How to Rotate PDF file and Save Permanently (Online and Offline)

If we accidentally scan the documents in the wrong direction, is it possible to rotate the PDF and save instead of scanning the documents all over again? Or when you got a PDF document which is not correctly oriented, what is the easiest way to rotate it to the right direction? No matter which operating systems you are using, you can find the solution in this tutorial.

The Offline Solution to Rotate PDF Files

Let’s get started with the built-in tools on your operating system. You already have them installed on your computer. That means you don’t need to install extra software and do it for free.

Rotate PDF for reading using Microsoft Edge

If you are on Windows 10, the default PDF viewer in Microsoft Edge. Wait for a second, isn’t it a web browser? Actually it’s more powerful than you think, you can open PDF files with Edge and even rotate it.

Simply open the PDF file with Microsoft Edge, if the default application to open .pdf file is not Edge, right-click on the PDF file, and click ‘Open with’, then select ‘Microsoft Edge’.

Once the file is opened, you’ll see the content of the PDF file, right-click on the content, ‘Rotate Clockwise’ and ‘Rotate counterclockwise’ are listed in the context menu. To look like a PRO, you can also press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + [ or Ctrl + ] to rotate the PDF file instantly.

Or you can click on the ‘Rotate’ button on the toolbar.

*But please pay attention here, this is the way to rotate a PDF for viewing it can’t save the rotated file, don’t be misled by the ‘Save as’ in the context menu, even after saving as a new file, the file is not rotated. But this is the quickest way to read the rotated PDF files.

More detailed steps from windowsreport.com

Rotate PDF permanently using freeware on Windows

If you want to save the rotated file so when you send the file to other people, they can also view the file in the right direction, there are plenty of freeware that can rotate and save the PDF.

Such as PDFSam, it’s an open-source software to rotate PDF permanently. If you just need to rotate and save PDFs, the PDFsam Basic is enough.

1. Download and install PDFsam Basic on your Windows and open it. Choose ‘Rotate’ PDF tool.

1. Drag and drop the file to the app or click the ‘Add’ button to add the files you want to rotate.
2. You can set the page ranges to rotate specific pages or all pages. And set the rotate direction.
3. Choose a folder to store the rotated PDFs.
4. Click the ‘Run’ button to start the rotating task, wait, and find the resulting files in the output folder you just set. Job done!

How to Rotate and save PDFs on Mac

If you are on Mac, the built-in PDF reader ‘Preview’ is powerful enough to get the PDF rotating job done. Simply double click on the PDF file, the PDF file will be opened by Preview by default.

On the left side, you can see all pages in thumbnails on the sidebar, if you don’t see the thumbnails, click on the menu and check ‘Thumbnails’.

Then click on the page you want to rotate, then click the ‘Rotate’ button on the toolbar, the page will be rotated instantly.

If you want to rotate the whole document, just select all pages in the thumbnails (Command + A to select all, or press shift to select multiple pages), and click on the ‘Rotate’ button on the toolbar. Or click ‘Tools’ on the top menu, you can choose ‘Rotate Left’ or ‘Rotate Right’ if needed.

Unlike the Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, Preview can permanently rotate the PDF file after saving.

Click on the ‘File’ on the top menu, click ‘Save’, the rotated file will be saved, next time when you open the PDF file, it will be rotated as you set. Super easy, isn’t it?

Free online solution to rotate a PDF permanently

After introducing the offline solution on both Windows and Mac, let’s take a look at the PDF rotating solution on the cloud. Yep, on the cloud, that means no matter what operating systems you are using, as long as you can get access to the Internet with a web browser, you can easily rotate PDF and save without installing any software. You can rotate PDF on Windows, Mac, Linux, or even your mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad, or Android phone.

Here is a free web-based app CleverPDF, rotate PDF is one of its 27 free PDF tools.

1. First, visit CleverPDF.com, choose ‘Rotate PDF on the home page. Or go to the rotate PDF page on CleverPDF directly.

1. Drag and drop the PDF file you want to rotate to the file area or click ‘Choose a file’ button to get started.
2. The file will be uploaded and you’ll see the thumbnail of the PDF file. Then set the rotating direction, 3 common rotating options are available.
3. Click the ‘Start’ button, the file will be processed on the cloud, just wait for a few seconds, you’ll see the ‘Download’ button.
4. 5. Click on the ‘Download’ button to save the rotated file to your computer. Job did.

If you worry about privacy, you can click on the ‘Delete’ button to request removal from the servers instantly. If you don’t delete it manually, no worry, they claimed that the server will automatically clear the files after 30 mins.

So now you know how to deal with the PDFs in the wrong directions like a PRO and the ways to rotate PDF on all kinds of operating systems. All the solutions above are free of charge.

Originally published at https://www.waftr.com on July 21, 2020.