How to rotate a PDF on an iPad.
View PDFs the way they were meant to be read. Learn how to rotate PDFs on iPad without fighting your screen’s automatic rotation function.
Instead of changing your screen’s rotation or settings, you can adjust the rotation of a PDF or individual pages in a PDF file so that anyone viewing the document will be able to read it easily. And you don’t need special software. It’s easy to do, even on an iPad.
In fact, there are several different ways to make this adjustment quickly. You can use a PDF reader app, native iPad commands, or you can access the Rotate PDF tool in Adobe Acrobat online services for free using your internet browser.
Rotate a PDF on your iPad with a PDF reader app.
If you frequently work with PDFs on your iPad and want the full range of mobile editing capabilities, download a PDF reader app from the Apple Store and upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Pro. That way, you can view, edit, split, and rotate PDFs right from your iPad.
To rotate a PDF on iPad with a mobile app, follow these simple steps:
- Open the file in Acrobat Reader for iPad.
- Tap the Organize Pages tool on the left toolbar.
- Tap and hold to select the pages you want to rotate.
- Select the direction you want to rotate on the bottom toolbar.
Each time you change the orientation, the page or pages will rotate by 90 degrees. This will rotate the PDF to landscape or portrait, depending on its original position. If you want to flip the document by a full 180 degrees, just follow the steps twice.
Rotate PDF commands for iPads.
On iPads, there are a few shortcuts for rotating objects you can use to rotate a PDF page.
Manually rotate a PDF page.
- Tap the page to select it.
- Place two fingers on it.
- Turn your hand in the direction you want the page to rotate.
- Continue by dragging with one finger.
- A guide will appear that shows the angle of rotation.
Use the rotate command to rotate a PDF page or multiple pages.
- Tap the page or multiple pages.
- Tap the paintbrush icon.
- Tap Arrange.
- Tap Rotate.
- Drag the wheel below Rotate, or enter the degree of the angle at which you want to rotate.
Rotate PDFs with an online app.
If you’d rather not download another app to your iPad or depend on shortcuts, you can rotate PDFs using Adobe Acrobat online services.
- Visit the Acrobat online website.
- Select the Rotate PDF tool.
- Tap the blue button labeled “Select a file” or drag and drop a PDF into the drop zone.
- Select the page or pages you want to rotate.
- Choose the rotation direction.
- Save and rename the file.
- Download the new file to your iPad, or get a sharable link.
While you’re there, you can quickly access other tools that let you add comments, compress, convert, edit PDF on iPad, and more. Because everything is done online, you don’t have to download any extra apps to your iPad. You can use the storage space for more important things — like funny internet memes.
Discover how Acrobat Reader and Acrobat online services can make it easy to work with PDFs right from your iPad.