Rotate PDF pages

Your files and your privacy

The PDF is never uploaded. It is read into this browser tab, rotated by a Web Worker on your own device, and returned as a download. The page’s Content-Security-Policy restricts connect-src to this origin, so the browser would refuse an upload even if the code attempted one.

What this tool does

Fix sideways or upside-down pages without uploading the file. Choose 90, 180 or 270 degrees, apply it to the whole document or to named pages, and download a corrected copy. Rotation is relative to whatever each page already has.

Rotating changes the orientation flag each page carries, so the page is drawn turned by the amount you chose. The turn is relative: applying 90 degrees to a page already stored at 90 leaves it at 180, which is exactly what you want when a scanner has left only some sheets sideways. Nothing is re-rendered, so text stays selectable, images keep their original data, and the output is about the same size as the input. Leave the pages box empty to turn every page, or name pages to fix just those.

How to use it

1. Select Choose a PDF file and pick the document. The page count shown above the options is the range your page numbers must fall inside.
2. Pick the turn: 90° clockwise, 180°, or 90° anticlockwise (stored as 270).
3. Leave the pages box empty to rotate the whole document, or type the pages that are wrong, for example “2, 5-7”.
4. Select Run, then Download to save the corrected copy. Open it and check before deleting the original.

Example use cases

• Straightening the pages a sheet-fed scanner picked up in landscape while the rest came out portrait.
• Turning a document that was photographed sideways on a phone so it reads correctly on screen.
• Correcting an upside-down back page after a double-sided scan.
• Making landscape spreadsheets readable before merging them into a portrait report.

Supported input and output

Accepts

• PDF (application/pdf), one file, up to 50 MB
• Unencrypted documents only

Produces

• A PDF named <original>-rotated.pdf

What this tool will not do

• It will not open a password-protected PDF. Encryption is reported, never bypassed.
• Only multiples of 90 degrees are possible. This sets the page’s orientation flag; it cannot straighten a scan that is skewed by a few degrees, which would need the page to be re-rendered.
• Rotation is additive and normalised into 0, 90, 180 or 270. There is no “set to absolute 0” option, so a mixed document may need two passes with different page selections.
• The stored page dimensions are not swapped. Only the orientation flag changes, and the viewer applies it when drawing the page.
• It rotates whole pages. An image sitting crooked inside an otherwise correct page cannot be turned on its own.
• A page number outside the document is refused with the real page count, rather than being ignored.
• Any digital signature on the input is invalidated, because the saved file is a new document.

Common mistakes

• Rotating every page when only some were sideways. The correct pages turn too, and the result looks worse than the original; name the bad pages instead.
• Running the tool twice because the first result looked wrong in a thumbnail. The second turn adds to the first, so two 90° passes leave the page upside down.
• Forgetting that pages arriving from a scanner may already carry an orientation flag. The turn you pick is added to that value, not applied instead of it.
• Expecting the file to be smaller or larger afterwards. Nothing is re-encoded, so a rotated document is effectively the same file with one value changed per page.

Technical notes

The work is done with pdf-lib inside a Web Worker. For each selected page the current rotation angle is read, your turn is added, and the sum is normalised into 0/90/180/270 before being written back, so a negative or repeated turn can never produce an angle pdf-lib refuses. A turn that is not a multiple of 90 is rejected up front. Page indices are validated against the real page count before anything is modified, and the document is serialised once at the end; page content streams are not touched at any point.

Frequently asked questions

Is the rotation permanent?

It is saved into the downloaded file, so every viewer will open it turned. It is stored as each page’s orientation value rather than baked into the page content, so it can be changed again later without any loss of quality.

Can I rotate only one page?

Yes. Type that page number in the pages box, for example “3”. The same syntax as the other tools works here: “2, 5-7” or “8-” for everything from page 8 onwards.

Why is my page still sideways after rotating?

Because the turn is added to the rotation the page already had. If a scan arrived at 270 and you added 90, it is now at 0. Apply another turn in the direction you need, or check what the page started at.

Does rotating reduce quality or make text unselectable?

No. Nothing is rasterised. The page content is left exactly as it was and only the orientation flag changes, so text stays selectable and searchable and images are untouched.

Can it straighten a crooked scan?

No. A page slanted by three degrees needs the content re-drawn at an angle, which this tool does not do. Only quarter turns are available; use your scanner’s deskew setting for the rest.