Got Sideways PDF Pages? Easy Fix

You know what's weirdly common? Scanning a stack of documents and realizing half of them ended up sideways or upside down.

The first time this happened to me, I thought I'd have to rescan everything. Turns out, rotating PDF pages is actually super simple — no rescanning required.

The Quick Solution

Our PDF Page Rotator handles this in seconds:

  1. Upload your problematic PDF
  2. Click on the pages that need rotating
  3. Hit the rotation button (90° left, right, or flip completely)
  4. Download your fixed PDF

That's genuinely it. I've fixed 50-page documents this way in under a minute.

Why This Happens So Often

If you've ever used a document scanner, you know it's not always obvious which way to feed pages. And if you're scanning a mixed stack — some portrait, some landscape — things get messy fast.

The good news is you don't need to be perfect while scanning. Just get everything captured, then rotate whatever needs it afterwards. Much less stressful.

Different Rotation Options

Depending on how your pages are oriented, you'll need different fixes:

90° clockwise — For pages that are tilted left (like landscape pages viewed as portrait)

90° counter-clockwise — The opposite situation

180° flip — When pages are completely upside down

Most documents just need one of those options applied to the problematic pages.

Selecting Multiple Pages

Here's a time-saver: if a bunch of pages all need the same rotation, you can select them all at once.

Click the first page, then Shift+click the last one to select a range. Or Ctrl+click (Cmd on Mac) to select specific pages scattered throughout.

Much faster than rotating one at a time.

What About Page Order?

Rotating doesn't change where pages are in your document — just how they're oriented. The rotated version will have the same page order as the original.

If you need to rearrange page order too, that's a different tool: PDF Page Reorder.

Before You Rotate

Quick tip: make sure you're rotating the right pages. Preview thumbnails can be small, so it's worth double-checking before you commit.

And if your PDF has different orientations throughout (some portrait, some landscape), that's often intentional. Think about whether those pages are actually wrong or if they're supposed to be landscape-oriented.

After Rotating

Once you've fixed the orientation, you might want to:

All our PDF tools work well together.

Give It a Shot

Sideways pages are annoying but easy to fix. Head over to our PDF Page Rotator and straighten things out.

Free, no signup, and your files stay on your device.

Dealing with other PDF issues? Check out our guide on extracting specific pages from documents.