Local processing · no upload

Rotate a PDF 90° to Fix a Sideways Scan

Phone scans and landscape exports often land on their side. PDF North applies 90° clockwise, 180°, or 90° anticlockwise to every page in the file. Existing rotation is respected and adjusted. The original stays on disk; the download is a new copy from this tab.

Open Rotate PDF

Your file stays private. PDF North tools run in this browser tab. Following a guide and opening a tool does not upload the document.

How to do this in PDF North

Open the PDF and decide whether it needs a quarter turn or a half turn.
Open Rotate PDF, choose 90°, 180° or 270°, then rotate and download.
Open several pages of the result. If only some sheets were sideways, split or extract those pages and rotate that part.

What a 90° rotate actually changes

The tool updates each page’s rotation flag. It does not rasterise the sheet, so selectable text and vectors stay as PDF content. Dimensions swap for a quarter turn: a tall page becomes wide. That is the usual fix for a document that appears sideways in every reader.

When the whole file should not turn

If page 1 is a portrait cover and only the table on page 4 is landscape, rotating the entire file makes the cover worse. Extract the sideways pages, rotate that extract, then merge it back — or live with mixed orientations when the printer expects them. Resize to A4 is a paper-size job, not a substitute for rotation; see resize to A4.

Private, with the usual limits

Locked PDFs are not supported. Files stay under 60 MB and 250 pages so the tab does not run out of memory. Rotation does not shrink a scan; use compress only for a send cap. After the pages stand upright, drop blank backs or number the packet.

Frequently asked questions

Can I rotate only some pages 90 degrees?

The rotate tool turns every page in the selected file. Extract the sideways pages first, rotate that file, then merge if you need one document again.

Does 90° rotation reduce quality?

No. It changes page rotation metadata rather than taking a new photograph of the page.

Is the PDF uploaded to rotate it?

No. The new copy is built in this browser. Close the tab to drop the temporary download URL.

What is the difference between 90° and 270°?

90° is clockwise; 270° is the opposite quarter turn (90° anticlockwise). 180° turns the page upside down.

Related PDF tools

Start with Rotate PDF. Also see Reorder PDF Pages, Resize PDF Pages, JPG to PDF. Browse all PDF guides.