Rotating a PDF so the rotation stays
Almost every PDF viewer has a rotate button, and almost none of them change the file: turn a page, send it to somebody, and it arrives sideways again. Rotating here writes the new orientation into the document, so it is the orientation everyone sees. This page covers that, and the two problems people reach for a rotate tool to solve that rotating will not fix.
Which tool you need
Pages are on their side or upside down
Rotate PDF. Select the pages that are wrong, or Select all for the whole document, and turn them left, right or a full half turn until the preview looks right.
The page is the right way up but the wrong shape
Crop PDF. White margins around a scan, or a page that needs trimming to its content, are not an orientation problem and rotating will not touch them.
The pages are the right way up but in the wrong order
Organize PDF for a new order you choose, or Reverse PDF pages if the whole document is simply back to front.
Only some pages of a scan are sideways
Still Rotate, and select just those pages. Nothing here works out which pages need turning on its own, so the selection is yours to make from the previews.
You want the pages turned as part of combining files
Merge PDF can rotate a page in its combined preview, so a stack of files with one sideways scan in it can be fixed in the same job rather than in two.
Why your viewer's rotate button is not enough
A viewer's rotate button turns the page on your screen. Some viewers remember it for you, which is worse, because it looks like the file changed and it did not: the next person to open it sees the original orientation.
Rotating here changes each selected page's rotation inside the document, so the file itself now says which way up the page goes. Every reader honors that, including the one printing it.
What rotating does not do to the page
The page itself is left alone. Nothing is turned into a picture, so text stays selectable and searchable and vector artwork stays sharp — which is the difference between rotating a PDF and printing it to a new one.
Before the download appears, the finished file is opened again on this device, its page count checked and a sample of its pages read in full. If the document is signed, certified, tagged, form-heavy or archival, check the result in the reader your recipient uses, as with any tool that writes a new file.
What to know before you start
- One document at a time. Rotating a folder of files in one job is not part of this tool.
- A locked document cannot be turned. Rotate stops and says the PDF needs a password; Unlock PDF is the only tool here that removes one, so take it off there first.
- Nothing detects which pages are sideways for you, and there are no odd-page or even-page filters. You choose the pages from the previews, which is quick for a handful and slow for a long mixed scan.
- Your original file is never changed. A new PDF is saved to this device and what you opened stays as it was.