Rotate PDF

How to rotate a PDF and save it

1. 1

   Choose a PDF

   Click “Choose PDF” or drag the file onto the page. Previews of all pages appear after a moment.

2. 2

   Rotate the pages

   Use “Rotate left” and “Rotate right” on each page. “Rotate all left” and “Rotate all right” above the previews turn the whole document. Two clicks on the same button rotate a page by 180 degrees.

3. 3

   Click “Rotate PDF”

   The button becomes active once at least one page is rotated. The rotation is saved in the page properties and the content is not redrawn, so quality stays the same.

4. 4

   Check and download

   The tool checks the angle, size and text of every page, then offers the download.

Rotating the view or rotating the file

The rotate button in a PDF reader usually turns only the view, and the change is gone once you close the file, so a scan from your phone may open sideways again for the person you send it to. This tool saves the rotation in the file, so the page appears upright when reopened, when printed and in other apps.

Fixing pages scanned sideways

Scans often have just a few pages the wrong way round, such as a landscape table or a sheet fed into the scanner upside down. Rotate only those pages with the buttons next to the previews and leave the rest as they are. If the whole document has the wrong orientation, use the buttons that rotate all pages.

Rotation works in 90 degree steps, so it will not straighten a slightly skewed scan. Straightening is an image edit that has to happen in your scanning app before the PDF is saved. If you want to save the rotated pages as pictures, use PDF to images afterwards.

Keyboard shortcuts to rotate a PDF

In Chrome you can rotate an open PDF with Ctrl + ] to the right and Ctrl + [ to the left. In Firefox, press R, or Shift + R to turn the pages the other way. Both shortcuts turn the whole document at once and only last until you close the tab.

If you want to send the rotated document on, attach it to a form or print it on another computer, rotating it on screen is not enough. Rotate the pages here and download the new file. On a Mac, the Preview app also rotates pages permanently once you save the file after rotating.

Landscape or portrait

One click rotates a page by 90 degrees, so a portrait page becomes landscape and vice versa. The page is not shrunk or cropped. Only its width and height swap, and all the content stays.

If a page with a table or drawing shows up in portrait with the text running sideways, click “Rotate left” or “Rotate right” once, depending on which way the text points, and leave the other pages alone. To make the whole document landscape, use “Rotate all left” or “Rotate all right”. Check the preview before printing, because the print dialog can turn a landscape page again to fit the paper. You can then combine your scans with Merge PDF files and shrink them for email with Compress PDF.

What is preserved

Text, images, graphics and fonts stay unchanged, and text remains searchable if it was searchable in the original. The file is saved again, so its size may differ slightly from the original.

Bookmarks, form fields, attachments and document properties stay, because only the page rotation changes. An electronic signature becomes invalid, though, because the file is saved again, so avoid rotating a signed document.

Privacy

All processing takes place in your browser. Your PDF is never uploaded to a server, and no data remains after you close the page.

FAQ