How to mirror a PDF file.

Learn how to fix mirrored PDF documents. Flip PDF pages the right way around in three different ways.

You scan a paper document into a PDF file, only to find out that all the text displays as a mirror image. Or maybe someone else has shared a PDF with you, but for some reason, the pages are all mirrored. You just can’t read a PDF like that.

Fortunately, you can fix the issue. Read on and learn how to mirror a PDF file in three easy ways.

Scan the file again.

If the PDF ended up mirrored after you scanned it, most often the easiest solution is to scan it again. It can be faster to just throw the paper back into the scanner than to try to figure out a way to flip the pages digitally.

Of course, this may not always be an option. You may have scanned the pages at an office or a library that’s a half-hour drive away. But if you can access a scanner, just re-scan your document.

Mirror PDFs with online tools.

If you can’t get to a scanner, you may be able to mirror the pages with an online PDF rotation tool. These tools are usually simple to use — all you have to do is upload your PDF and use the available options to rotate it.

Some online PDF tools might not be able to mirror PDFs, though. And, if the PDF you’re trying to flip is protected with a password, the tools may not be able to work with it. However, if your online tool of choice does support mirroring, you can flip your PDF in a few seconds.

Use a PDF editing application.

If you’ve still had no luck, you can bring out the big guns and create a mirror image of the PDF with a dedicated PDF editing application. Any feature-rich PDF editor will have some way to flip PDF pages, even if just by letting you print the document as a totally new mirrored PDF.