Speed Reader Apps For Mac

There are plenty of ways to view and edit PDFs on a Mac, but Apple's built-in Preview application is phenomenal and often overlooked. While Lion didn't wow the crowd with most of its features, it brought some amazing additions to Apple's PDF viewer/editor that puts it over the top and makes it our choice for the best.

Note: There are a few ways you could define a PDF viewer/editor, as features can range from simple form-filling to complete PDF manipulation. For this post we're concentrating on the features the average person would use, meaning viewing, form completion, annotation, and so on.

Advertisement

UPDATE: Wondershare is claiming we named their Product, PDF Editor, our top choice. We did not, and they are using a false award that claims our approval. Please do not buy their products as they are a dishonest company. We've left the original text (stricken out) about PDF Editor in the alternatives section so you can see how little of a recommendation we made.

Preview

Speed Reader Free

Check out our guide on how to speed up your Mac by cleaning unnecessary clutter and learning how to optimize the apps at hand. Digital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of. Speed Reader 1.5 - Read faster. Download the latest versions of the best Mac apps at safe and trusted MacUpdate Download, install, or update Speed Reader for Mac from MacUpdate.

Platform: Mac OS X
Price: Free
Download Page

Features

  • View and edit images in addition to PDF files
  • Annotate, highlight, and mark up PDFs in several ways
  • Digitally fill out forms
  • Sign PDF documents with your webcam (read on for more info)
  • Super-fast performance
  • Super-fast search
  • Insert new pages into PDFs
  • View and edit PDF metadata
  • Add and edit hyperlinks in a PDF file

Where It Excels

Preview is fast. Mac OS X isn't exactly known for its speed and efficiency, so Preview's ability to blow through PDF documents is pretty impressive. But among its many handy highlighting and annotating features, which are all solid, its ability to fill out forms is especially impressive. This may seem like a mundane thing, but when you get to the signature line it is hard to eschew at least a little reverence. Preview (in Lion) has a feature where you can sign a piece of paper, hold it up to your computer's webcam, and it'll turn it into a high-quality signature you can place in a form. It can also save multiple signatures so you don't have to continuously repeat this process. Preview is solid all-around, but it's those sorts of features that make it amazing.

Advertisement

Pdf Readers For Mac

Where It Falls Short

As incredible as Preview's webcam signature feature is, it seems kind of strange that there is no ability to sign with your trackpad as well. After all, Apple Stores let you sign for purchases with your finger on an iPod touch. Additionally, Preview wasn't exactly perfect prior to Lion and Lion isn't exactly perfect on its own. It's hard to justify upgrading to OS X 10.7 if Preview is the only draw. If you're sticking with Snow Leopard, your version of Preview isn't bad but it's certainly not the best PDF editor/viewer you can find. Apple fixed a lot of quirks in Lion, which make it a pleasure to use, but if you're not running Lion you're pretty much out of luck.

Advertisement

The Competition

PDFPen costs $60 but is pretty great. If you need more features than Preview can provide, it'll get the job done. PDFPen makes page rearrangement, editing, multi-document assembly, and more very easy. While it's on the expensive side, consider it a cheaper alternative to Adobe Acrobat ($200). We've never loved Acrobat and it likely provides more features than you're going to need.

Advertisement

Wondershare PDF Editor ($50) is another pricey option, but it has the ability to convert PDFs to Microsoft Word documents. We're not sure how well this works, but you might want to give it a try if that's something you need. Wondershare placed a false claim on their PDF Editor software that we considered it the best. They even created a fake Lifehacker approval image to act as if we provided them with an official award. We listed it as an alternative here, but as Wondershare has opted to falsely market their product with a seal of approval from us that we never provided, we ask that you do not buy from them.

Skim is a great choice if your primary focus is annotation as that's what it was design to do. It has an impressively long list of features to make annotation easy.

Advertisement

Got any other favorite PDF editor/viewer apps for Mac that you love? Share 'em in the comments.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.

Advertisement

Speed Reader Apps For Mac

ReadEra is a reading application that will allow us to open documents in any of the following formats: EPUB, PDF, DOC, RTF, TXT, DJVU, FB2, MOBI and CHM. Basically we can read any book or text document that we have in the memory of the terminal.

The application is compatible with documents divided by chapters, it will allow us to create bookmarks, and it will automatically save our progress while we are reading. It will also allow us to change the page mode and choose between several different themes (night, day, sepia and console).

The ReadEra interface is simple and elegant. In the main tab we can see a list with all the documents that we have stored in the memory of our terminal. We can sort by author or category. We can also indicate that they are already read, that they are pending to read or even mark them as favorites.

ReadEra is an excellent reading application for Android. With it we can enjoy almost any book in a very comfortable way.
More from Us: Houzz Interior Design Ideas For PC (Windows & MAC).
Here we will show you today How can you Download and Install Books & Reference App ReadEra – free ebook reader on PC running any OS including Windows and MAC variants, however, if you are interested in other apps, visit our site about Android Apps on PC and locate your favorite ones, without further ado, let us continue.

ReadEra – free ebook reader on PC (Windows / MAC)

  • Download and install BlueStacks or Remix OS Player.
  • Open the installed BlueStacks or Remix OS Player and open the Google Play Store in it.
  • Now search for “ReadEra – free ebook reader” using the Play Store.
  • Install the game and open the app drawer or all apps in the emulator.
  • Click ReadEra – free ebook reader icon to open it, follow the on-screen instructions to play it.
  • You can also download ReadEra – free ebook reader APK and installs via APK in the BlueStacks Android emulator.
  • You can also use Andy OS to install ReadEra – free ebook reader for PC.

That’s All for the guide on ReadEra – free ebook reader For PC (Windows & MAC), follow our Blog on social media for more Creative and juicy Apps and Games. For Android and iOS please follow the links below to Download the Apps on respective OS.

You may also be interested in: Glitch! For PC (Windows & MAC).

ReadEra – free ebook reader for Android:

Developer: READERA LLC
Price: Free

Reader App Download

A Professional Business Analyst, Tech Author and Writer since 2013. Always talking about Tech and innovation in both Software and Hardware worlds. Majorly Expert in Windows and Android, Software, Mobile Apps and Video Marketing. You can Reach on me on Social Media.