Top 5 PDF Printer for macOS 10.15 Catalina

Elise Williams

2024-04-30 10:47:36 • Filed to: Print PDFs • Proven solutions

A Top 5 PDF Printer for macOS 10.15 Catalina is essential wherever documents are printed at scale. If your company regularly prints PDFs and other formats, you need a robust and capable PDF printer for the latest macOS version. Some of them are pureplay printer apps, as you will see, but others offer a wide range of other features that could be equally - if not more - useful as a productivity tool for managing digital documents. This article covers the five best PDF printer (Mac OS 10.15 Catalina) applications for you to peruse and download.

5 Best PDF Printer for macOS 10.15 Catalina

1. PDFelement

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Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor is your one-stop destination for every little task related to PDFs. Whether it's a simple print-to-PDF function or a complex editing requirement after printing to PDF, this family of PDF applications will be all you ever need.

Pros:

It offers the same kind of functionality as other PDF printers for macOS 10.15 Catalina with a distinct advantage of being able to create PDFs from a wide range of file types.
No need to fuss with multiple apps to create a collection of diverse PDFs converted from discordant file formats.
Advanced features for handling PDFs, including deep editing and annotations, data extraction, form-filling and creation, optical character recognition, batch conversion, and enterprise-grade security options.
Option to print-to-PDF from native Mac applications the same way as Adobe Acrobat's PDF Printer.
Save your work to the cloud and work on alternate platforms like Windows.
Print multiple files into a single PDF quickly and securely.

Cons:

Too comprehensive for basic print-to-PDF needs

Price:

Standard version subscription is $69/year
Pro version subscription is $89/year

System Support: macOS 10.12 or higher, including macOS Catalina | Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista

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2. Mac PDF Printer (native macOS application)

If you're looking for a free PDF printer for Mac OS 10.15 Catalina, then look no further than your Mac itself! Yes, your sleek MacBook Pro or iMac already has the ability to print to a PDF file. Here are some of the utilities' best features.

Pros:

Free to use in perpetuity. You'll never spend an extra penny to use this service since it is a native application for your Mac desktop operating system, similar to iMessage on an iOS device but meant for the desktop environment.
Convenient print-to-PDF function in the Print dialog box. Just open the file to be converted into PDF for printing, and in the dialog box, change your settings so the file is saved as a PDF. Hit Save and the job is done.
Email PDF. There's also an option to directly email a document as a PDF file as well as a couple of other options.

Cons:

No additional functionality such as editing or page management
Limited capabilities overall except for straightforward print-to-PDF

Price:

Free, comes with the macOS platform

System Support: Not Applicable - Native Application

3. PDFWriter for Mac

This awesome little tool virtually ‘piggybacks' on CUPS-PDF, which powers macOS's built-in printing capability. However, it is a third-party application, unlike the previous tool we covered. That said, it does offer some extended functionality as far as PDF printers go.

Pros:

Quick print-to-PDF function with an easy interface. This utility is a bare-bones affair that is purely functional rather than aesthetic in nature.
Essentially a print driver, so it uses the native printing capability of Mac systems, thereby giving rise to little room for error.
Certain custom settings are also available.

Cons:

PDF output files may be much larger than the original
Known errors during installation and setting up a printer with this application

Price:

Open-source

System Support: macOS 10.12 and higher, can be made to work with older versions with a workaround

4. Adobe PDF Printer

Although there's no Adobe PDF Printer for Mac OS 10.15 Catalina, if you have the paid version of Acrobat then the functionality is available in a different form. That form is the Print function in other macOS apps.

add pdf printer to mac os 10.15 catalina

Pros:

If you regularly work on macOS apps like Pages or even Word for Mac, you'll know that there's an option to Print documents as PDFs using Adobe PDF Printer. Again, it's only available in the paid version of Acrobat for Mac, not in the free Adobe Reader.
You have an option to tweak additional settings for the output PDF file, giving you some freedom when printing to PDF.
There are several settings options like being able to rename the PDF, customize page size, adding or changing security presets, and even choosing an output folder different from the default one.

Cons:

No standalone interface for macOS
If you're on the older Acrobat XI, there's no support for the product and the print function might not work

Price:

Comes with the price of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
Requires an annual commitment for the lowest subscription rate per month.

System Support: macOS 10.12 and higher

5. PDF Printer Lite

PDF Printer Lite is a macOS app that you can download from the Mac App Store. Printing and sharing are the key functionalities of this lightweight tool. Let's look at some of its benefits and features.

Pros:

Fully compatible with macOS features since it is purpose-built for the platform.
The ability to print from a Safari browser on your Mac (web page to PDF.)
All conversions are done natively and without an Internet connection.
Diverse ‘print from' options that include email attachments, cloud-stored documents, images, MS Office documents, and iWork documents.
One unique feature is the ability to leverage Apple AirPrint to print documents to PDF wirelessly.
Offers advanced options for page layout, page size, orientation, etc.

Cons:

Printing to two-page PDF and additional functionality only available after the paid upgrade.
No options to edit created PDFs.

Price:

$19.99 for the paid version

System Support: macOS 10.10 and higher

Comparison among the 5 PDF Printer for macOS Catalina

All of these applications are solid performers in their own right, but if you really want full PDF functionality after printing to PDF, then Adobe and PDFelement come out on top. The latter is more affordable, which is important if you're trying to keep your costs down when deploying a PDF printer solution across your organization. Here's a quick chart to compare key features of the PDF Printer applications for macOS 10.15 Catalina that we've covered above.