Acrobat Pro, PitStop Pro, free PDF readers and Scribus compared for print work, plus the free app that checks CMYK, overprint and bleed, edits objects and mail merges on Windows, Mac and Linux.
If you design anything that's going to a printer, such as business cards, flyers, menus or packaging, you need to know your PDF is print-ready before it goes. Most PDF apps on Windows, Mac and Linux are built for reading and signing, not for checking CMYK, bleed or overprint. The professional tools that do it are excellent but expensive. Here's how the options compare, and the free app we built at Mangoprint to fill the gap on every platform.
Printers work in CMYK inks, not the RGB colours on your screen. A file that looks perfect in a normal viewer can still come back from the printer wrong, because of problems most viewers simply don't show:
Adobe Acrobat Pro includes Output Preview, colour conversion and a full preflight system, and Enfocus PitStop Pro adds powerful editing and automated fixes on top of Acrobat. Many print companies rely on them every day, and for automated preflight profiles and PDF/X validation they're the industry standard.
They are paid software, though: Acrobat Pro is a subscription, PitStop Pro is a separate licence that runs as a plug-in for Acrobat, and neither is available for Linux. If you're a designer, a small business or a print shop that needs to check and fix files before sending them to print, that's a lot to pay for.
Adobe Acrobat Reader (Windows and Mac), macOS Preview, KDE's Okular and GNOME Papers (formerly Evince) on Linux are all great for reading, filling in forms and annotating. They're viewers, though, so they won't show you separations or ink levels, and they can't convert a file to CMYK for print.
Scribus is the best free desktop publishing app on any platform, and it understands print: CMYK colour, a preflight verifier and PDF/X export. It's for building layouts, though, and isn't designed to open a finished PDF from another app, check it and fix it. Inkscape is a powerful vector editor, but it's built around RGB colour on screen and its CMYK support is limited.
We're a print studio, and we kept receiving PDFs with RGB images, missing bleed and white text set to overprint. So we built the tool we wanted: a free, open source app that shows you what your file will really do on press, and fixes the common problems in a few clicks. It runs natively on Windows, Mac and Linux, with exactly the same features on each, so a whole studio can use the same tool whatever computers they're on.
The latest update turns Mangoprint Prepress PDF from a checker into a proper print editor:
Your original PDF is never changed. Every edit goes to a working copy, and nothing is saved until you export a new file.
| Acrobat Pro | PitStop Pro | Free PDF readers | Scribus | Mangoprint Prepress PDF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Paid subscription | Paid licence, plus Acrobat | Free | Free | Free |
| Windows and Mac | Yes | Yes | Varies | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | No | No | Varies | Yes | Yes |
| Separations and ink % readings | Yes | Yes | No | Not for finished PDFs | Yes |
| Overprint preview | Yes | Yes | No | Not for finished PDFs | Yes |
| Convert RGB and spot colours to CMYK | Yes | Yes | No | Not for finished PDFs | Yes |
| Move and delete objects in a PDF | Yes | Yes | No | Not for finished PDFs | Yes |
| Trim and bleed boxes | Yes | Yes | No | Not for finished PDFs | Yes |
| Automated preflight profiles and PDF/X checks | Yes | Yes | No | Own layouts | Not yet |
| Open source | No | No | Some | Yes | Yes |
If you run a high-volume prepress department, the paid tools' automation is worth paying for. For everyone else, from designers and small businesses to print shops checking a customer's file, Mangoprint Prepress PDF covers the checks and fixes that matter most for free, on whatever computer you use.
Download the latest release from GitHub. Ghostscript, which powers the colour conversions, is built in, so there's nothing else to install.
The builds aren't code-signed yet, so Windows and Mac will warn you that the publisher is unverified the first time you open it. The GitHub page explains how to get past that. More details and the roadmap are on the Mangoprint Prepress PDF page.
Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat Reader, Enfocus PitStop Pro, macOS Preview, Okular, GNOME Papers, Evince, Scribus and Inkscape are trademarks or names of their respective owners. Mangoprint isn't affiliated with any of them. Feature comparisons reflect each app's main purpose as of October 2026 and may change; check each product for its latest features and pricing. Mangoprint Prepress PDF is provided free and as is.
Yes. Mangoprint Prepress PDF is free and shows separations, ink coverage and overprint, converts RGB and spot colours to CMYK, and lets you move, delete and recolour objects. It doesn't do everything Acrobat Pro does, such as automated preflight profiles, but it covers the most common print checks and fixes.
Open it in Mangoprint Prepress PDF, choose Convert RGB to CMYK (and Convert spot colours to CMYK if needed), then export. Images keep their full resolution and existing CMYK colours aren't touched. It works the same on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Yes. Mangoprint Prepress PDF can merge names and details from a spreadsheet into your PDF, so you can print business cards for a whole team, place cards or certificates from one design.
No. Adobe doesn't make a current version of Acrobat for Linux, so Mangoprint Prepress PDF is one of the few ways to check and fix print PDFs on Linux.
Yes. It's free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence, with no account or subscription.
We're a print studio in Maidstone, Kent. Every order gets a free artwork check, and you can collect from us in ME15 or have it delivered anywhere in the UK.
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