---
title: "Rotate PDF pages using JavaScript | Nutrient SDK"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/web/editor/page-manipulation/rotate/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/web/editor/page-manipulation/rotate.md"
last_updated: "2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z"
description: "Rotate PDF pages 90, 180, or 270 degrees using JavaScript with Nutrient Web SDK. Use applyOperations with rotatePages to programmatically control page orientation."
---

# Rotating PDF pages using JavaScript

**Important: Rotation changes PDF identity and affects annotations**

When you rotate pages, the document’s internal `pdfId` changes. This affects Instant JSON compatibility, so if you’re storing Instant JSON for later use, you’ll need to handle this properly.

**If you store Instant JSON with `pdfId`:**

```js

// Remove `pdfId` before persisting to avoid PDF ID mismatch errors.
const {pdfId,...instantJSON} = await instance.exportInstantJSON()
await saveToDatabase(instantJSON)

```

**Annotations rotate with pages**

When you rotate a page, existing annotations are transformed so they keep their visual position relative to the rotated page. This is the expected behavior for most annotation types.

Web SDK doesn’t currently support the [`noRotate`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/web/NutrientViewer.Annotations.Annotation.html#noRotate) flag. Per the PDF specification, note annotations behave as if `NoRotate` were always set, so [`NoteAnnotation`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/web/NutrientViewer.Annotations.NoteAnnotation.html) icons are always rendered upright, regardless of the flag value. This is separate from an annotation’s own `rotation` property.

[Learn more about handling `pdfId` with document operations](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/web/json/how-it-works/#understanding-pdfid).

---

The `rotatePages` operation will rotate the specified pages by the desired amount; only multiples of 90 under 360 are allowed as values.

If the page is already rotated, this will add the specified rotation, so if a page is already rotated 90 degrees and you apply a 90-degree rotation, it’ll result in the page being rotated 180 degrees:

```js

instance.applyOperations([
  {
    type: "rotatePages",
    pageIndexes: [0], // Rotate page 0.
    rotateBy: 90 // Rotate page 90 degrees clockwise.
  }
]);

```

After this operation is complete, call `exportPDF` to get a buffer containing the data for the final PDF.

If you need to apply this operation and export in one step, you can provide the same argument you provide to `applyOperations` to `exportPDFWithOperations` to get a buffer containing the data for the final PDF.

## Keeping annotations fixed while rotating pages

To keep annotations at their original page coordinates during `rotatePages`, cache the complete annotation records for the pages you’re rotating, rotate the pages, and then update those annotations with the cached records. This restores type-specific geometry such as markup `rects`, ink `lines`, the text annotation callout, and shape points.

Use this approach only with `rotatePages`. Other page operations, such as `addPageMargins` or `deletePages`, can change page indexes or page coordinates, so restoring cached annotation records after those operations can place annotations on the wrong page or at the wrong position.

```js

async function getAnnotationsForPages(instance, pageIndexes) {
  const annotationsToRestore = [];

  for (const pageIndex of pageIndexes) {
    const annotations = await instance.getAnnotations(pageIndex);

    annotations.forEach((annotation) => {
      annotationsToRestore.push(annotation);
    });
  }

  return annotationsToRestore;
}

async function rotatePagesWithoutMovingAnnotations(
  instance,
  pageIndexes,
  rotateBy
) {
  const annotationsToRestore = await getAnnotationsForPages(
    instance,
    pageIndexes
  );

  await instance.applyOperations([
    {
      type: "rotatePages",
      pageIndexes,
      rotateBy
    }
  ]);

  if (annotationsToRestore.length > 0) {
    await instance.update(annotationsToRestore);
  }
}

```
---

## Related pages

- [Adding margins to PDF pages using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/page-manipulation/add-margins.md)
- [Crop PDFs using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/page-manipulation/crop.md)
- [Move or copy PDF pages using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/page-manipulation/move-or-copy.md)
- [Remove pages from a PDF using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/page-manipulation/remove.md)