How to Rotate PDF Pages on Linux — Browser and Command-Line Methods
Rotate PDF pages on Linux using a free browser tool or pdftk from the command line. Fix sideways pages without proprietary software.
Rotate PDF pages on Linux with a free browser tool or pdftk from the terminal. FixMyPDF's Rotate PDF tool works in any Linux browser with no installation required.
Method 1: Browser-Based Rotation
Open Firefox or Chrome. Go to fixmypdf.in/tools/rotate-pdf. Upload your PDF. Select the pages to rotate (or All). Click Rotate 90° until pages are upright. Download. Works on Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and all other distros.
Method 2: pdftk Command Line
Rotate all pages 90° clockwise: pdftk input.pdf rotate 1-endeast output rotated.pdf. Rotate page 3 only: pdftk input.pdf rotate 3east output rotated.pdf. Directions: east (90° CW), south (180°), west (90° CCW), north (0°, reset).
Method 3: qpdf for Rotation
qpdf --rotate=90:3 input.pdf output.pdf rotates page 3 by 90 degrees. qpdf --rotate=90:1-z input.pdf output.pdf rotates all pages. Install: sudo apt install qpdf.
Rotating in Evince or Okular (View Only)
PDF viewers like Evince and Okular support rotation for viewing (Ctrl+Left/Right), but this is display-only — it does not save the rotation to the file. To permanently rotate, use pdftk, qpdf, or the FixMyPDF browser tool.
Rotating Scanned Documents
Scanned PDFs from a scanner attached to a Linux workstation often come out in the wrong orientation. The browser tool lets you visually confirm correct rotation via thumbnails before saving, which CLI tools don't provide.
Batch Rotation on Linux
Rotate all PDFs in a folder 90° clockwise: for f in *.pdf; do pdftk "$f" rotate 1-endeast output "rotated_$f"; done. Useful for processing a batch of scanned documents from a scanner that outputs in the wrong orientation.
Choosing the Right Method
Use the browser tool for visual, interactive rotation of individual files. Use pdftk or qpdf for scripted batch rotation, server-side automation, or when working over SSH without a display.
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