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How to rotate a PDF on a Mac

By DeckleUpdated

To rotate a PDF on a Mac, open Rotate PDF in your browser, drop the PDF onto the page, choose All pages or This page, turn the pages with Turn left or Turn right, then choose Rotate PDF. The rotation is saved into a new file, so the pages open the right way up in Preview and in any other reader. Your original PDF is not changed.

Rotate PDF pages
Illustrated document pages containing a chart, photograph and text.
Illustration · a document can contain more than its visible pages.

How to rotate a PDF on a Mac with Deckle

  1. Open Rotate PDF in Safari, Chrome or Firefox.
  2. Drag the PDF from the Finder onto the page, or choose Select a file.
  3. Under Rotation scope, keep All pages to turn the whole document, or choose This page to turn only the page in the large preview.
  4. Choose Turn left or Turn right. Each click is a quarter turn; two clicks turn a page upside down.
  5. With This page, move to the next page in the page rail and turn it if needed.
  6. Choose Rotate PDF. Until a page is turned, the button stays disabled and says what to do.
  7. Download the file, which has "(rotated)" added to its name, and open it to check.

The result screen tells you how many pages were turned, a quick check that you didn't miss one.

Which way to turn

The page reads Choose
Bottom to top (text runs upwards) Turn right once
Top to bottom (text runs downwards) Turn left once
Upside down Either button twice

If you turn the wrong way, use Undo. Reset pages clears every turn and starts again.

Rotate only some pages

Scanned documents often have one or two pages the wrong way round. Set Rotation scope to This page, select each sideways page in the page rail and turn it. Pages turned left and pages turned right can be saved together in one run, and pages you don't touch keep their orientation.

Rotation in Deckle changes a page setting in the PDF. Text, images and page size are not redrawn, so nothing loses quality and text stays selectable. For more on why some rotations don't stick, see how to rotate a PDF and save it permanently.

Rotate pages in Preview

Preview has rotate tools of its own. Apple describes them in Crop or rotate a PDF in Preview on Mac:

  1. Open the PDF in Preview.
  2. To turn one page, show it and click the Rotate Left tool. Option-click the tool to rotate right.
  3. To turn several pages, choose View > Thumbnails or View > Contact Sheet, select the pages, then use the same tool.

Preview works on the file you opened. If you need to keep the original as it was, choose File > Duplicate first and rotate the copy. After rotating, close the file and open it again to confirm the new orientation was kept before you send it.

Check the rotation on another device

A viewer's own rotate-view button only changes what you see on your screen. To be sure the rotation is in the file, open the download in a fresh window, or send it to your phone and open it there. A page that is upright in both places is rotated in the file itself.

Tips

  • Rotate before you merge. Fix each scan first, then combine them with Merge PDFs.
  • Don't turn landscape pages that are meant to be landscape. A wide table may read correctly sideways. Check before you change it.
  • Use Organize PDF pages for bigger jobs. If pages also need moving or removing, Organize PDF pages turns, reorders and removes pages in one save. See how to rearrange PDF pages on a Mac.
  • Rotate does not straighten a tilted scan. Turns are in steps of 90°.

Frequently asked questions

How do I rotate just one page of a PDF on a Mac?

In Rotate PDF, set Rotation scope to This page, select the page and turn it. In Preview, show the page and click Rotate Left.

Does rotating a PDF reduce its quality?

No. Deckle changes each page's orientation setting without touching its content.

Can I rotate a password-protected PDF?

Make an unlocked copy with Unlock PDF, using the password you were given, then rotate the copy.

Will the rotation show on Windows and phones?

Yes. Deckle saves the rotation in the PDF, so every reader shows the pages the way you saved them.

Related tools

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