You sometimes need to join and view all your PDFs, whether to print them out, read or simply organize. While it's not possible to do this with Adobe PDF Reader, you can use Combine PDFs. This nifty tool lets you add an unlimited number of PDF items and merge them. Either drag and drop PDFs into the program's interface or add them via the Finder.

Combine PDFs lets you add a new title to the combined PDFs, change the author and creator. You can search files in preview mode and sort by page number. The latest version of the application handles JPEGs and PNGs in PDFs much better as they are no longer recompressed. Do take into account though that the more PDFs you want to merge the more time the process will take.

All in all, a clever tool to have around to merge PDFs into one.

Download Combine PDFs 3.0 in Softonic

Adobe Acrobat X gives you several different views to read PDF documents including different degrees of zoom. Most importantly, it allows you to edit documents, comment on them, add stamps, watermarks and signatures as well as export them to a variety of formats including HTML and Postscript.

You can create PDFs from a variety of sources, including files, scanned documents and web pages. You can also combine and merge documents, create a PDF portfolio and use a variety of tools to add multimedia, create PDF forms, add digital signatures and much more.

A big plus of Adobe Acrobat X is that it also supports OCR scanning of documents. This means you can scan a document into your Mac and Adobe Acrobat X will turn it into text you can edit. The accuracy and speed of this feature is impressive and eliminates the need for a third party OCR software.

The big downside remains that Adobe Acrobat X can be painfully slow at starting and the installation process is a bit lengthy.

Adobe Acrobat X Professional offers all the tools you'll ever need to manage and edit PDF documents.

Download Adobe Acrobat X Professional 10.1.1 in Softonic

Applications like PDFLab try to break this chain of control by allowing you to split and join PDF documents as well as insert images and blank pages. This is particularly useful if you're dealing with several PDF documents that you perhaps want to cherry pick pages from and then compile them into a new document. PDFLab is an extremely simple program - it only requires you to select the pages you want to extract from a document, put them in the order you'd like to see them and then create the new document.

More than this though, PDFLab even allows you to insert new images into a PDF page, encrypt or decrypt a document and add a watermark. Everything is easy to access via the menu bar across the top which categorizes each function namely Paper Size, Outlines, Postprocessing and List. Unfortunately, there seems to be little support and no forum offered by the developer in case of problems as sometimes, it either won't import some PDF files or inserting images won't work properly and there's no way of solving this. In addition, this app does not work on Snow Leopard yet after Apple removed Cocoa-Java components in the new OS.

PDFlab is however on the whole an excellent Swiss army knife for a whole host of PDF related tasks that don't very often come for free.

Download PDFLab 2.0.3 r2 in Softonic

PDF Download prevents this problem ever arising by allowing you to control exactly how and when PDF files are opened or downloaded. Instead of opening PDF files "blind" which is currently the case, PDF Download lets you know exactly how big it is with options of whether to convert it, open it, download it or convert to HTML. PDF Download stops the annoying problem of PDF files taking ages to open - especially big ones. With PDF Download, you can see instantly whether its a big file, in which case, it's advisable to download it for reading later as opening a big PDF file is like waiting for Christmas to arrive sometimes.

The PDF Download plugin usually presents you with 3 options unless you've instructed it to do the same thing by default all the time - convert the PDF to HTML, download the PDF or open the PDF in the browser. One bonus with PDF Download, that perhaps separates it from others, is that it's not just limited to Adobe Reader. It also works with Foxit Reader and other PDF readers although to be honest, if you're using Foxit, you won't find much use for PDF Download anyway as it opens PDF files much more smoothly than Adobe Reader.

PDF Download is an excellent PDF tool which will result in fewer Firefox crashes although not everytime as it still seems susceptible to crashes when opening PDF files in the browser.

Download PDF Download 3.0.0.2 in Softonic

Wondershare PDF Editor for Mac claims it is different from most PDF editors because it allows users to edit all the content in PDF files directly. Wondershare PDF Editor for Mac also converts PDF to Word and vice versa making marking and annotating PDF files relatively easy. However, the developers emphasize that users should backup PDF files before editing and you should note that this trial version leaves a watermark.

Wondershare PDF Editor for Mac features the ability to select, move, and delete multi-column text and multiple images within a page as well as insert, crop, resize, move, and delete images and graphics (i.e. JPG, PNG, .TIF and BMP). Wondershare PDF Editor for Mac also allows you to convert selected pages or page ranges from multi-page PDF files.

Editing functions include highlight, underline, and strike-through of text in PDF files as well as adding of Sticky Notes and Text Boxes to share comments. Illustration tools include Arrow, Line, Rectangle, Oval, Polygon, Cloud, Pencil, and Pencil Eraser. You can also add hyperlinks to documents. There are a few glaring omissions from Wondershare PDF Editor for Mac however. Basic features such as cut, copy and paste are missing and you can only edit small lines of text at a time.

Wondershare PDF Editor for Mac is a powerful PDF editor for Mac which lacks a few basic features but overall, is worth a try.

Download Wondershare PDF Editor for Mac 1.6.1 in Softonic

Skim is specifically designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, although it is suitable for viewing any PDF file. It is quite basic compared to Adobe Acrobat X and is a little unintuitive at times.
For example, changing fonts should be made a little easier and there are far fewer capabilities when it comes to handling hyperlinks in PDFs.
However, Skim does a tremendous job of making reading PDFs and note taking very straightforward.
Most of the major features you need when viewing PDFs are included in Skim including adding and editing notes, highlighting important text, making snapshots for easy reference and navigation using table of contents or thumbnails, with visual history.

Skim also features support for external apps such as LaTeX, SyncTeX, PDFSync and BibDesk.
All of Skim's extensive features can be found in the comprehensive Help manual.

It might not be quite Adobe Acrobat X but Skim is an impressive free PDF reader and note taker that offers many of the features that Preview doesn't.

Download Skim 1.3.16 in Softonic