How to rotate a PDF and save it permanently

To rotate a PDF and keep the change, open Rotate PDF, turn all pages or only the ones that are wrong, click Apply rotation and download the corrected file. The new orientation is saved in the PDF itself, so it opens the right way on any device.

The quick way

1. Open Rotate PDF and drop your PDF.
2. To turn the whole document, use Rotate all right (90°), Rotate all left or Rotate all 180°.
3. To fix only some pages, use the rotate buttons under each thumbnail. The thumbnails update as you click.
4. Made a mistake? Reset rotations puts everything back.
5. Click Apply rotation, then download the corrected PDF.

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Why "rotate view" in your PDF reader doesn't stick

Most PDF readers — in the browser, on a phone, on a computer — have a rotate button. It usually only changes how the page is displayed on your screen, for this viewing session. Close the file, send it to someone, or open it on another device, and the page is sideways again.

Some readers offer a separate "rotate pages" command that does save the change, but it is often hidden in an editing menu or reserved for a paid version. When in doubt, check: close the file, open it again, and see whether the pages kept their new orientation.

Rotate PDF writes the new orientation into each page of the file. The page content isn't redrawn, so the quality stays the same and text you could select before is still selectable.

Scanned pages that come out sideways

Sideways pages are common with scans and phone "scanner" apps, for a few reasons:

• A landscape page in a portrait stack. Tables and charts printed across the page end up lying on their side among upright pages. Rotate just those pages, not the whole file.
• Pages fed the wrong way up. Paper put into the scanner upside down comes out upside down. Use 180°.
• The phone guessed the orientation. Scanner apps decide from the phone's position; holding it flat above the desk can confuse them. Rotate the affected pages afterwards.

Rotations add up: two clicks of 90° on the same page give 180°. Look at the thumbnails rather than counting clicks.

Pages also in the wrong order?

Rotating doesn't move pages. If the scan is also out of order — back pages first, a page scanned twice, a blank page in the middle — open the rotated file in Organize PDF. There you can move pages with the arrows, duplicate or remove them, then click Save new PDF.

A practical order when a scan needs both: rotate first, then reorder. The thumbnails are easier to read once every page is upright.

Combining several files

If you scanned a document in several batches, fix the orientation of each file, then put them together with Merge PDF. You can also merge first and rotate the whole result in one go — whichever is quicker for you. The guide how to merge PDF files covers the details.

Common questions

Can I rotate by an angle other than 90°? No. The PDF format only rotates pages in steps of 90°, 180° and 270°. A scan that is slightly crooked (a few degrees) needs to be straightened with scanning software, or scanned again.

The page is rotated but the content is cut off. Rotation turns the whole page, including its size. If content looks cut off, the problem was usually in the original scan, not in the rotation.

Does rotating reduce quality? No. Only the orientation setting of each page changes; images and text are not re-compressed.

The PDF asks for a password. You'll need to open it with its password first. If you know it, Unlock PDF can create a copy without the password.