choice for. The problem is that you cannot expect standard features here. The whole program has been made for OCR needs, an area in which you can expect the best results. In just a few seconds, the program would convert a scanned image to editable text.

As far as OCR technology is concerned, ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac works just great. It was able to do the OCR for even some of the low-quality images we’d tried. But, of course, if you have a better-quality image, the results would be better. We would not recommend the program for standard editing needs, though. The price tag is relatively higher too.

ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is available for $119.00.

Wondershare PDFelement Pro for Mac

Wondershare PDFelement Pro for Mac is one of the most well-priced PDF editing suites out there. It makes some compromises in performance and features, though. However, the best part of the app comes with full support for OCR and PDF conversion. These two features are great when you consider the overall price tag of the app.

If you ask us what matters the most here, it’s Batch Processing. Wondershare PDFelement Pro for Mac is one of the very few editors that allow complete support for batch processing. You can convert and deal with a lot of PDF files at once. The UI is also quite similar to that of PDF Expert, but we wish it had an enhanced level of performance.

Priced at $99, Wondershare PDFelement Pro is available for macOS and Windows.

Foxit PhantomPDF

Foxit PhantomPDF is one of the smoothest PDF editors we’ve seen so far. It packs so many features into a smaller-looking tool. Nevertheless, compared to other PDF editors we’ve covered, Foxit PhantomPDF comes with a larger footprint. Multitasking is not easy when you have Foxit PhantomPDF running in background. It also checks the boxes of OCR and automated recognition.

It’s comparatively easier to do PDF editing in Foxit PhantomPDF. We think, however, that the AI could be an impressive one. As of now, the User Interface looks so rudimentary and you will need some time to get used to the deal. Keep that aside, Foxit PhantomPDF is a great PDF editor for teams as well. It has options for real-time collaboration features.

Foxit PhantomPDF is available for Windows and macOS. It has a hefty price tag of $99.95 for Mac.

Kdan PDF Reader Pro

Kdan PDF Reader is another app which makes it to our list of PDF editors for Mac. It is quite popular with over 44,000 App Store ratings. It provides a wide range of document functions for business and daily life. It has both desktop and mobile apps, so you can work anytime, anywhere. It provides you with the feature to create and edit PDFs with features such as handwritten comments, highlighting, striking through, underlining texts, and more.

The highlight of this app is the Robust Reading Engine which provides you with a comfortable reading experience with features such as smooth page scrolling and the option to change the theme and page background so that your eyes don’t strain up.

Kdan PDF Reader’s individual plan can be purchased at $59.99 for a year.

List Of Text Editors For Mac Download

What about online PDF editors?

Online PDF editors are the next best choice that people make when they can’t afford Acrobat Pro DC. It’s an awesome option too — until you lose the internet connection. The problem with online editors is that you’d need a fast, reliable Internet connection at all times.

Aquamacs Emacs

There are also some security concerns. You basically have to upload the PDF document to a third-party server for editing it. It’s not the ideal option when you are dealing with confidential files. Besides, not all online PDF editors are offering satisfactory features. A lot of them ask for paid subscriptions as well.

Personally speaking, I think online PDF editors are just good for page management of PDF documents. If you need deeper editing or bulk editing, you can’t count on them. More importantly, most people like to edit their files in a native environment, which isn’t the case with most online PDF editors.

So, it makes sense to check out some of the actual native macOS PDF editors out there.

List Of Text Editors For Mac Free

The bottom line

15 Best Free Code Editors For Windows & Mac [2021 Update]

So, these are the best Mac PDF editors you can find today. We have tried to suggest PDF editors that work well for particular needs. We hope it helps you choose the right one.

If you are still confused and want a PDF editor that’s easy and effective, you can go with our pick, PDF Expert. As far as you don’t need anything fancy out there, that choice won’t go wrong. However, if you think you need more features and a better UI to manage documents, we recommend PDFpenPro, which packs some powerful features too.

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We’ve also got you covered when you’re Windows. Check out our guides for PDF editors for Windows.