Version History

Update notices and smarter suggested names

• NewThe copy downloaded from pdfmate.org now checks once a day whether a new version is out and tells you. Help ▸ Check for Updates… checks right away, and Settings ▸ General turns the daily check off. It never downloads or installs anything by itself.
• NewA one-time welcome screen at first launch asks you to agree to the Terms of Use. Help ▸ Terms of Use and Help ▸ Privacy Policy open them any time.
• ImprovedSuggested file names now use the document's own language, so a letter written in English gets English topic words.
• ImprovedRename with Suggested Name shows dates in your Mac's own date format.
• FixedGreetings and sign-offs from English letters no longer end up in suggested names.
• ImprovedIf a file can't be renamed where it is, Rename with Suggested Name asks where to save it under the suggested name instead of giving up.
• ImprovedThe Recent list, Open Quickly and reopened windows find a file again after you move or rename it in Finder.
• NewMark Sensitive Data now finds tax IDs from more countries: US Social Security numbers, ITINs and EINs, UK National Insurance numbers and tax references, Canadian Social Insurance numbers, Australian tax file numbers and business numbers, Indian PANs, and VAT numbers from the UK and 14 EU countries.
• ImprovedNumbers that could be anything, such as nine plain digits, are only marked as tax IDs when a label like “SSN” or “Tax ID” stands next to them, so invoice, order and phone numbers stay unmarked.
• ImprovedClearer note for the experimental Names option in Mark Sensitive Data.
• FixedThe date in a visible digital signature no longer shows a question mark before AM or PM.

Scanned paperwork gets easier, entirely on your Mac

• NewBlank pages: Organize Pages ▸ Select ▾ ▸ Blank Pages and Possibly Blank Pages find the empty backs of duplex scans, ignoring scanner lines, dust, punch holes and show-through. Thumbnails get a small badge.
• NewDelete Blank Pages… (page menu and Tools) removes them in one go. A page that shows any text — even just a page number — is never called blank, and possibly blank pages are only deleted if you select them yourself.
• NewUpright pages: Select ▾ ▸ Sideways or Upside-Down Pages and Rotate Pages Upright… (page menu and Tools) turn scans that went through the feeder the wrong way, each page by its own angle, in one undo step.
• NewDuplicate pages: Select ▾ ▸ Duplicate Pages and Delete Duplicate Pages… find pages that were scanned twice; the copy is badged “=3” (same as page 3). Pages that read differently — a changed digit, name or amount — are not duplicates.
• NewSplit Pages ▸ At separator sheets: put an empty sheet between documents, scan the stack in one go, and get one PDF per document with the separators and blank backs removed.
• NewBatch has a new Remove Blank Pages operation that can recognise text afterwards.
• ImprovedBatch Split can cut every file at blank separator sheets.
• ImprovedRecognize Text can skip blank pages (on by default) and rotate pages upright while it reads.
• NewFile ▸ Rename with Suggested Name… proposes names like “2026-10-14 project proposal”, dated by the date written in the document (the day it was written or issued, not a deadline or a birth date). Renaming never replaces another file.
• NewWith Apple Intelligence on, Apple's on-device model picks the topic words for suggested names; it can only choose among dates actually found in the text. Settings ▸ Intelligence turns it on or off and shows whether it is ready.
• ImprovedSave As pre-fills the suggested name when a file still has the generic name a scanner or camera gave it, and File ▸ Properties has a Suggest button.
• NewCapture Text (⌃⌘C, a new Reader tool, or right-click the page): drag a rectangle anywhere — on a scan or a digital page — and the recognised text is on the clipboard.
• NewTables (macOS 26): Copy Table (Tools or right-click a page) pastes the cells straight into Numbers or Excel, and Export Table as CSV… writes a file your spreadsheet app opens directly. Cells the recognition missed are read again, and anything still empty opens a preview to check.
• NewRedact ▸ Sensitive Data… pre-marks bank account numbers, card numbers, tax IDs, phone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses and links (dates and names optional) for you to review before applying.
• ImprovedApplying redactions now runs in the background, with a Cancel button.
• NewBookmarks ▸ Generate from Headings… builds an outline from the document's headings, skipping running headers and page numbers.
• FixedText marked for redaction (Mark Area, Search ▸ Mark All) disappeared the next time the document was saved, before you chose Apply. Marked text — also in marks made with other apps — now stays until you apply the marks.
• FixedOn macOS 26 the app icon sat on a grey plate in the Dock; it now fills the icon shape.

Annotating rotated pages works the way you expect

• ImprovedUpright comments on rotated pages: text boxes, typewriter comments, callouts, stamps, stickers and signatures placed on a rotated page read upright on screen instead of coming out turned with the page.
• NewRotate in place: right-click a selected annotation for Rotate Right / Rotate Left, or use the new Rotate buttons in the inspector. Text boxes, callouts, stamps, images, shapes, lines, polygons and pencil strokes turn in 90° steps around their centre, and undo turns them back.
• ImprovedPage rotation is saved with the file: rotating a page (right-click the page, or Organize Pages) is a document edit and survives saving and reopening.

Annotation tools remember how you last set them up

• NewTool styles stick: a comment tool's colour, opacity, thickness, line style, font and alignment — set on the tool's defaults or on an annotation you just drew — are remembered, so the next annotation you draw with that tool starts from the same setup, also after restarting the app.
• NewReset Tool Defaults: with a tool active and nothing selected, the inspector on the right shows the tool's defaults and a Reset Tool Defaults button that returns it to the factory style.
• ImprovedThe quick-style bar in the toolbar and the inspector now mirror each other immediately, whichever one you edit.

Settings, themes, import and highlighting reworked

• ImprovedSettings are organised into General, File and Appearance tabs; preferences you saved before keep their values.
• NewThe File tab switches the Recent list on and off, sets its size (5–200 files), can drop files that no longer exist when PDFMate starts and has Clear Recent List. Home gained a Clear Recents button.
• NewThe Appearance tab picks the interface look (Follow System, Light or Dark) and the reading theme.
• NewReading themes: Gray plus the paper styles Parchment, Kraft, Xuan, Linen and Fine-grained paper.
• ImprovedA reading theme chosen in Settings reaches open documents, and one picked in the status bar shows up in Settings.
• NewOpening several images at once asks whether to combine them into one PDF or open them separately.
• NewHighlighting: right-click selected text for Highlight, Underline, Strikethrough, Squiggly, Add Highlighting Note, Look Up and Speak.
• NewPencil and Highlighter strokes can automatically become straight lines; holding Shift always draws one.
• FixedThe highlighter's see-through marker look is now kept when you save.
• ImprovedOrganize Pages sits third in the mode bar.
• Improved⌘ + scroll wheel zooms in every mode.
• NewThe thumbnails pane badges the page shown in the editor.
• NewThe status bar shows whether a file is searchable, has recognised (OCR) text, is partly searchable or is a scan; clicking a scan's indicator opens text recognition.
• NewUnsaved changes show a dot on the window tab.
• ImprovedQuit asks about unsaved documents before PDFMate closes.
• FixedThe style bar no longer keeps showing an annotation's style after you deselect it.
• FixedText boxes you abandon no longer leave empty undo steps.
• FixedExported comments are indented correctly.
• FixedDuplicate Across Pages copes with page ranges that don't exist in the document.
• FixedCSV files saved on Windows import correctly.
• FixedRenaming a form field no longer breaks the calculations that use it.

First release

• NewPDFMate is a native PDF editor for Macs with Apple silicon, running macOS 14 or later.
• NewNine modes in one window: Reader, Comment, Edit PDF, Prepare Form, Redact, Organize Pages, Crop, Split and Protect.
• NewWatermark, Background, Header & Footer and Bates numbering.
• NewCompare, Convert, Create and Batch processing.
• NewText recognition (OCR) for scanned pages, and digital signatures.
• NewRead aloud, slide show, tabs, and a Home screen with recent and starred files.