How to save a rotated Adobe PDF file

I received an Adobe PDF scan of a document that displays upside-down. I rotated it inside Adobe Acrobat and chose Save As to make a new document, however, the rotation is not saved and when I open the new document, it is upside-down again. How can I correct this upside-down document as a new PDF file?

231k 71 71 gold badges 622 622 silver badges 603 603 bronze badges asked May 26, 2010 at 23:15 7,968 35 35 gold badges 105 105 silver badges 146 146 bronze badges

17 Answers 17

If you have Adobe Acrobat (NOT Adobe Acrobat Reader) then make sure you go to Documents ⇨ Rotate Pages and then save it. This should work if you close and reopen. If you go to View ⇨ Rotate View and try to save the document it will not keep the rotated view when you save it.

For Adobe Acrobat 10, go to Tools on the right and rotate it that way, then save it.

1,200 1 1 gold badge 12 12 silver badges 21 21 bronze badges answered Sep 20, 2012 at 17:07 304 3 3 silver badges 2 2 bronze badges

If you rotate it from the Toolbar via VIEW it won't save the rotated format. The save option is actually grayed out. If you go to the right side bar with TOOLS » COMMENT » SHARE. Choose Tools and rotate your pages from there, it will save just fine.

– user202541 Commented Feb 26, 2013 at 20:36 @user202541 I have success following your method, why not put it as answer? Commented May 10, 2014 at 3:22 This is the best answer. It is done within Acrobat. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 3:29 Where is Documents located in Adobe Reader? There is no Documents tab? Commented Jul 31, 2014 at 14:17

@KalaJ: jwade isn't talking about Adobe Reader, he's talking about Adobe Acrobat, which unlike Adobe Reader is not a free product.

Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 5:19

Follow these steps:

321 3 3 gold badges 5 5 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges answered Feb 12, 2013 at 21:18 517 4 4 silver badges 2 2 bronze badges

I did it with CutePDF Writer, it worked, just make sure that you are printing the "current view", and not other options such as "document" or "current page". You can check the result in advance on the preview, though.

Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 12:31

Seriously the best for those that don't have full Adobe Acrobat, and the document is too sensitive to send it online for document rotation.

Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 4:14 This is genius! :) Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 9:36

You can also use this technique to save a range of pages in the document rather than the whole document. Perfect for what I needed and avoids sending documents online to a third party you don't know.

Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 19:08 Super answer, thanks! Commented Jul 14, 2021 at 14:21

While there are many commercial tools available which allow you to modify/rotate a PDF document and save the changes, you have to download and install the software -- too much of a hassle for a one-off kinda task such as this. Luckily, the fine folks at http://www.rotatepdf.net/ allow you to have your PDF file rotated online to a desired degree (90 clockwise/counterclockwise and 180 clockwise) online, for free.

I just had this issue today and found the website. Once you specify the PDF you want to rotate and the degree of rotation, you click the "Rotate PDF" button. That uploads your PDF to thier servers and performs the requested rotation. Momentarily, you're greeted with a result page allowing you to view the result online or download the rotated PDF to your computer.

While they say they remove the PDF after conversion and don't retain it on their servers, I'd not upload a sensitive document for conversion.

9,184 12 12 gold badges 53 53 silver badges 71 71 bronze badges answered Jan 26, 2012 at 1:40 391 3 3 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges Used this and it was sweet and simple. Commented Dec 13, 2012 at 3:25 Web interfaces/tools are the best. No install, no uninstall, nice n sandboxed. Perfect! Commented Feb 16, 2013 at 1:18

This is fine as long as you don't want to rotate private/secret data (think SSN, email addresses, credit card numbers. )

Commented May 19, 2014 at 13:54

@Rudie The web tools are sandboxed, but they could infect your pdf or steal your data. After installing Adobe Reader you can print as PDF, so usually you don't have to use other tools.

Commented Oct 28, 2016 at 12:16

@BlackCat That's a very good point! Never thought about that. Many media formats must have exploitable quirks like that, and some online tools probably do exploit them.