Preview fills forms but cannot create them. Add real form fields in Safari or Chrome, then test the file in Preview.
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Choose a PDF, a Word file or an image from your files, or photograph a paper form.
PDF, Word (.docx), JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, GIF and BMP. Free account required, no credit card.
Your first download is free, with no watermark. After that: a watermark, or a $7 one-time pack (25 clean PDF downloads + 25 AI credits). AI detection covers up to 15 pages per run.
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Build and preview fields free. Exporting clickable fields needs a one-time pack ($7) or a monthly plan.
Last checked against the vendors’ documentation on .
Not with the built-in apps. Preview fills existing fields and can put a text box on a flat page, Pages and Numbers export flat PDFs, and the free Acrobat Reader cannot create fields. A browser tool needs no install; the paid alternative is Acrobat Pro and the free one is LibreOffice.
Nothing to install. Go to justfill.app on your Mac and upload the PDF, a scan, a photo, or a Pages document exported as PDF or Word.
Field detection proposes a box on each answer line, checkbox and table cell. Move or resize them with the trackpad, delete wrong ones and drag a rectangle where a field is missing.
Choose Text, Checkbox, Radio or Dropdown for each field, set the font size, and give each field a short name.
Download the PDF with real form fields. It lands in your Downloads folder like any other file.
Open the file in Preview and click a field: you should be able to type straight into it, which only works when the PDF has real form fields.
Preview fills forms. Apple’s guide says to click a field and type, and if a PDF will not let you type directly into the form, to add a text box instead. That text box is an annotation placed on the page: it is fine for filling a flat form yourself, but the person you send the file to gets a page with your text on it, not a field they can fill.
Since macOS 14.2, Preview can also spot the blanks in some PDFs and fill them from your contact card (AutoFill Form). Apple notes that not all PDFs support it, and it says nothing about saving those blanks as form fields that work in other apps. None of Preview’s documented tools creates a form field.
Pages and Numbers export good-looking PDFs, and their export options cover image quality, accessibility tags, comments and a password. Form fields are not among them, so the result is a flat page. Use Pages for the layout and add the fields afterwards.
The free Acrobat Reader for Mac fills forms but cannot create them. Adobe’s own help says converting a flat form to a fillable one uses Prepare a form in Acrobat Pro and that the feature is not available in Reader.
In the browser: the steps above. Building and previewing is free; the export with clickable fields is a $7 one-time pack or a monthly plan.
Acrobat Pro: Prepare a form detects fields and lets you add more. In the US it is $19.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, or $29.99 month to month (Adobe’s plans page, October 2026).
LibreOffice: free and runs on macOS. You place each form control by hand and export with Create PDF form ticked. It is slow for a long form and works on a scan only if you insert the page as an image first.
Uploading the file, detecting fields, drawing and naming them and previewing the result is free. Downloading the PDF with clickable fields needs a one-time pack ($7, 25 clean downloads) or a monthly plan. The first clean copy of a form you filled yourself is free, but it is flattened, so it has no fields left. Anyone you send the fillable PDF to can type into it in Acrobat Reader, a browser or a phone app without a JustFill account.
Upload the file, see which fields are detected and decide afterwards.
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