Say, you have collected a nice set of pages — scanned, downloaded from online sources, and created in different programs on your PC — to craft a PDF document for a client or partner.
When reviewing your piece of art before sending it to the receiver, you stumble across pages alternating in all possible directions and thrusting your thought-out structure into utter chaos.
Surely, any decent PDF viewer has a button to rotate a page for convenient reading, so your recipient can cope with the problem on their own.
However, it’s just a temporary fix, and if you want to ensure consistency across the document for it to look professional and well-arranged, you need the changes to be permanent. Rotate PDF files as you like following our guide, and create landscape or portrait views breezily.
Temporary vs. Permanent Rotation
Let’s make it clear right away — not every tool that can turn PDF files is capable of saving the pages in the desired orientation. For example, modern browsers, such as Chrome and Edge, let you change the view in several ways: they have corresponding icons on their toolbars and offer rotation options in the drop-down menus when you right-click on a page.
But if you download the file and open it again, you will get the initial version with no orientation changes saved. Moreover, these features are often designed to rotate PDF pages in bulk, so you won’t be able to alter the direction of a specific page.
That’s why you need a tool that can not only transform a landscape view to a portrait mode or vice versa but is smart enough to work with PDF pages selectively and save the changes for further viewing. Luckily, you have options for comfortable editing in various scenarios.
How to Rotate PDF Online
This is the simplest method to deal with PDF files when you need to fix their orientation issues. There are many web-based services that don’t require you to install any programs on your device and tinker with multiple settings to get things done. Basically, you can rotate PDF pages following these steps:
- Open your browser and go to the selected platform.
- Upload your PDF document.
- Choose one, several, or all pages of the file for rotation.
- Select your preferred direction.
- Check if you are happy with all the arrangements.
- Hit the button intended to start processing.
- Download the document to your device.
Obviously, not all the services designed to rotate a PDF file are made equal. Some of them provide additional helpful features, such as:
- built-in editing tools
- several uploading methods (drag-and-drop, uploading from popular cloud platforms, uploading URLs, etc.)
- a selection of formats for downloading
Besides, you should consider how much it will cost you to rotate PDF: online services can be totally free, requiring even no subscription or paid, including those with free trial versions.
How to Rotate a PDF from Landscape to Portrait with Downloadable Programs
If you often work with PDFs and need an expanded functionality in addition to rotation, it makes sense to install a full-scale PDF editor or at least a piece of document management software that allows users to modify PDF pages.
However, you have to differentiate them from PDF viewers since, as a rule, the latter solutions have limited features and can rotate PDF pages for reading purposes only.
Downloadable PDF editors work more or less the same:
- Download and install the program.
- Launch the editing software and open the PDF you want to manipulate.
- Search for the rotation feature and click it.
- Select the pages you need to alternate.
- Choose the required orientation by rotating the pages right or left.
- Check if everything is correct, and press the Save button in the menu.
It might be a bit trickier to find how to rotate a PDF in editing and document management programs, as they are usually more complicated and have their features arranged in different ways.
Some apps place their rotation tools into certain tabs of the menu, while others want users to right-click on the pages, not to mention options with shortcuts and thumbnails. Again, there are lots of free PDF editors, but saving altered views might be included in a paid version.
Bottom Line
Since the choice of solutions for changing a page orientation is really impressive, it’s up to you to choose the most convenient way to rotate PDF. Online services are usually easier to use, but they won’t work without access to the Internet.
Apart from that, they are not recommended for manipulations with documents containing sensitive information, as the data are stored on external servers. The downloadable software will be available offline, but it takes longer to launch at the outset.
It also can clutter your device, especially when rarely used. Both the options can be paid or free and come with different additional features, so compare all the aspects before making a choice.
