How do I read a PDF in 2 simultaneous views (split view) / Mac

Solution 1:

You can use Skim (which is free) which offers the View -> Show Split PDF feature.

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.

Download Skim here.

Solution 2:

One way to accomplish this in Preview (the default PDF reader in OSX) is to open the same file twice.

The quickest way to do this is to open the file then click File -> Duplicate. This will open the duplicated file in a new Preview window.

For extra goodness use something like Spectacle to give you the ability to quickly snap your two preview windows side-by-side.

Solution 3:

Skim has the ability to split horizontally, but the maintainer has explicitly declined the request to include a vertical split feature.

You can open two, distinct instances of Preview (and the same PDF) by using the open command at the command line:

open -n "path/to/your.pdf"

I then use Magnet to arrange my windows, though there's a native, macOS solution for this as well.