Find the best Mac app for the way you study.
Start with the work in front of you. Reading a dense PDF, memorizing terms, and organizing sources are different jobs. The best study tool is the one that helps you do yours.
This guide is written by the maker of marginstudy, a PDF study app for Mac. Here’s where it fits, where another kind of tool makes more sense, and what to check before you commit.
Studying PDF textbooks and research papers
When you’re trying to understand a paragraph, your explanation belongs beside it. Look for a PDF study tool that keeps notes tied to the passage, lets you find them later, and gives you room to work through an idea.
marginstudy opens space for notes inside the PDF page. Write a question, explain an equation, or put a difficult sentence in your own words. A map of the book takes you back to each note. Collect related notes in a scratchpad to build a study guide, or arrange and sketch ideas on its Excalidraw canvas.
Your original PDF stays where it is. Notes, scratchpads, and reading progress are stored locally on your Mac. Reading and writing work offline.
Memorizing facts for an exam
If your main task is recalling definitions, vocabulary, or formulas, look for a flashcard app with scheduled review. Check how it handles your subject: images for anatomy, equations for math, or audio for languages.
marginstudy doesn’t quiz you, make flashcards, or schedule reviews. It helps you write and organize explanations from your reading. You can use it alongside a recall tool.
Taking lecture notes or managing research
For live lectures, consider a notebook that supports the way you take notes: typing, handwriting, or diagrams. If your class uses slides saved as PDFs, you can open those in marginstudy and place notes beside the material.
For a dissertation or literature review, citation management is a separate need. Look for a reference manager that organizes sources and produces the bibliography style you need. marginstudy is for reading and working through PDFs; it isn’t a citation manager.
Try one real study session before choosing
- Open a file from your course. Try a dense page, an equation, and a multicolumn passage. Selectable-text PDFs work best in marginstudy; scanned pages can offer fewer places for notes.
- Explain one difficult idea. Check whether you can keep the explanation close to the source without covering it.
- Find that explanation again. Close the book, reopen it, and see how quickly you can return to your work.
- Prepare for review. Gather two or three related notes. Can you read them together and return to the original passages?
- Check ownership and cost. Know where notes are stored, how to export them, and what happens when the trial ends. Back up local work.
Is marginstudy a good fit for your Mac?
Choose marginstudy if you study from PDF textbooks, papers, or slides and want to write explanations inside the reading. It runs on Apple silicon Macs (M1 or newer), with macOS 14 Sonoma or later. There is no iPhone, iPad, or Intel Mac version.
Try every feature free for 14 days with your own PDFs. No account or credit card is needed for the trial. A license costs $39 USD once, covers two Macs, and has no subscription. Students can request the $19 price by emailing [email protected] from a .edu address.