pdfpix

Rotate a PDF and save it

Turning a page in a viewer and saving usually loses the rotation, because the viewer rotated your view rather than the document. A PDF stores rotation per page, as a number written into the file. Write that number and the page stays turned everywhere, in every reader, on every device.

Rotate PDF

Two different rotations

Every PDF reader has a rotate view command. It turns what is on your screen and changes nothing in the file, which is why the page is sideways again when you or anybody else reopens it. It is a viewing convenience, not an edit.

The file itself stores a rotation value on each page, in ninety degree steps. That value is part of the document, so every reader honours it and it survives being emailed, copied and printed. Making a page stay turned means writing that value. This is also how you convert a landscape page to portrait without re-exporting the whole file.

Writing the rotation

Open the rotate route, which points at the rotate and crop tool running in your browser tab. Turn one page or all of them, in ninety degree steps, and save. The rotation is written into each page you changed.

The finished file is then reopened and checked. The tool confirms the page count, the text of every page, the rotation value on every page and the crop box on every page before it offers a download. If any of those does not match what you asked for, nothing is offered.

Ninety degree steps only

Rotation in a PDF is stored as one of four values, so you can turn a page a quarter, a half or three quarters of a turn and nothing in between. There is no way to straighten a page that was scanned three degrees off, because the format has no field for it.

Straightening a crooked scan means going back to the image and fixing it there, then rebuilding the PDF. That is a real limit rather than a missing feature, and any tool offering a two degree nudge is redrawing your page as a picture to do it.

Landscape and portrait

A landscape page that should be portrait is usually a page whose content was drawn sideways, and rotating it turns the whole sheet, content and all. That is normally what you want for a scanned page that went through the feeder the wrong way up.

It is not the same as changing the page size. The sheet keeps its dimensions and swaps which way up it is presented. If you actually need different page dimensions, that is a different job and rotation will not do it.

Rotating some pages and not others

A scan where the feeder turned only the landscape sheets is the common case. Work page by page in the tool rather than rotating everything, and check the thumbnails as you go so you can see which are already right.

The tool reports how many pages it changed once it has finished, which is worth reading. A count that does not match what you expected means you turned a page you did not mean to.

Cropping is the related job

The crop route uses the same tool and cuts the margins by setting a crop box on the page. That box tells readers which part of the page to show.

It hides rather than deletes. Everything outside the crop box is still in the file and can be recovered by anybody who cares to, so cropping is a layout tool and never a privacy one. For removing content permanently, redaction is the tool that actually destroys it.

After saving

Reopen the file in whatever reader you normally use and confirm the pages are the right way up. The rotation is in the document now, so it will look the same to whoever you send it to.

The page adding guide covers building documents from parts, and the pages hub lists the rest of the cluster.

Questions people ask

Why does my PDF go back to sideways after I save it?
Because the rotate command in your reader turned the view rather than the document. The file stores a rotation value per page, and only writing that value makes the page stay turned in every reader.
Can I rotate a page by a few degrees to straighten a scan?
No. PDF rotation is stored in ninety degree steps and has no field for anything smaller. Fix a crooked scan in the image, before it becomes a PDF page.
Can I rotate one page without rotating the rest?
Yes. Rotation is a per-page value, so you can turn a single sheet and leave the others alone. The tool reports how many pages it changed when it finishes.
Is cropping a page the same as deleting what is outside it?
No. A crop sets a box that readers display and leaves everything outside it in the file, where it can be recovered. Use redaction when the content has to be gone rather than hidden.

Do it now

The tool runs in this browser. Your file never leaves the machine, and the result is checked before you download it.

Rotate PDF

Where to go next