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Peel for Mac and Windows

Your library and PDF reader in their own window. Open PDFs from your computer in Peel, and add a source from any app.

Download for MacDownload for Windows

Mac: macOS 11 Big Sur or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. Windows: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.

The app has the same Peel as the browser extension: your library, every referencing style, the PDF reader with highlights and quotes, import and export, the passcode lock, and Pip with the same keys.

Opening it the first time

Peel isn’t signed by Apple or Microsoft yet, so your computer shows a warning the first time you open it. You only need to do this once.

On a Mac

  1. Open the file you downloaded, and drag Peel into Applications.
  2. Open Peel from Applications. If macOS says it can’t check Peel, choose Done.
  3. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security. Scroll down and choose Open Anyway beside Peel. Enter your password if asked, and choose Open Anyway again.

On macOS 14 Sonoma or earlier, you can instead right-click Peel in Applications, choose Open, then Open again.

If macOS says Peel is damaged

It isn’t: that’s how macOS describes some apps from the internet that aren’t signed. Open Terminal (in Applications, then Utilities), paste this line, press Return, and open Peel again:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Peel.app

On Windows

  1. Open the file you downloaded (Peel-windows-setup.exe).
  2. If Windows says Windows protected your PC, choose More info, then Run anyway.
  3. Peel installs just for you, so it doesn’t need an administrator password, and then opens.

What the app adds

  • PDFs from your computer: right-click a PDF and choose Open with → Peel, drop it on Peel’s window, or use File → Open a PDF on a Mac (the tray icon’s menu on Windows). You can make Peel your usual PDF app in your computer’s settings; it doesn’t take that over by itself.
  • Add a source from anywhere: choose a shortcut in Settings → App, and Peel opens at Add a source from any app.
  • Always there: it keeps running in the Dock on a Mac, or the system tray on Windows, and can open when you log in.
  • Updates itself: when there’s a new version, it offers to install it, and your library stays as it is.

With the extension

  • Use both: the extension saves sources and quotes from the page you’re reading, with its toolbar button, side panel and right-click menu, which the app can’t do.
  • The same library in both: turn on sync in each one, in Settings → Your data. It’s free, through your own Google Drive or OneDrive.
  • Pip: a key with Pip works in the app too: paste it in Settings → Your plan.

Your library and privacy

The app keeps your library in its own folder on your computer, with no account and no analytics. Pip, look-ups, sync and updates use the internet only as the privacy policy describes.