Rotate the pages of a PDF
Drop in a PDF and every page appears as a thumbnail. Turn all of them at once, or just the pages that need it, and download a copy that opens the right way up.
How to use it#
- Drop a PDF onto the box above, or click it to choose one.
- To turn every page, press ↺ Left for anticlockwise or ↻ Right for clockwise. To turn only some, type their positions first, such as 1-3, 7.
- To turn a single page, press ↻ under it. Each press turns it a quarter clockwise.
- Download the PDF. The original is left as it was.
The turn is saved in the file#
The rotate button in a PDF reader usually turns your view of the document and nothing more. Close it, send it to someone, or open it on a phone, and the page is sideways again. That is fine for reading a page once, and useless for a scan that everyone who opens it will have to turn.
This writes the turn into the document itself, so the rotation is permanent. Every reader, printer, and phone then shows the page the right way up, and nobody else has to fix it.
Nothing on the page is redrawn#
A PDF page carries a rotation setting, a quarter turn at a time, that tells a reader which way up to show it. Turning a page here changes that setting and leaves the page itself alone. Text stays selectable and searchable, images keep their quality, links still work, and the file comes out about the size it went in.
The turn is added to whatever rotation a page already has. Many scanners store a page on its side along with a setting that stands it upright, so a tool that replaced the setting would knock that page over. Here you turn a page from the way its thumbnail looks, which is the way every reader shows it.
Turning some pages and not others#
Scans are rarely all wrong in the same way. A report with a few landscape tables, or a stack where one sheet went through the feeder upside down, needs some pages turned and the rest left as they are.
Press ↻ under a page to turn that page alone, once for a quarter turn and twice to turn it upside down. For a longer run, type the positions into the box above the pages, such as 2, 5-8, and press Left or Right. Undo takes back the last turn, and the thumbnails show every page as it will be saved.
The same pages can be moved and removed here as well. To only take pages out, the page remover opens on the same view.
Frequently asked questions#
Is my PDF uploaded to rotate it?
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No. The pages are read and the new document is put together by your own browser, in this tab. Nothing is sent to a server. The only thing the page fetches is its own code for reading PDFs, which your browser's network panel will show.
Does rotating a PDF lower its quality?
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No. The pages are not redrawn or compressed again. Each page keeps its content exactly as it was, with a new setting telling readers which way up to show it, so text stays sharp and selectable and pictures keep every pixel.
Can I rotate just one page?
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Yes. Press ↻ under the page to turn it a quarter clockwise, and press it again to keep turning. Every other page stays as it was. To turn a few pages at once, type their positions, such as 3, 7-9, above the pages and press Left or Right.
Can I rotate a page by 45 degrees, or straighten a crooked scan?
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No. A PDF can only turn a page a quarter at a time, so the choices are 90, 180, and 270 degrees. Straightening a page scanned at a slight angle means redrawing the picture on it, which this tool deliberately does not do.
Can I flip an upside down page, or mirror one?
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An upside down page takes a half turn: press ↻ under it twice, or type its position and press ↻ Right twice. A PDF’s page rotation can only turn a page, not mirror it, so this tool cannot flip one left to right like a reflection. A scan that came out mirrored needs scanning again.
How do I turn a landscape page into portrait?
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It depends on what is on the page. If the words on a wide page run sideways, one quarter turn with ↻ stands the page and the words upright together. If the words already read the right way and you want the page tall rather than wide, a turn puts the words on their side, because a PDF cannot pour a landscape layout into a portrait shape. That needs the document exported again from the program that made it.
Why does a password protected PDF not open?
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Its pages are encrypted, so they cannot be rebuilt until the password is removed. If you have the password, the PDF password remover will make an unlocked copy you can bring back here. A file that opens freely but is locked against changes is refused as well, and the remover lifts that only with the owner password.