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PDFs are often made from scanned documents, which might not be in the right place in the file. You can Rotate PDF on Mac and Windows to make sure everything is lined up, then save the file with the pages in the right place so that other people can read the document more easily.
This simple change can be made quickly with the Preview app that comes with a Mac or with Adobe Acrobat online services. Both have no cost. Preview might be your default viewer, but you can quickly and easily use your favorite web browser to get to Adobe Acrobat online services.
A third way is to use a PDF reader. This is the easiest way because you don’t need to be connected to the internet and the changes are saved automatically.
How to Rotate PDF on Mac and Windows
Adobe Acrobat
On Windows
- Search for acrobat.adobe.com in your URL section of any browser, it will take you to its home page.
- Now log in to adobe using your Google, Adobe, or Apple account. If you are using it for the first time it will create your account, fill in your country and date of birth and click done.
- It will want to give you a tour, take it if you need it, below the box which has the message “Welcome to Acrobat, your name” you’ll see a discover and tools tab.
- Choose Tools and then choose all tools from the right side of the window.
- Scroll to see the “Rotate pages” option in the edit section, click on it and drag and drop the file you want to rotate or add a file from a device
- Select all the pages you want to rotate, on the upper part of your screen you’ll see rotate arrows, rotate and click on the save button in the upper right corner of your screen.
- On your adobe taskbar you’ll see a download arrow-like option, click on it to download your rotated file.
On Mac
- Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat
- Select Organize Pages in the toolbar
- Hold Shift to select multiple pages to rotate or pick the exact range in the toolbar
- Click either the clockwise or counterclockwise button to rotate selected pages. Repeat the action for rotating beyond 90 degrees.
- Save your PDF either by using an icon in the toolbar or File ➙ Save or the ⌘ + S shortcut
In Preview
On Mac
- Double-click on any PDF file to open it in Preview
- Select the page you’d like to rotate
- In the menu bar, go to Tools ➙ Rotate Left (⌘ + L) or Rotate Right (⌘ + R). You can also use the Rotate Left button in the top toolbar.
- Save your file by clicking File ➙ Save in the menu bar or using the shortcut ⌘ + S
FAQs
Use the right-hand side menu to open the “Organize Pages” menu option. You will see a button for “Rotate.” Click on it and a “Rotate Pages” window will appear on the right where you select an appropriate angle. You may also use the option to rotate only some pages instead of all pages.
Select a specific page thumbnail or set of pages you need to rotate. Click the rotate clockwise or rotate counterclockwise icon in the top toolbar. Click Save to apply changes to your new PDF file. You can download the file or get a link to share it.
PDF supports for complete pages only /Rotate values of 90 degrees, because that is (of course) simple. What you need to do is rotate the contents, not the page. So you need to use something which can remake the PDF file for you. You could use either Ghostscript or MuPDF to do this.
Within the Rotate Pages dialogue box that appears, select the direction of the rotation using the drop-down menu provided. Clockwise and Counter-clockwise will rotate the page(s) by 90 degrees. Invert will rotate your selection by 180 degrees.