How do I reverse the page order of a scanned document?

[cvmulligan]

I have scanned a large volume of correspondence, in date order, starting with the oldest and finishing with the newest date. However, I need the finished file to have the newest dated correspondence at the beginning, instead of at the end. Is there an easy way to reverse the page order without invoking any scripts? I work in a large organization where every little change needs to be approved by an administrator.

I was thinking of doing the following -- extract every page as a separate document, then recombine them into one document with the order sorted whichever would product the result.

Thanks!

[Bernd Alheit · Accepted solution]

You can print to "Adobe PDF" with reverse pages.

[Lovekesh Garg]

As of now there is no such option option available. Although you can do this either scripting or Extract all once, rearrange and then combine. I have raised a feature request for you. Same will be consider in future once prioritized.

Thanks.

[cvmulligan]

Thanks! I did the extract thing.

[zeigler]

I find the scripting faster & easier. Sample JavaScript to reverse pages:

// Reverse Page Order
// This script reverses the page order of this document
var numPages = this.numPages; // Get the number of pages
for (var i = numPages - 1; i > 0; i--) { // Loop from the last page location to the second
    this.movePage(0, i); // Move the current first page to its correct location
}

I add it as a new custom command to the Action Wizard on my Acrobat Pro (though I don't think the Action Wizard is supported yet on the new Acrobat interface)

[Davydovski]

Thank you, good man!

I create an account just to say that it's perfectly work.

[zeigler]

Glad it worked for you! (The print to PDF approach makes me cringe)

[Kendrick23321356lxl1]

I just went through every other option I could find on the Internet for a Mac (for over an hour), and this was the only one that worked. Thank you!

[zeigler]

Glad to hear it helped! I use it all the time.

[taylor_3444]

So I can get the reverse order to work with your JavaScript (THANK YOU!) but when I save or save as the document, the reverse order does not actually stay. Any ideas?

[zeigler]

Hmm... I've never encountered that and I'm not able to reproduce it just now... my save of the reversed file continues to display reversed in Acrobat, Chrome & Google Drive embedded viewers, etc. I'm using Acrobat Pro, Continuous Release, Version 2024.003.20180 on a MacBook Air M2 but pretty sure it's been fine on my Windows PC as well. Have you tried "File\Save As...", "File\Save as Other\Reduced Size PDF...", etc. to see if any of them preserve the reversed page order (though, again, I don't seem to need to do that... fine after just a "File\Save" over the original file). Let me know if you're able to resolve it.

[Bernd Alheit · Accepted solution]

You can print to "Adobe PDF" with reverse pages.

[cvmulligan]

Thank you. It's not for printing, but for viewing. Anyway, I did the workaround.

[Bernd Alheit]

Printing to "Adobe PDF" will create a new PDF file.

[Dr. Lamya292080184byk]

Thanks! I had been stuck with a manuscript that should have been submitted to a printhouse for two months not knowing how to reverse the PDF! You saved me 

[SarahMartinSJC]

Thank you! This worked perfectly!

[Mekong1]

I tried the "print to PDF" option for a 127 page document (I was formatting a Flip-Over Book). It didn't work for me because my document was A5 size and it kept reformatting it to A4 while it printed to PDF.

      Even when the print dialogue box showed that it was going to print to the A5 size, it still printed the pdf to the A4 size. I tried to change the size in the paper settings but it did not show an A5. I tried to make a custom size using the A5 measurements and then it would only print to .ps format, which would not work for me because I was using southeast asian fonts.

I finally ended up using the extract and then rearrange method, which was a total pain because of the document size.

[Mekong1]

Ahhh....dummy me, my problem was that once I extracted the files into individual files and then used the "combine files" option, I was reorganizing the files into reverse order manually (drag and drop). Once I found that I could right click on any file in the group and then used the "sort by" function and chose "reverse order", before combining the files, life became so much easier!

[Allissa82]

Thank you! This comment saved me so much time!

[maryc47708428]

This didn't work for me.  I got an error message saying "Saving a PDF when printing is not supported.  Instead, choose File > Save," which does not reverse the pages.  

[em.corby]

same.

[Abambo]

You are on a macOS. macOS does not allow virtual printers, and thus the workaround does not work.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

One-click solution using this free tool I've created:

https://www.try67.com/tool/acrobat-reverse-page-order-free

[rami zins]

Hi Great, But where do I locate the script? (I have an Imac)

[try67]

Follow the instructions that came with it. If you can't locate the Javascripts folder you'll need to create it yourself.

[ezdmanx]

Thanks a million for this script. Its saved me so much time.

Very easy to install and the button is so convenient.