Rotate a pdf: the best tools available for free

The PDF format is the first choice for sending and sharing documents because the saved file will be displayed as intended, re­gard­less of which operating system or device a recipient uses. That’s why it is rec­om­mend­ed to convert other formats such as .docx or .odt to PDF before sharing. PDFs are also the most common file type when scanning a document. But what if a file is not displayed correctly or in­di­vid­ual pages are mis­aligned? We’ll show you free options for rotating and saving a PDF.

You may be familiar with the following situation: You’ve scanned a document but upon checking the final file, you notice that the page has been rotated by 180° – the document is now upside down. Should you repeat the scan? No! Instead, you can simply rotate the PDF file and save it. This saves time and you don’t need to scan the same pages again.

Flyers, brochures, or coupons typically vary in their alignment. For example, an imprint or customer reply slip is often aligned to the rest of the content. Varying alignment is also a feature of printouts that are to be folded. If parts of a document are upside down, it can be difficult to check a file’s contents. With a “rotate PDF page” function you can rotate the different sections so they’re easily readable on a computer.

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, which is pre-installed on many computers, can be used to view PDF files. However, the ap­pli­ca­tion can do much more than that and also lets you rotate a PDF document. Using Acrobat Reader, you’ve usually got two options.

A new display window will open. First, enter the mis­aligned page numbers in the secondary toolbar in the page area. You can also select in­di­vid­ual pages using the left mouse button. To select multiple pages, hold down the Ctrl or Shift key at the same time. When you have made your selection, click on the rotation icon. This is located right next to the page range indicator. To rotate only a single page of the PDF file, move the mouse over the page preview. Two rotation icons will appear. Select the ap­pro­pri­ate icon to rotate the page 90 degrees clockwise or coun­ter­clock­wise.

Don't have access to the paid Adobe Acrobat Reader? You can also rotate and save a PDF file using free online tools. Below, we’ll introduce some common examples. Most of these tools offer plenty of ad­di­tion­al functions for editing a PDF. That’s why it’s worth taking a closer look at them, es­pe­cial­ly if you regularly work with the PDF format. Fre­quent­ly used functions include shrinking a PDF or merging multiple PDF files.

There are many free tools to rotate a PDF document available online. PDF2Go or Online2PDF.com are just two al­ter­na­tive options that offer com­pre­hen­sive functions. However, not all of them are quite as complex. Some providers limit func­tion­al­i­ty to rotating and saving the entire PDF file. If this scope is suf­fi­cient for your purposes, then a tool like RotatePDF is rec­om­mend­ed.

If you need the “rotate and save PDF” function regularly, it’s best to install a free offline tool. These usually offer an extended range of functions that are available per­ma­nent­ly and don’t require an Internet con­nec­tion. Another advantage of offline ap­pli­ca­tions is the direct access to locally stored files.

The PDF Multitool offers similarly extensive functions as the PDF24 Creator. In addition, the program supports other output formats such as HTML, PNG, or TIFF. The Multitool only supports English.