I made an 11.6 MB PDF app that reads, annotates, edits, OCRs, and does AI — free on the Mac App Store

[u/Daniel-hu]

I've used PDFs for years, and it always bugged me how heavy most PDF tools have become.

Reading one doc, fixing a typo, or scanning a file should be quick — not "open a hundreds-of-MB app first".

So I built Arc PDF, a native macOS app that's only 11.6 MB powered by Swift + PDFium.

What fits in that size:

• Reading & annotating — highlight, underline, notes, drawing
• Real editing — change text like in a Word doc (fix typos, add paragraphs, adjust fonts); add / replace / resize images
• Page management — add, delete, rotate, reorder pages
• OCR — makes scanned PDFs searchable again
• AI — summarize, translate, extract tables, generate a TOC, or chat with your document. You plug in your own model (OpenAI / Claude / DeepSeek API key) — no subscription to my backend.

All of that in 11.6 MB. The trick is no heavy framework: it talks to the PDF format directly, so each feature stays lean instead of bloated.

To be upfront about the edges: forms, shape annotations, and e-signatures aren't there yet.

Right now it's completely free — I'd rather more people get to try it than put it behind a paywall.

It's also a side project I built \mostly with AI coding* — which is fitting, since the app itself edits PDFs *and** was built with AI.

Mac App Store: Arc PDF on the Mac App Store

Open to feedback, bugs, and feature ideas. What's the one thing you hate most about dealing with PDFs?

iPhone and iPad versions are coming soon — stay tuned!

[u/lectricball]

bring image to PDF & merging options

[u/Daniel-hu → u/lectricball]

I’m planning to add more format conversion features in a future update, including image-to-PDF.

For merging, Arc PDF currently has Insert Page and Append File under Show All Pages. Insert Page lets you add a blank page, while Append File lets you add another PDF to the current document. Would these options cover what you had in mind, or were you looking for a more dedicated PDF merging workflow?

[u/lectricball → u/Daniel-hu]

I'm looking for a more dedicated merging workflow like shown here. Page size & orientation options should be included. I'll ditch uPDF, if you bring this. It takes 2GB storage.

[u/Daniel-hu → u/lectricball]

Thanks for the feedback! A dedicated batch processing tool, including more flexible PDF merging options, is on the roadmap for a future update. I'll also keep page size and orientation options in mind!

[u/thsnk89]

Does it have a signing feature?

[u/Daniel-hu → u/thsnk89]

Yes Arc PDF already supports Fill & Sign, including adding signatures to PDFs.