Best Alternatives To Adobe Acrobat Pro For Mac

Brief: In this article, we list the best Adobe alternatives for Linux. These Adobe Creative Suite alternative for Linux are also free and open source.

The Best Adobe Acrobat Alternative for Mac (macOS 10.14) and Windows #1. ISkysoft PDF Editor 6 Professional for Mac As a suitable alternative to Adobe Acrobat, you can download iSkysoft PDF Editor 6 Professional for Mac (or iSkysoft PDF Editor 6 Professional for Windows ). Every Mac has Apple’s awesome Preview app built-in for free that works better that Adobe Reader ever has — and includes basic markup features that keep most people from needing Acrobat. And, of course, almost every Mac app can save as PDF, and all can print as PDF, so creating PDFs shouldn’t usually be a problem.

Adobe provides a number of applications under Adobe Creative Suite, now under Adobe Creative Cloud. It’s not just limited to Photoshop but contains various other software that helps primarily in Web design, logo making, video editing, pdf editing and more.

However, Adobe Creative Suite is a proprietary software costing you a good amount of your money and if you are a Linux user, even if you are willing to spend that money, it’s not available for your OS.

In this article, we are going to cover some of the best Adobe products alternative for Linux.

Best Adobe alternatives for Linux

If you are not in a mood of reading the article, you can watch this video from our YouTube channel. Do subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Linux related videos.

I have included one non-FOSS item in this list. This is because I really couldn’t find a decent alternative to Adobe Acrobat in Linux.

For the rest, here we go!

1. GIMP: Alternative to Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is the most popular and widely used graphics editing tool both for regular and professional users. It’s an excellent tool for photo editing, website design, and graphics creation.

When it comes to an alternative to Adobe Photoshop, GIMP provides the best replacement.

GIMP is a free and open source image editor available for GNU/Linux, Mac, Windows and other Operating System. It provides a handful of sophisticated tools that make a graphic designer and photographer’s work easier.

From high-quality photo manipulation to original artwork creation, GIMP includes options to create icons, graphical design elements, color management features etc. And the customization options along with third-party plugins make your work a bit easier.

Most likely GIMP is already installed on your system. If not, you can search in the official software repository to install it.

2. Inkscape: Alternative to Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a standard tool suited for vector graphics editing and design. With an impressive set of drawing tools and effects, it is widely used for vector editing, posters creations etc.

Inkscape is a very competitive, free and open source tool to Adobe Illustrator. A powerful vector editor, Inkscape has flexible drawing tools, various file format compatibility, powerful text tools and support for Bezier and spiro curves. It supports advanced scalable vector graphics features like markets, clones and blending.

3. Scribus: Alternative to Adobe Indesign

Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing application used primarily for creating posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, books etc. It supports exporting a file to epub format for creation of e-books. When it comes to an alternative to Adobe InDesign, Scribus provides a powerful and easy alternative.

Scribus is a free and open source application available for all major operating systems and is based on the free Qt toolkit. From creating layouts to typesettings and creating animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms, Scribus is used to write newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters, and books.

4. OpenShot: Alternative to Adobe Premiere

Adobe Premiere Pro is video editing application from Adobe System which is used for high-resolution video editing, audio sample-level editing, 5.1 surround sound mixing and more.

OpenShot is a powerful and easy to use video editor which serves as the best replacement for Adobe Premiere Pro.

With a simple user interface, OpenShot provides a large number of features.

5. Synfig: Alternative to Adobe Animate

Adobe Animate is useful for creating interactive animations that work on everything from mobile devices to the ultra-high resolution displays. When it comes to an alternative to Adobe Animate, Synfig is an awesome open source replacement.

Synfig is a free and open source 2D vector graphics and timeline-based animation program for animation designing and rendering. The goal of the application is to provide quality animation with fewer resources and provides manual tweening, hence saving you from the pain of drawing each and every frame.

Best Alternatives To Adobe Acrobat Pro For Mac

Synfig can simulate soft-shading using curved gradients and provides a wide variety of real-time effects which can be applied to layers or a group of layers. You can control and animate the width of lines at their control points and link any related data from one object to another.

6. darktable: Alternative to Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is a photo processor and image organizer which allows viewing, organizing and retouching large numbers of digital images. With Lightroom, you can enhance and your photographs, punch up colors, remove distracting objects and straighten skewed shots.

When it comes to an alternative to Adobe Lightroom, the best free and open source software is Darktable.

Adobe Acrobat For Mac

darktable is a photography workflow application and raw developer which manages digital negatives or RAW images, lets you view them and have features to enhance them.

It provides basic image operations like crop and rotation, highlight reconstructions, white balance, invert operation and exposure control. Tone image operations include modification to the exposure, level adjustments, changing lightness, recreating contrast for HDR images etc.

darkable also includes color image operations for correcting overexposure and color, contrast, enhancing saturation and manipulation of RGB channels. The Correction modules helps you manage sharpening of details, noise level, spot removal, chromatic aberrations and more.

7. Natron / ButtleOFX: Alternative to Adobe Aftereffects

Adobe After Effects is a visual effects and motion graphics application used for filmmaking and television production.

Natron provides a perfect alternative to Adobe After Effects with motion editing and multi-view workflow. With an intuitive user interface and a quick rendering, you can work with keyframes with a very accurate curve editor.

It can be used as a command line tool and the command line version is executable from ssh on a computer with any display. It supports smooth zooming and panning for large images, and includes a full-featured dope-sheet to quickly edit clips and keyframes in time-space.

You can download a deb/ rpm package or a portable archive form the page below:

ButtleOFX is another open source composition software which provides an intuitive Graph Editor to connect nodes, Parameters Editor to customize effects and three different Workspace layouts to switch in-between according to your needs.

The project is still in alpha state so there will be bugs. If you are willing to try, you can grab a copy from here.

8. Ardour: Alternative to Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition is a digital audio workstation from Adobe Systems for editing and mixing audio contents. When it comes to open source alternative to Audition, Ardour is an excellent application.

Ardour is a free and open source, cross-platform application to record, edit and mix different audio files with ease. Let us look at the features which Ardour provides.

0. Master PDF: Alternative to Adobe Acrobat [Non-FOSS]

Free Alternatives To Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is another application from Adobe Creative Suite which is mainly used to view, create and modify PDF files. The Adobe reader supports viewing, printing and annotating of PDF files while the Acrobat is used to create, edit, convert, digital sign, encrypt and export PDF files.

It’s difficult to find a fully functional open source PDF editor. LibreOffice can be used edit a pdf file with some limitation, and so can Inkscape. However, Master PDF, the only proprietary software in this list supports all the features for editing a PDF file.

It allows creating, editing, encryption and signing the PDF documents with ease. You can comment documents with stamps, notes, text underlining and fill PDF forms easily.

There are both commercial and free versions available for Linux.

You can download a .deb package from below link.

You can check some other PDF editors for Linux.

Final Words

Adobe Creative Suite is a commercial product with continuous development and release. When it comes to open source alternative to Adobe products, we have several choices some of them are at par with the Adobe products while some are lagging a bit. However, there is always an application which can make things work for you, you just have to find it.

Let us know in the comments, which open source product you use as an alternative to any Adobe Products.


Talk of PDF (portable document files) software and the first name that crosses our mind is Adobe Acrobat. This is one of the many software that is a must-have for all desktop and laptops these days. Creating PDFs, editing, and even sharing them is a breeze with this software. While this software is undoubtedly one of the best PDF software around, it is still not affordable for many due to it’s high price tag. Moreover, it’s quite complex for the first timers.

Read More:Top 15 Best Free software to Watermark your PDF File

Considering the high price and complexity, there are many who look for easy and cheaper alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. Fortunately, there are many alternatives available for the Acrobat that helps people edit PDFs at a much cheaper price. There are umpteen such PDF software available online and each of one of them claim to be the best. So, to clear your confusion, we have created this list of the best Adobe Acrobat alternative for PDF that can will help you to choose the one that suits you the best.

Sumatra PDF

Sumatra PDF is a trimmed down, open source and free software that supports a whole lot of other formats also along with PDF such as DjVu, EPUB, XPS, CHM, CBR, CBZ, MOBI for Windows. It emphasizes on simplicity and minimalistic design more than having a lot of features. Designed for portable use, it comes with just a single file with no external support that helps it to work via the external USB drive.

Supported Platforms: Windows XP and later

Price: Free

Get it here: https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/

iSkysoft PDF Editor 6 Professional for Mac

iSkysoft helps you to convert PDF files into Word files, Excel, HTML, PPT, EPUB, photos and more. What we like about this software is the interface which is easy to use making it effortless even for the beginners. Within a few minutes, you will be an expert in editing and altering PDFs.

It also comes with a bonus feature named Redaction. This helps redact/edit texts and images in PDF files and can even allow you to limit access. Using this feature, you can block private information on PDF files from unwanted access.

Supported Platforms: Windows and Mac OS

Price: Free trial available; Upgrade starts at $89.95

Get it here: https://pdf.iskysoft.com/pdf-editor-6-pro-mac.html

Foxit Pjantom Pdf

Also known as the PhantomPDF, it’s available in business, standard, and education versions. It’s a free and lightweight, cross platform PDF document viewer that suits the need for business, consumer, government agencies and even educational organizations. It’s a compact yet super-fast software that helps you to open, view, sign and get a print of any PDF file. What’s interesting is that it’s the only PDF reader that offers a full creation solution in high volume while offering the PDF creation facility for all desktops. What’s more? It also comes with a complete protection against any security concerns, helping to keep your system safe.

Supported Platforms: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Android iPhone, iOS

Price: Free

Get it here: https://www.foxitsoftware.com/

Nitro Pro 9 (Windows)

Nitro PDF is a lot similar to the Acrobat PDF reader and is perhaps one of the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. It allows you not just to create PDF, but also to add, shuffle, and delete pages. You can also create bookmarks and links helping you fill forms. Bonus – it allows you to add comments and different other markup options to the documents. You can even secure your PDF using a digital id.

Once installed, this software adds a PDF printer to the printers list in the PC automatically thereby, making the PDF creation as easy as printing a file. Nitro comes equipped with some of the pro features that are available only in the paid version of Acrobat. It’s an easy to use and easy to understand software especially for the people familiar with MS Office.

Supported Platforms: Windows 10, 8.1, 7, XP.

Price: Free version available; pro version starts at $$159/user

Get it here: https://www.gonitro.com/pdf-reader

Evince

Evince document viewer is especially targeted for GNOME, however, it’s also available for Windows 10. While it allows to create PDF, it also supports multiple document formats like DVI, PostScript, djvu, TIFF, XPS, cbr, cbz, and more. The aim is to change the document viewers on the GNOME desktop to only one application. Some of its great features are the capability of displaying, adding, and editing PDF annotations.

The software is primarily written in C++ and it’s USP is its interface which is clean and clutter-free. Bonus – you can also customize the toolbar with individual tools.

Supported Platforms: Windows 10, 8.1, 7, XP

Price: Free (Open Source)

Get it here: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/Downloads

Wondershare PDFelement

If you are a looking for aa premium alternative to Acrobat reader then, Wondershare PDFelement can be your choice. It’s a feature packed software boasting multiple features on a single platform. PDF viewing, editing, and printing are some of the usual features to name a few. What’s interesting is that it these features are integrated with advanced features like PDF creation, conversion, and making the documents searchable using OCR. It also allows you to work on forms and templates within the software.

Among its many advantages are, different editing modes helping you to edit PDF documents easily, offering OCR function in over 20 languages enabling edit scanned PDF, and getting data from multiple duplicate PDF forms into one Excel sheet and making it accessible in seconds.

Supported Platforms: Windows and Mac

Price: Free Trial available; Pro version starts at $79.95

Get it here: https://pdf.wondershare.com/

ApowerPDF

ApowerPDF is equipped with all the must-have features of a reliable PDF editor. You can use this software to create or modify any already existing PDF files or forms. It also allows you to manage PDF pages and so, you can remove, extract, crop, or even rotate a certain section of the PDF document.

Bonus – it allows users to add passwords and signature PDF file thus, securing the document. Moreover, it comes with OCR technology that allows each user to edit any PDF that’s been scanned and is photo based. Not just that, it also allows you to change a document into an editable version in formats like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Supported Platforms: All versions of Windows

Price: Free Trial available; Upgrade starts at $39.95

Get it here: https://www.apowersoft.com/pdf-editor

PDF Architect

If you are looking for an affordable alternative to Acrobat Adobe then PDF Architect can be your best bet. Although it lacks the user-friendly approach and some advanced features, it’s still a good option for those with a budget. This helps you create PDF, edit and even convert the files. Given that it’s an economical software, you can purchase the products that you would use most often.


You have to download and install the software on your desktop. It can then combine with multiple cloud services that allows you to access files from different location over the cloud.

Supported Platforms: Windows 10 (Desktop App), Windows 8 (Desktop App), Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Price: Free version available; Upgrade starts from $49

Get it here: https://www.pdfforge.org/pdfarchitect

PDF-Xchange Viewer

Also known as PDF-Xchange Editor, it allows you to view PDFs and even annotate them. best part is, you can also add text to your PDF file, sticky notes and other types of annotations and then save them to the file. This saved file works with the standard version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

As a bonus, it also helps you convert those PDF files that are non-text searchable to text-searchable.

Supported Platforms: Windows XP or later

Price: Free version available; Pro version starts from $93.50

Get it here: https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer

PDF Studio (Mac, Windows, Linux)

PDF Studio is an easy to use software and a great alternative to Adobe Acrobat that’s priced half of the Adobe PDF. It offers all the required features of a good PDF application, while it meets the compliance standards of the PDF document. Among its features are annotation of PDF, apart from being able to create PDFs out of Word documents, texts and images. It also supports document format in the form of Google Drive SharePoint.

Supported Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Unix

Price: Free Trial available; Pro version starts at $89

Get it here: https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/

PDFescape Dektop

PDFescape Desktop is another alternative to Adobe Acrobat that offers some of the features identical to Acrobat. For instance, the ability to add, modify, remove, and crop the PDF pages. As a bonus, it also offers security for your PDF contents by allowing you to password lock the file. You can also change the information tag of the PDF and use scanned signature to sign the PDF files.

If you just want to do some basic modifications within the PDF file, this software is perfect for you. For the desktop version, you need to upgrade to the premium version and then use the services.

Supported Platforms: Windows® 7 / 8 / 10

Price: Free version available; Get quote for premium version and up

Get it here: https://www.pdfescape.com/what/desktop/

Nuance Power PDF Advanced

This is an affordable alternative to Adobe Acrobat and comes with 95% features of the Adobe. Nuance Power PDF Advanced comes at with a user-friendly interface and offer pretty good support for creating, securing, and manipulating PDFs. It also enables to create forms and collect data for analysis. Moreover, you can also add notes from Dragon Notes. But, you cannot convert the PDF to ePubs. However, it allows you to convert scanned files and several other documents to PDF and ice a versa. Additionally, you can also integrate files, add videos conveniently, create interactive PDFs using Javascript and add multiple markups.

Supported Platforms: All versions of Windows

Price: Free trial available; Upgrade starts from $99

Get it here: https://www.nuance.com/

Okular

A universal document viewer, Okular is designed by KDE. This software works with all platforms making it easier for you to convert PDF files on any OS. It features some excellent functionalities while supporting multiple document formats for example, PDF, ePub, CHM, Postscript, XPS, DjVu, and more.

Supported Platforms: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, *BSD, etc.

Price: Free

Get it here: https://okular.kde.org/

PDFpen Mac

PDFpen is a PDF editor that’s for the Mac OS users. It offers fundamental features of a PDF editor that includes functionalities like modifying typo errors in text documents, adding images, signatures, and texts. It also supports OCR technology that helps users to transform images into editable text document.

Supported Platforms: Mac

Price – Free trial available; upgrade starts at $30

Get it here: https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen

Mac Preview

This one is again especially for the Mac users. which is a lot identical to Adobe Acrobat. Preview is a PDF editor that’s developed for the convenience of Mac users and is perfect for creating and editing new PDF documents. This program allows you to modify several different sections of a PDF text and even crop at the same time. You can even label different pages together.

The functions are fast and easy to use that makes it an able substitute of Acrobat.

Supported Platforms: OSX

Price: Free]

Firefox PDF Viewer

PDF Viewer by Firefox is the latest ground-breaking tool that utilizes web-based technologies. This allows you to display nearly all PDF files found on the web within Mozilla Firebox web browser without the need of any plugin.

Supported Platforms:

Price: Free (open source)Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome, Firefox, Opera

Get it here: https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/

MuPDF

MuPDF is a light PDF and XPS viewer with no frills. It comes with absolutely no frills means there is no need of editing, skip to pages, or printing, and best of all, there’s not even an interface! All you need to do is to double click the mupdf.exe and search for the file you want to open. You can simply scroll or navigate from page to page using the arrow key. While having no feature usual features of a regular ODF editor is indeed a setback for many, but in a market where the primary focus is on loads of features, MuPDF does stand out with its minimalistic approach.

Supported Platforms: Windows, Linux, Android, iOS

Price: Free (open source)

Open Source Alternatives To Adobe Acrobat Pro

Get it here: https://mupdf.com/

Best Alternative To Adobe Acrobat Pro For Mac

While there are many more alternatives to Adobe Acrobat out there in the online market with the features like creating, modifying and sharing PDF files, there are only few that stand out in the competition with some distinctive features. So, choose your program based on your requirement and create great PDFs.

Adobe Acrobat Pro Mac Crack

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