I built a free Rotate PDF tool with page thumbnails (no sign-up, no watermark)

I recently updated the Rotate PDF tool on MyPDFLabs, my collection of free online PDF tools. The tool is designed to fix PDFs that are sideways or upside down. I wanted to share what the tool does and the focus I had while creating it.

Why a rotate tool? PDFs can come in various orientations, such as scanned documents that came out sideways, landscape charts within portrait reports, double-sided scans with every second page upside down, or documents that need to be sent or uploaded the right way round. Most viewers only rotate the view, and the file doesn't change, so the page goes back to the wrong way when reopened or sent to someone.

Most existing tools for fixing this issue require an account, add a watermark, or let users rotate pages one by one without an overview of the entire document.

The tool shows every page of the PDF as a thumbnail, allowing users to see what they're changing before downloading anything. There are page count and "pages rotated" counters at the top, providing an overview of how much has been changed. The tool offers "Rotate All Left" and "Rotate All Right" options for the entire document, per-page -90° and +90° buttons on every thumbnail for fixing just the pages that are wrong, quick select options like "Rotate Odd" and "Rotate Even" for double-sided scans where every other page is upside down, a "Reset" option in case the user changes their mind, and the "Save & Download PDF" button to save the rotation into a new file.

The tool is completely free, with no sign-up required, no watermark added to the core tools, and supports files up to 500MB. Uploaded files are automatically deleted after processing. While rotating pages may seem trivial, a few choices were crucial in the design:

- Show every page so users can see which ones are wrong at a glance.

- Use thumbnails to make the problem obvious and save time.

- Rotate the file, not just the view, so the fix is saved and looks right in every viewer.

- Handle common patterns like double-sided scans, where odd and even buttons save time.

- Prioritize privacy by not keeping files around and not asking for an account.

The primary goal was to make the rotation process simple and secure. I welcome feedback on the site's current state, such as whether the per-page buttons and "Rotate All" options are clear or if the screen is too busy. Additionally, I'm open to suggestions on which PDF tool to add or improve next. You can try the tool here: mypdflabs.com/tools/rotate. Thank you for reading, and I will reply to every comment.