Rotate a PDF
Turn every page of a PDF, or only the sideways and upside-down ones, by 90 or 180 degrees, and save it so the pages stay the right way up in every reader.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Free, no sign-up
- Works on phone and desktop
How to rotate a PDF
- 1
Drop your PDF on the box. Every page appears as a thumbnail, the way readers will show it.
- 2
Click a sideways page to turn it 90° to the right, or use the button in its corner to turn it left.
- 3
To turn many pages at once, choose all, odd, even, landscape, portrait or selected pages, then Turn left, Turn right or Turn 180°.
- 4
Click Save rotated PDF. The rotation is written into the file, so it sticks everywhere.
Features
Never uploaded
Pages are turned by your browser on your own device, so scans of IDs, contracts and records stay private.
Saved in the file
Each page’s rotation setting is changed, so the pages open the right way up in any reader, on any device, and print that way.
Turn pages in groups
Odd or even pages, only landscape or only portrait pages, a typed range, or pages you tick, all in one click.
No loss of quality
Nothing is redrawn or recompressed: text stays selectable and searchable, and the file size barely changes.
Rotating the view vs. rotating the file
There are two kinds of "rotate" for PDFs, and mixing them up is why a page that looked fine yesterday is sideways again today. A view rotation turns the page on your screen only. Adobe Acrobat Reader's View > Rotate View works this way, and so does the rotate button in many browser and phone PDF viewers. Close the file, or send it to someone else, and it opens sideways again.
A saved rotation changes the file itself. Every page in a PDF has a rotation setting (its /Rotate entry) in steps of 90° clockwise, and every PDF reader applies it when it shows or prints the page. This tool changes that setting, so the fix travels with the file: to email, to the printer, to a court or an employer's upload form.
How the buttons add up
Each turn is added to the page's current rotation, and the thumbnails show the result before you save:
| Button | Turns the page | A page already at 90° becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Turn right | 90° clockwise | 180° |
| Turn left | 90° counterclockwise | 0° (upright as stored) |
| Turn 180° | Half a turn | 270° |
Turn a page four times right and it is back where it started. Reset all undoes every turn in one click.
Fixing common scan problems
- A few pages are sideways. Click each one until it is upright. Pages you don't touch are left exactly as they were.
- Every other page is upside down. A double-sided original scanned with the wrong flip setting leaves the backs upside down. Choose even pages and press Turn 180°.
- Pages photographed with the phone turned. Scanner apps sometimes save some pages wider than tall, with the text running sideways. Choose landscape pages and turn them left or right together.
- The whole document is the wrong way round. Keep all pages chosen and press Turn left, Turn right or Turn 180° once.
What changes, and what doesn't
Only the rotation setting of the pages you turn is changed. Text, fonts, images and links to websites are copied as they are, and the file stays about the same size. As with our other page tools, the bookmarks panel isn't copied into the new file. Because rotation is just a setting, it works on scanned pages and text pages alike; it doesn't straighten a page that was scanned slightly crooked.
To reorder pages or remove blank ones while you are tidying a scan, use organize pages, which also rotates, or delete pages. To join several rotated files into one, use combine PDF, and to break a long one into parts, split PDF.
Frequently asked questions
How do I rotate a PDF and save it?
Drop the PDF here, turn the pages you need (click a page, or choose which pages and press Turn left, Turn right or Turn 180°), then click Save rotated PDF. The new file has the rotation saved in it, so it opens the right way up for anyone you send it to.
I rotated my PDF in my reader. Why is it sideways again?
Many readers only rotate the view. In Adobe Acrobat Reader, View > Rotate View turns the page on your screen but cannot be saved, and the rotate button in many browser PDF viewers only changes the view too. Rotating here changes the page’s rotation setting inside the file, which every reader follows.
Can I rotate only some pages?
Yes. Click a single page to turn it, tick the box on several pages (Shift-click ticks a range), or type page numbers such as 2, 5-7 into Select pages by number. Then press Turn left, Turn right or Turn 180°. Pages you don’t touch stay as they are.
Every second page of my scan is upside down. How do I fix it?
Choose Even pages and press Turn 180°. This happens when a double-sided document is scanned with the wrong flip setting: the backs come out upside down, while the fronts are fine.
Which pages count as landscape or portrait?
A page is landscape when it is wider than it is tall as the PDF shows it now, before your changes, and portrait otherwise. The counts appear next to each choice, so you can see how many pages will turn.
Does rotating change the text or reduce quality?
No. A PDF stores each page’s rotation as a setting in steps of 90°. Changing it doesn’t touch the page contents, so text remains selectable and searchable, links still work and images keep their quality.
More free tools
- Combine PDFMerge several PDFs into one file.
- Split PDFBreak a PDF into separate files.
- Organize PDF PagesReorder, delete and rotate pages.
- PDF to JPGSave PDF pages as images.
- PDF to TextCopy the text out of a PDF.
- Image to PDFPhotos and scans into one PDF.
- Add Page NumbersNumber the pages of a PDF.
- Watermark PDFStamp DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL on pages.
- Compare PDFsFind the text changes between versions.