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How to rotate a PDF on a Mac and keep it rotated

Turn sideways or upside down PDF pages the right way up with Preview, rotate just one page, and make sure the rotation is still there after saving.

Scans and phone photos often land sideways. Preview can turn a whole PDF or a single page, and the change is saved into the file.

Rotate every page

  1. Open the PDF in Preview and choose View > Thumbnails.
  2. Click any thumbnail, then press Command A to select every page.
  3. Choose Tools > Rotate Left or Tools > Rotate Right. The shortcuts are Command L and Command R.
  4. Choose File > Save.

Rotate one page

Select only that page's thumbnail before rotating. The other pages stay as they are.

When the rotation does not stick

If the page opens sideways again somewhere else, use File > Export as PDF to save a new copy. Exporting writes the pages out again with their new direction. Close the file and open the new copy to check before you send it.

The one click way

In Simply PDF's Organise Pages you can rotate any page, or a selection, with one click and see every page at a glance before saving, which helps with long scans where only a few pages came out sideways.

Questions

How do I rotate a PDF permanently on a Mac?

Rotate the pages in Preview with Tools > Rotate Left or Rotate Right, then save. If another app still shows it sideways, use File > Export as PDF to write a new copy.

Can I rotate just one page of a PDF?

Yes. In Preview's thumbnail sidebar, select only that page and rotate it. The rest of the document does not move.

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