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Rotate and crop a PDF

or drop one here
Choose a PDF file first.

Turn pages left or right in 90-degree steps and watch the preview follow. Each press adds to the page's own rotation value, so an upside-down scan needs two presses and a sideways one needs a single turn. The content is never redrawn: text stays selectable and the file never leaves this browser tab.

Straightening pages, step by step

  1. Open the file

    Press Choose a PDF, or drag the file onto the page. The browser reads it and draws the first page in the Page layout workbench, with a page selector for moving through the rest. Nothing is uploaded at any point.

  2. Pick this page or all pages

    Each change applies to the page in view or, with the All pages scope, to the whole document at once. If two or more pages already carry individual edits, the whole-document scope locks until those are undone or reset. Undo, Redo and Reset pages walk through everything.

  3. Turn the pages

    Press Rotate left or Rotate right to add 90 degrees in that direction to the current rotation. The preview turns instantly, so count presses against what you see: one for sideways, two for upside down. Crop margins sit beside the rotation buttons for scanner borders, 0 to 40 percent per edge.

  4. Run and download

    The run button stays disabled until a page is rotated or a margin set. Press Rotate and crop PDF and the result reports its own tally: pages adjusted, plus how many rotated and how many cropped. The proof line confirms the kept text and the written rotations before Download PDF appears, saving the file with -rotated-cropped added to its name.

Turning pages here is free and needs no account. The page loads over the web and then does the whole job locally, so your document never travels anywhere.

A site diary scanned the wrong way round

A contractor photographs twelve diary pages with a phone held upright while the paper lies landscape, and site-diary-week-31.pdf arrives with every page on its side. The client needs the diary readable, not tilted, and re-scanning the week is not on the table.

One scope change fixes all twelve: pick All pages, press Rotate right once, and every page gains 90 degrees. The download arrives as site-diary-week-31-rotated-cropped.pdf, and the result tally reads twelve pages adjusted, twelve rotated, none cropped. Because the change is written onto each page rather than into a viewer setting, the diary opens upright in any reader that follows the format.

Rotation adds to whatever the page already carried, so a page that was already at 90 degrees lands at 180 after one more press right. Mixed documents need the per-page scope instead: turn each page against its own preview and count presses per page, not per file. Fillable fields and bookmarks ride along untouched, since nothing is copied to a new document.

Turns that make things worse

Turning all pages when one was already right. Eleven sideways pages and one correct portrait do not want the All pages scope: the odd one out lands on its side. Turn the eleven with This page scope, or turn all twelve and turn the odd one back.

Two presses where one belonged. Sideways needs a single quarter turn; the second press takes the page past upright to the other side. Count against the preview, and Undo the extra press the moment the page overshoots.

Straightening a page that was fine. A portrait page with one landscape table is not a sideways page. Turning it uprights the table and sideways the other eleven. Leave mixed-layout pages alone.

Trusting a crop to delete. Trimmed margins hide but stay in the file, and any reader that ignores the crop box shows them again. When the margin holds something that must die, destroy it with Redact PDF instead of covering it.

Rotating a locked file. A password-protected PDF is refused before any preview is drawn. Remove the password first with Unlock PDF, using the password you already know, then turn the unlocked copy.

When turning pages is not enough

Turning fixes orientation and nothing else. Pages in the wrong order need Organize pages, where dragging and deleting share one grid. Margins that need cutting without any turning belong in Crop PDF, the same workbench with the rotation buttons put away and the run button reading Crop PDF.

A page scanned askew, tilted by a few degrees rather than a quarter turn, cannot be deskewed here: only multiples of 90 degrees are on offer, so a crooked original wants a rescan on a straight feeder. And a file whose password nobody knows cannot be turned anywhere until the sender shares it or an unlocked copy.

Short answers about turning pages

How many presses fix an upside-down page?
Two in the same direction. Each press adds 90 degrees to the page's own rotation, so sideways needs one press and upside down needs two. Count against the preview, not from memory.
Will the turn hold in every reader?
In any reader that follows the format, yes. The rotation is written onto the page itself rather than kept as a viewer setting, so the file opens upright wherever it travels.
Can I turn one page and crop another?
Yes. Scope is chosen per change: turn page 3 with This page, move to page 7, set its margins. Undo and Redo walk through the mixed history in order.
Why is All pages blocked?
Because two or more pages already carry individual edits, and one layout cannot honestly cover them. Undo or reset those edits first and the whole-document scope unlocks.
Does turning a page change its text?
No. Only the rotation value changes; the words sit in the same content stream at the same coordinates. Search still finds them, readers still read them, and the check counts the kept text to prove it.
What is the file I download called?
The source name with -rotated-cropped added, even when you only rotated and never touched a margin. Rename it to anything you like after downloading.

More PDFGym tools for the upright file

Each tool below runs in its own browser tab, exactly like this one: your files stay on your machine, every result is reopened and checked before download, and none of them asks for an account.

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