PDFGear is a free PDF app we recommend for Mac users who’d rather have a proper program than a website tool. Our recommendation page explains why. This guide just walks through the install, which takes about five minutes.
Before you start
You’ll need:
- A Mac running macOS 11 Big Sur or newer. (To check: click the Apple logo in the top-left, then About This Mac. The version number is right there.)
- An internet connection for the download only — after that, PDFGear works offline.
- Your Mac password (the one you log in with). You only need it once, during install.
The steps
Go to pdfgear.com
Open Safari (or Chrome, or whichever browser you use) and type pdfgear.com into the address bar. Press Return.
Click "Free Download for Mac"
The main page has a big button. If it doesn’t automatically show the Mac version, click the small For Mac tab above the button. Click Free Download.
A file called something like PDFGear.dmg downloads — you’ll see a little progress bar at the top-right of Safari, or in the Downloads pop-up.
Open the downloaded file
Click the downloads arrow at the top-right of Safari (or find the .dmg in your Downloads folder via Finder) and double-click the .dmg file.
A small window opens showing the PDFGear icon on the left and a shortcut to the Applications folder on the right.
Drag the PDFGear icon into Applications
Click and hold the PDFGear icon. Drag it across into the Applications folder icon, and let go. You’ll see a quick copy animation.
"Eject" the disk image (optional but tidy)
Open Finder, look in the sidebar for a drive icon named something like PDFGear, and click the small ⏏ eject arrow next to it. That closes the disk image. You can now drag the .dmg file from Downloads to the Trash — you don’t need it anymore.
Open PDFGear for the first time
Open Finder → Applications in the sidebar → find the PDFGear icon (red/orange logo).
Right-click the icon (or hold Control and click) and choose Open from the menu. This is different from a normal double-click, and it matters — see the callout below.
Confirm and add to your Dock
A second little dialog appears asking “Are you sure you want to open it?” Click Open. PDFGear launches and shows its welcome screen.
To keep PDFGear handy, right-click the PDFGear icon in your Dock (along the bottom of the screen), choose Options → Keep in Dock. The icon will stay there even when the app is closed, so you can launch it in one click later.
If something goes wrong
What to do next
- Open a PDF. Launch PDFGear → File → Open (or ⌘ + O). Browse to any PDF in your Documents or Downloads folder and double-click it.
- Walk through the basics. Our getting-started guide explains what each part of the PDFGear screen does.
- Official manual. PDFGear’s own user guide is at pdfgear.com/windows-user-guide. It’s written for Windows but most of it applies to Mac too — the menus just look a bit different.