Rotating images in PDF file

Discussion in 'Mac Apps and Mac App Store' started by macstatic, May 28, 2009.

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  1. macstatic, May 28, 2009

    macstatic macrumors 65816

    macstatic

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    #1
    I've been given a PDF file from someone's iPhoto library/slideshow images (by doing a Print-PDF-Save as PDF).

    The PDF file looks fine, but several of the images are rotated the wrong way. When the slideshow was presented the images were all in their correct positions, but the PDF file only shows the landscape ones right.

    I've tried using the "rotate" tool in Preview, but that rotates all images, which is of course not what I want.
    I was hoping Adobe Acrobat pro 9, which I also have, would allow me to rotate images individually, then resave the PDF file but I can't quite figure out how, or if it's possible at all.
    Is there a way to do this?
     
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  2. Darth.Titan, May 28, 2009

    Darth.Titan macrumors 68030

    Darth.Titan

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    #2
    Yes it's possible in Acrobat Pro. Look under the Document menu for 'Rotate Pages'. Make sure you've selected the Pages: From __ to __ option to select individually the pages you'd like to rotate.

    Forgive me if the commands are a bit different for you, but I'm at my work PC with Acrobat 8. The Mac version should be similar. Use the Help files to assist.
     
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  3. macstatic, May 28, 2009

    macstatic thread starter macrumors 65816

    macstatic

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    #3
    Yes, that worked!
    But instead of selecting from-to pages, is it possible to mark the pages I want, then perform the actual rotate?
    It would save me a lot of work!

    Oh, I also found out that it is indeed possible to rotate just single pages in Preview. Apparently it's an undocumented feature, but you select the image you want to rotate, then hold down ALT while clicking on the "rotate" icon. Failing to hold down ALT while clicking on the "rotate" icon you'll rotate all images in the document.
     
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  4. macstatic, Sep 2, 2009

    macstatic thread starter macrumors 65816

    macstatic

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    #4
    Need to rotate yet another PDF document....

    I've got a new PDF document where I need to rotate particular pages here and there (for instance pages 2,3,4,22,27,31,32,33,38 and 53), but still haven't found if there's a way I can simply select those specific pages, then click on the "rotate" button.

    Both Preview and Acrobat Pro seem cumbersome in that respect.
    With Preview I so far have only found out how to rotate ALL pages in the document, or one at a time.
    With Acrobat Pro I need to enter the continous numbered pages (e.g. 2-4), repeat that for the other continous sections (e.g. 31-33) etc., then rotate the rest (e.g. 22, then 27 etc.). Time consuming!
    I'm sure there's a better way in either application, but it sure is well hidden :confused:
     
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  5. macstatic, Oct 12, 2009

    macstatic thread starter macrumors 65816

    macstatic

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    #5
    OK, using Acrobat Pro does the job, but... (a) it's a hassle, and (b) some photos are still cropped.
    So a better solution would be to solve it within iPhoto itself. Any takers?
     
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  6. hodgeheg, Oct 12, 2009

    hodgeheg macrumors regular

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    #6
    Preview.app and Acrobat can both do this, in exactly the same way (though they each have other methods of selection too). Simply select the pages you want to rotate using standard Cmd-Click for multiple selection, in the thumbnails bar at the side. Then go to tools and select Rotate Right (or Left) in Preview, or Document->Rotate Pages... in Acrobat, which should automatically have selected the radio icon for "Selection" (if not, click it).

    This works with Preview.app on Leopard (not sure about Tiger - I think it may have had this functionality) (and thus presumably on Snow Leopard), and with Acrobats 7, 8 and 9 standard and Pro on windows and Mac, these being the things I had available to test.

    Unless I'm misunderstanding you and you actually want to rotate an element *within* a single page without rotating the whole page, in which case you probably want Inkscape, not that I can get Inkscape to work personally on my current machine :(


    I'm not sure why any of this would cause cropping of photos, unless iPhoto itself is kicking out cropped images, in which case no idea sorry, you'd have to look in iPhoto.

    IF there is an issue with the cropping box in the PDF, Acrobat can change this. If you go to Document->Crop Pages... and set all the margins to zero (which should be the default unless something very odd is going on, or someone else already edited the PDF) then you can check you are seeing all the information that is physically there in the PDF file. If it's not there, then there's nothing you can do.

    I try to discourage people from giving me images in PDFs - it's not the most useful method! Ruins the quality, unless you opt for really large file size, in which case no benefit anyway. Much much easier to just have the original image files.
     
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  7. macstatic, Oct 12, 2009

    macstatic thread starter macrumors 65816

    macstatic

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    #7
    Yes, but if I want to share a slideshow with someone else (giving them a file to take with them), showing the photos in the same order I see no other way.

    Preview has crashed every time I've tried to do this, so I've resorted to Acrobat Pro. That still doesn't solve the cropping problem though. I'll look closer into which images are cropped, but I imagine it may have to do with rotating images but not making room for them.
     
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