Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader for Mac is a lightweight PDF reader built for everyday document viewing, with a deep set of markup tools and a security-focused approach to handling files, links, and protected content.

It’s a good fit for anyone who reviews PDFs regularly on macOS, especially when you need serious annotation, form filling, and signing, plus controls that help reduce risk when opening documents from unfamiliar sources.

Reading and navigation that stays practical

Foxit Reader covers the basics with confidence: you can keep multiple documents open in tabs, switch among common page viewing modes, and rely on familiar navigation options like page thumbnails, bookmarks, and direct page jumps. Search is also built in, which helps when you are working through longer documents or looking for a specific phrase.

For files that come with extra rules attached, the reader surfaces useful context. You can check a document’s security permissions in its properties, and PDF/A documents can open in a read-only mode intended to prevent accidental changes. Foxit Reader also supports working with 3D content inside PDFs, including navigation, measurement, and adding comments tied to the model.

Annotation tools that support real review work

Foxit Reader’s commenting features go well beyond simple highlights. You get a broad set of tools, including text markup options (highlight, underline, squiggly underline, strikeout, plus insert and replace text markups), along with Typewriter notes, sticky notes, drawing tools, stamps, and measurement tools. There are also quality-of-life touches, like the option to keep a tool active so you can place repeated annotations without reselecting it, and preferences that control how comment pop-ups behave.

When a review involves more than one pass, Foxit Reader supports shared reviews and email-based reviews, including publishing and checking for new comments and tracking reviews in a dedicated tracker. It can also participate in real-time collaboration on PDFs shared through Foxit’s sharing workflow (with an internet connection and a signed-in Foxit account required for that collaboration feature).

Forms and signing, handled inside the reader

Foxit Reader supports both interactive and non-interactive PDF forms. For non-interactive forms, the Fill & Sign tools let you place text and symbols where needed, which is handy for documents that look like forms but are not truly fillable.

For sign-offs and verification, Foxit Reader supports digital signatures, including creating and managing digital IDs, placing signatures, and validating signatures to check authenticity and document integrity. It also lets you view signed versions saved during the signing workflow, which can be helpful when changes occur after a document has been signed.

Security controls that are easy to appreciate

Foxit Reader includes multiple layers of protection-oriented behavior. Safe Reading Mode is designed to limit unauthorized actions and data transmissions, and you can manage trusted files or folders through privileged locations when you need to relax restrictions for known documents. The app can also warn you before opening website links embedded in PDFs, and you can choose whether to allow or block website access from PDFs outside the browser.

On the document protection side, Foxit Reader can open password-protected PDFs, and it supports Microsoft Rights Management Services for access control scenarios, including encrypting and decrypting PDFs through Active Directory or Azure Rights Management Services. RMS capabilities may be offered on a trial basis, and RMS support may be treated as a paid add-on depending on how it’s licensed.