Rotate PDF pages with Nutrient Document Web Services API on Zapier

Hulya Masharipov

January 21, 2025

This tutorial shows you how to automatically rotate one or more pages in a PDF using the Nutrient Document Web Services API on Zapier. You’ll trigger the workflow from a PDF uploaded to Google Drive and apply a rotation to prepare the file for presentation, printing, or readability.

Rotate PDF pages with Nutrient Document Web Services API on Zapier

What is Zapier?

Zapier(opens in a new tab) is a no-code automation platform that connects your favorite apps and services. You can use it to trigger workflows across tools like Google Drive, Gmail, Dropbox, and the Nutrient API.

What is the Nutrient API?

Nutrient Document Web Services API provides flexible document processing capabilities for developers and teams. With a free account(opens in a new tab), you get 100 credits to try out more than 30 tools like:

PDF rotation and page manipulation
Annotation, watermarking, and form building
OCR, redaction, and signing
Format conversion and content extraction

What you’ll need

A Zapier(opens in a new tab) account (a pro plan is necessary for multi-step Zaps)
A Google Drive account
A PDF file stored in Google Drive
A Nutrient API key — sign up here(opens in a new tab)

Step 1 — Trigger a new file in a Google Drive folder

Select Google Drive as the trigger app.

Select Google Drive as the Zap trigger

Choose the New File in Folder trigger event.

Choose 'New File in Folder' trigger event

Connect your Google Drive account.
Configure the trigger:

In the Drive field, select your Google Drive.
In the Folder field, select or create a folder (e.g. rotate-pdf-input).

Google Drive folder selected as the input folder

Test the trigger with a sample PDF file.

Zapier test showing detected PDF file

Step 2 — Rotate PDF pages action

Choose Nutrient Document Web Services API as the action app.

Select Nutrient API as Zapier action

Select the Rotate PDF Pages action.

Choose Rotate PDF Pages as action event

Paste your Nutrient API key.

Paste API key for Nutrient API connection

You can find your API key in your Nutrient dashboard(opens in a new tab).

Find your API key in the Nutrient dashboard

Configure the fields:
- PDF File URL — Select the file URL from step 1,
- Rotate By — Set to 90, 180, or 270 (degrees).
- Output File Name — Optional (e.g. rotated_document.pdf).

Configure rotation angle and input file

Ensure the file is shared publicly or Zapier has access via your connected Google Drive account.

Test the action to verify the PDF was rotated correctly.

Test result showing successful PDF rotation

Step 3 — Upload the rotated PDF to Google Drive

Add Google Drive as your final step.

Add Google Drive as final action step

Choose Upload File as the action.
Select your drive and an output folder (e.g. /rotate-pdf-output).
In the File field, map the output from the Nutrient step.

Map rotated PDF output to upload to Google Drive

To avoid Zap loops, don’t upload to the same folder you’re watching for triggers.

Run a test to ensure the rotated PDF uploads successfully.

Test result showing rotated file uploaded to Drive

Conclusion

You’ve just automated rotating PDF files using Nutrient API(opens in a new tab) and Zapier. This is useful for correcting scan angles, preparing for printing, or aligning presentations.

Want more? You can follow this up with conversion, OCR, annotation, or security steps in the same workflow.