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PDF reader and note-taker for scientific papers.

4.3
Based on 107 user ratesRead reviews & comments
Free
Absolutely Free

Skim overview

Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, but is also great for viewing any PDF file.

Skim includes many features and has a great user interface.

What’s new in version 1.7.1

Updated on Mar 04 2024

New Features
  • Change defaults when changing text note font while holding Shift.
  • Change defaults when changing note line attributes while holding Shift.
Bugs Fixed
  • Work around initial page navigation bug on newer OS systems.
  • Fix string cleaning for highlights and search.
  • Tweak scrolling by page amount.
View older Skim updates

Information

License

Free

Size

11.7 MB

Downloads

356230

App requirements

  • Intel 64
  • Apple Silicon
  • macOS 10.13 or later
Try our new feature and write a detailed review about Skim. All reviews will be posted soon.

What customer like

User Experience
Performance
Customization

What needs improvements

Regular updates

Skim qualities

Value
5.0
Ease of use
5.0
Features
5.0
Reliability
5.0
Customer support
5.0

Write your thoughts in our old-fashioned comment

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0.0

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  • Comments

  • User Ratings

Derekcurrie
Derekcurrie
Aug 23 2023
1.6.19
5.0
Aug 23 2023
5.0
Version: 1.6.19
v1.6.20 is out. Release notes: "Fix removing notes."
igmuskala
igmuskala
May 29 2023
1.6.16
0.0
May 29 2023
0.0
Version: 1.6.16
Skim is a lightweight, easy-to-use PDF reader that is perfect for students, researchers, and anyone who needs to read and annotate PDFs. It has a clean and intuitive interface, and it supports a wide range of features, including: Viewing, zooming, and scrolling through PDFs Adding and editing notes Highlighting text Creating bookmarks Searching for text Exporting notes and annotations Skim is also highly customizable, and you can change the font, font size, and other settings to make it look and feel the way you want. Overall, Skim is a great choice for anyone who needs a simple, reliable PDF reader. It is free to download and use, and it is available for macOS. Here are some of the pros and cons of Skim: Pros: Free and open source Lightweight and easy to use Supports a wide range of features Highly customizable Cons: Annotations are not displayable in other PDF viewers Some features are not available in the free version Overall, Skim is a great choice for anyone who needs a simple, reliable PDF reader. It is free to download and use, and it is available for macOS.
Awado
Awado
Mar 10 2023
1.6.15
0.0
Mar 10 2023
0.0
Version: 1.6.15
Skim is a perfect replacement for the Preview application from Apple. It's so sad that almost every piece of software from Apple got unusable since Mr. Cook came.
A-w
A-w
Nov 1 2022
1.6.13
5.0
Nov 1 2022
5.0
Version: 1.6.13
By far the best PDF reader!
Aargl
Aargl
Jun 29 2021
1.6.4
5.0
Jun 29 2021
5.0
Version: 1.6.4
Still my favourite pdf reader. :-) 5 stars
Afmac
Afmac
Mar 16 2021
1.6.2
1.0
Mar 16 2021
1.0
Version: 1.6.2
1.6.2 has no icon in Mojave.
Gary-L-Gray
Gary-L-Gray
Mar 2 2021
1.6.1
5.0
Mar 2 2021
5.0
Version: 1.6.1
Skim paired with Sublime Text is the ultimate combination for using LaTeX!
breitpeterviola
breitpeterviola
Aug 12 2020
1.5.11
4.0
Aug 12 2020
4.0
Version: 1.5.11
Will try it out and comment. If from Adobe, I am confident
Eric•Woehler
Eric•Woehler
Jun 27 2020
1.5.10
2.0
Jun 27 2020
2.0
Version: 1.5.10
Unable to change default print settings - app wants to print each page at 100% even if bigger than preset page size, so EVERY time I print something I have to manually check and set print settings wrt zoom/shrink/fit page size VERY annoying and getting to the point of ditching it - it's not hard to set preferences for an app to default settings, but not possible for this app
476429
476429
May 29 2020
1.5.9
3.0
May 29 2020
3.0
Version: 1.5.9
Skim is a great app, but it has one significant limitation. Search doesn't support wildcards or booleans. You can search for a word or a phrase. That's it. If you need to find a page where two words appear separately, then you are out of luck The other day I needed to find the title capitalization rules for infinitives. I needed pages that used the words capital, capitals, capitalize or capitalization. And the word "infinitive" also needed to appear anywhere on those pages. In Skim, you can find where any form of "capital" appears. If you type "capital", it will show pages that contain capital, capitals, capitalize, and capitalization. However, as soon as you hit the space bar, you are locked into a search for the exact word you typed. Any search for two or more words will be an exact phrase search. You can find where "infinitive" appears. But there is no way to find where it appears anywhere on the same page with some form of "capital". The exact phrases "capital infinitive", "infinitive capital", "infinitive capitalization", "capitalize infinitive", etc. produce zero search results And that exhausts the Skim search capabilities. I opened the document in Preview and searched for "capital* AND infinitive". It immediately found the exact page I needed--where the words "capitalization" and "infinitive" appeared in different parts of the page, about three sentences apart. I searched Skim's "Issues" page on GitHub and found that someone had brought this to the developer's attention a few years ago. The developer said Skim was using the search capabilities provided by Apple's PDFKit so if you want improved search, then you should talk to Apple. He then marked the issue as closed. In other words, it is unlikely Skim's search capabilities are going to get any better . . . at least not anytime soon. If you need to annotate PDFs, there is nothing better than Skim. If you require anything more than the most basic search functionality, you will need to use a different app.
Krupnix
Krupnix
Mar 24 2020
1.5.7
5.0
Mar 24 2020
5.0
Version: 1.5.7
After Apple Preview screwed up all my meticulous notes from a tutorial I was taking (losing some, changing colors, blanking them out in the highlight TOC), I looked around and found Skim. It works great! I have done several tutorials now, without a single issue in Skim. You can search either the pdf doc contents (left side), or your notes (right side.) Thanks to the developer!! And thanks for the new update, which allows for line returns etc.
Aargl
Aargl
Jun 9 2019
1.5.1
5.0
Jun 9 2019
5.0
Version: 1.5.1
v1.5+ crashes when closing a document's window.
Aljuk
Aljuk
Jun 4 2019
1.4.41
1.0
Jun 4 2019
1.0
Version: 1.4.41
As of version 1.5 it appears that Skim can no longer print documents.
ami.go
ami.go
Nov 15 2018
1.4.37
1.5
Nov 15 2018
1.5
Version: 1.4.37
Version 1.4.37 crashes on start. No Problem with Version 1.4.36.
Trance
Trance
Feb 11 2018
1.4.32
0.0
Feb 11 2018
0.0
Version: 1.4.32
The last couple of versions set off the "distnoted" process to use all my cpu when I open a pdf file.
Aargl
Aargl
Feb 10 2018
1.4.32
5.0
Feb 10 2018
5.0
Version: 1.4.32
I've been using Skim as my default pdf viewer for years but I'm finding a few lacks and bugs now: - it doesn't support 256 bits password protection (Acrobat X and up) - some pdf have some parts of them not displayed at all! (this bug is common with my 10.9.5 Apple Preview, while Acrobat X reads them correctly — they might be malformed pdfs, but here's a superiority of Acrobat, anyway, because you never can be sure what you've been sent is malformed or not...)
Iliketrash
Iliketrash
Nov 9 2017
1.4.30
3.0
Nov 9 2017
3.0
Version: 1.4.30
This app contains bugs which never get fixed. For example, there is apparently an error where the size of the display part of the main window is miscalculated so that on long documents a white band appears at the top and grows shorter as you scroll through the document. The size of the white band is proportional to the length of the document. On very long documents (1000 or more pages, I suppose), the entire display area of the window is blank. When I complained on the users' list, the developer suggested that I upgrade my operating system. I did, but the problem remains. Another example of a long-standing bug is that the PDF -> Use Current View Settings as Default has never worked. For example, it makes the left-hand thumbnail pane whatever size it wants. A recent bug is that that attempts to update result in an error. The developer is actually pretty hostile when faced with bug reports and has responded to me personally with an arrogant attitude that basically denies there is a problem Other than that, great piece of software
Orlando-a
Orlando-a
Jan 16 2017
1.4.25
5.0
Jan 16 2017
5.0
Version: 1.4.25
Excellent free app to manage PDF files on a Mac. Skim offers a range of nice tools for making annotations with different colors and various types. Never used PDF files with such pleasure.
Jpwgibson
Jpwgibson
Nov 16 2016
1.4.24
2.5
Nov 16 2016
2.5
Version: 1.4.24
Not sure if the current version is responsible, but freehand and line in Note Tools are broken again. These functions seem to come and go, and I find myself crossing my fingers whenever a new version appears. In short, freehand lines disappear once one lifts one's finger off the trackpad/mouse, and the line function gives one a resize or grab cursor - and doesn't actually draw a line.
Pfackelmann
Pfackelmann
Oct 1 2016
1.4.21
0.0
Oct 1 2016
0.0
Version: 1.4.21
1.4.21 is out. I can't select areas anymore (Sierra?) Any hints? Peter
Derekcurrie
Derekcurrie
Aug 23 2023
1.6.19
5.0
Aug 23 2023
5.0
Version: 1.6.19
kom
kom
Jul 26 2023
1.6.17
4.0
Jul 26 2023
4.0
Version: 1.6.17
A-w
A-w
May 13 2023
1.6.16
5.0
May 13 2023
5.0
Version: 1.6.16
stew-1
stew-1
Apr 3 2022
1.6.9
4.0
Apr 3 2022
4.0
Version: 1.6.9
Aargl
Aargl
Feb 21 2022
1.6.9
5.0
Feb 21 2022
5.0
Version: 1.6.9
Dana_Nau
Dana_Nau
Jul 1 2021
1.6.4
4.0
Jul 1 2021
4.0
Version: 1.6.4
breitpeterviola
breitpeterviola
Aug 12 2020
4.0
Aug 12 2020
4.0
Version: null
Eric•Woehler
Eric•Woehler
Jun 27 2020
2.0
Jun 27 2020
2.0
Version: null
476429
476429
May 29 2020
3.0
May 29 2020
3.0
Version: null
Krupnix
Krupnix
Mar 24 2020
5.0
Mar 24 2020
5.0
Version: null
Aljuk
Aljuk
Jun 4 2019
1.0
Jun 4 2019
1.0
Version: null
ami.go
ami.go
Nov 15 2018
1.5
Nov 15 2018
1.5
Version: null
Iliketrash
Iliketrash
Nov 9 2017
3.0
Nov 9 2017
3.0
Version: null
Orlando-a
Orlando-a
Jan 16 2017
5.0
Jan 16 2017
5.0
Version: null
Jepin
Jepin
Dec 26 2016
5.0
Dec 26 2016
5.0
Version: null
Jpwgibson
Jpwgibson
Nov 16 2016
2.5
Nov 16 2016
2.5
Version: null
ronn-2
ronn-2
Sep 22 2016
4.5
Sep 22 2016
4.5
Version: null
mazetas
mazetas
Aug 10 2016
4.5
Aug 10 2016
4.5
Version: null
cubanpete
cubanpete
Jun 24 2016
5.0
Jun 24 2016
5.0
Version: null
Stuartmd
Stuartmd
Apr 17 2016
3.5
Apr 17 2016
3.5
Version: null
Freenergy
Freenergy
Jan 13 2016
5.0
Jan 13 2016
5.0
Version: null
Grug
Grug
Jan 8 2016
5.0
Jan 8 2016
5.0
Version: null
Valdimar-Thor-H
Valdimar-Thor-H
Sep 9 2015
5.0
Sep 9 2015
5.0
Version: null
MichaelHaeusler
MichaelHaeusler
Aug 18 2015
5.0
Aug 18 2015
5.0
Version: null
Hkim
Hkim
Jun 17 2015
5.0
Jun 17 2015
5.0
Version: null
timmerk
timmerk
May 26 2015
5.0
May 26 2015
5.0
Version: null
RogerMP
RogerMP
Jan 26 2015
5.0
Jan 26 2015
5.0
Version: null
Funjoy
Funjoy
Dec 18 2014
5.0
Dec 18 2014
5.0
Version: null
SMS1
SMS1
Nov 20 2014
4.0
Nov 20 2014
4.0
Version: null
Bordwehr
Bordwehr
Nov 20 2014
4.0
Nov 20 2014
4.0
Version: null
applehelpwriter
applehelpwriter
Jun 17 2014
5.0
Jun 17 2014
5.0
Version: null
waipepe
waipepe
Jun 17 2014
0.5
Jun 17 2014
0.5
Version: null
Ervins Strauhmanis
Ervins Strauhmanis
Jun 16 2014
5.0
Jun 16 2014
5.0
Version: null
Mt3
Mt3
May 19 2014
5.0
May 19 2014
5.0
Version: null
Gbisson
Gbisson
Feb 18 2014
4.0
Feb 18 2014
4.0
Version: null
Monkeyjunkey
Monkeyjunkey
Jan 17 2014
5.0
Jan 17 2014
5.0
Version: null
Purps
Purps
Dec 3 2013
5.0
Dec 3 2013
5.0
Version: null
Surfspirit
Surfspirit
Nov 14 2013
2.5
Nov 14 2013
2.5
Version: null
Alex8602
Alex8602
Oct 31 2013
5.0
Oct 31 2013
5.0
Version: null
Mrtomato
Mrtomato
Oct 27 2013
4.0
Oct 27 2013
4.0
Version: null
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