Add a virtual PDF printer to your Mac and print from any device

PDFs have become a standard file file format that is widely used and supported. Add the PDF Printer app to your Apple Mac and use it to print wirelessly to PDF files from any device.

PDF Printer for the Mac is available in two versions. The full one costs (UK) £19.99 but there is a PDF Printer Lite version that is free on the Mac App Store. The main difference is a two-page limitation and ads, but if you don't mind these or if you just want to test the app before getting the full version, get the free Lite app.

Add a new printer

When PDF Printer Lite is run, it adds an icon to the menu bar and adds a printer to System Preferences > Printers & Scanners.

It looks just like any other printer to the system and when printing from any application, the PDF Printer can be selected in the usual way in the print window.

When the document, image or whatever is printed, it is saved to disk as a PDF file. It also immediately opens in the Preview app so you can see it. It also adds the document to the menu bar icon. Click it and it lists all the PDF files that have recently been created.

Files can be opened from that list by Ctrl+clicking and they open in the default PDF viewer, which is Preview. If a hard copy is needed, you can print the PDF to a real printer from Preview.

Why bother?

I know what you are probably thinking, the Mac can print to PDF files just fine without this PDF Printer app. However, it does a bit more than you might expect.

When PDF Printer is run, it starts up a virtual wireless printer on the local network. This can be seen by other devices on the network, so if you have an iPhone or iPad for example, it shows up as an AirPrint printer when you select the Print option in an iOS app. It can be selected as the current printer and there are the usual options like selecting the number of copies to print, the range of pages to print in a multi-page document, and the paper size.

Print from an iOS app to PDF Printer and the PDF file is saved to the Mac's disk along with the other PDFs. It appears in the menu bar icon's menu and it immediately opens in the Preview app for viewing or for printing. This could be useful if you do not have an AirPrint printer that you can print directly to wirelessly, or it could be useful for archiving documents or information in apps to PDF files on the Mac.

It does even more and it even works on Android devices too. For example, it appears as a printer on my Samsung Galaxy S6 Android phone and can be selected as the current print device, When printing from the the phone, the document is saved to the Mac as a PDF, it appears in the menu bar icon's menu, and it immediately opens in Preview for viewing or printing.

The only difference between printing to PDF from an iOS and Android device is that on Android it asks you to log in to your account on the Mac. Enter the username and password and there is an option to remember the login details for the next print job.

Related: Use advanced print features in textEdit

Conclusion

There isn't really any need for a PDF printer on the Mac because PDF printing is built into macOS. However, this app could be useful for printing from mobile devices, especially if you want to save documents as PDF files on the Mac.

The PDFs themselves were not the highest quality I have seen and were merely were OK, and they had an ad. This is because I was running the free Lite version of the app and the paid version should be better.

PDF Printer is an interesting idea and it might be useful to some people.

App: PDF Printer Lite
Price: Free (Lite), £19.95 (full app)
By: Xu Jianwei
Size: 5.2 MB
macOS: 10.8 or later.
Verdict: Most useful for printing to PDF from mobile devices.