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🔄 How to Fix Sideways or Upside-Down Pages in a PDF

By the MZScan team · Updated 17 October 2026 · 3 min read

A PDF that opens with some pages sideways or upside down is annoying to read and looks careless when you send it. The cause is usually a photo taken in a different phone orientation or a scanner that fed the sheet the other way. There are two simple fixes, depending on whether all the pages are wrong or only some.

Best fix: rotate before you build the PDF

If you have not made the PDF yet, rotate the photos first. In the scanner use Rotate left or Rotate right, and in Image to PDF turn any sideways photo before pressing Create PDF. This avoids fixing the PDF afterwards.

When all the pages are wrong

1. Open PDF Tools and find the Rotate all pages card.
2. Choose the PDF.
3. Pick 90° right, 180° or 90° left. If the pages are sideways with the top on the left, turn them 90° right. If they are upside down, choose 180°.
4. Press Download and open the result.

When only some pages are wrong

The rotate tool turns every page, so for a few wrong pages use a split, rotate and merge method. Example: a 10-page PDF where only page 5 is sideways.

1. Use Keep only these pages with 1-4 and download it as part A.
2. Use Keep only these pages with 5, download it, then rotate that one-page file with the correct angle. This is part B.
3. Use Keep only these pages with 6-10 and download it as part C.
4. Open Merge PDFs and choose A, then B, then C in that order, and download the merged file.

Choose the files in the right order, because the merged PDF follows the order in which they were selected.

Check the result

Scroll through the final PDF page by page. Confirm that the count is correct, that the order has not changed, and that no page is missing. Keep your original file until you are sure.

Why it happens

• The phone was held in landscape for some photos and in portrait for others.
• A scanner or app saved the page without recording its orientation.
• Some viewers display the same page differently, so check in more than one app if you are not sure.

Prevent it next time

Hold the phone the same way for every page of a document, check the preview before saving, and number your pages. See also how to improve scanned document quality.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Merging the parts in the wrong order and ending up with pages out of sequence.
• Rotating the whole file when only one page was wrong.
• Deleting the original before checking the corrected file.
• Forgetting that page numbers in the tool count from the first page of the file, not from the number printed on the page.

Frequently asked questions

Can I rotate only one page directly?
The rotate tool turns all pages. Use the split, rotate and merge method for single pages.

Does rotating reduce quality?
No. Pages are rotated, not re-drawn, so the quality stays the same.

Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The work happens in your browser.

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