Rotate and Straighten an Image
How do you fix a sideways, upside-down or tilted image?
Rotate a photo to correct its orientation or straighten it with a custom angle. Horizontal and vertical flips mirror the image without changing the subject’s size. Check the background exposed by rotation and adjust the framing before exporting. Keep a copy of the original if you may need a different crop or orientation later.
Cost: Free to use. File size and usage limits apply.
How to rotate or straighten an image
Upload one image
Click Upload an image to rotate or drop a file onto the tool. JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, ICO, TIFF, TGA, AVIF, HEIC and HEIF files up to 200 MB are accepted. Uploads and results from the other image tools are listed under Files.
Turn it in quarter turns
+90° turns the image clockwise and -90° counter-clockwise. Each click adds to the current angle, which is shown next to Live angle. 180° puts an upside-down image the right way up.
Straighten with a custom angle
Drag the Custom angle slider between -180° and 180° in 1° steps. Positive values turn clockwise. Line up a horizon, a door frame or the edge of a scanned page in the preview.
Mirror if needed
Flip H mirrors the image left to right, Flip V top to bottom. You can switch on both, which gives the same result as a 180° turn.
Apply, compare, download
Click Apply rotation. The preview turns into a before/after slider that shows the processed file. Check it, then click Download. Clear result takes you back to the live preview if you want to try a different angle.
What each setting does
- -90°, 180° and +90°
- Quarter turns move pixels without resampling, so edges stay sharp. At ±90° width and height swap: a 4032 × 3024 px photo becomes 3024 × 4032 px. No background colour is added.
- Custom angle
- Any angle that is not a multiple of 90° is resampled, which softens fine detail slightly. The canvas grows so the rotated corners still fit. Nothing is cut off, and the empty triangles around the picture are filled with the background colour.
- Flip H and Flip V
- Flipping mirrors the image instead of turning it. Use Flip H for front-camera selfies or scans where text reads backwards. Like quarter turns, flips don't resample pixels.
- Background for angled rotation
- Sets the colour of the corner areas that a custom angle creates. The default is black (
#000000). White suits documents and scans; a colour close to the image edge makes the corners less obvious if you won't crop them.
Worked example: straightening a tilted horizon
A 4032 × 3024 px phone photo has a horizon that drops about 2° towards the right. The scene is turned clockwise, so you correct it counter-clockwise with a Custom angle of -2°. If the horizon rises towards the right, use a positive angle instead.
The output canvas becomes 4136 × 3163 px. The straightened photo sits in the centre with thin triangles of background colour along the edges. The new width is width × |cos a| + height × |sin a| and the new height is width × |sin a| + height × |cos a|, both rounded up.
To remove the triangles and keep the 4:3 shape, crop a centred area of 3854 × 2891 px. In Crop Image, enter X 141 px, Y 136 px, W 3854 px and H 2891 px. The rotated file is already in Files, so you don't need to upload it again.
As a rule of thumb, straightening a 4:3 landscape photo costs about 2 % of its width and height per degree once the corners are cropped away: you keep roughly 97.7 % at 1° and 90 % at 5°.
What happens to format, quality and metadata
The file keeps its format: a JPG comes back as a JPG, a PNG as a PNG. HEIC and HEIF photos are saved as PNG, because the server can read these formats but not write them. The PNG can be larger than the HEIC or HEIF original; compare the actual file size and convert it to JPG with Convert Image if needed.
Lossy formats are compressed again when saved: JPG, lossy WebP and AVIF are re-encoded at high quality, which adds one more round of compression. PNG, BMP, TIFF and lossless WebP are saved without compression loss, and transparency in PNG, WebP and AVIF images is kept.
Animated GIF and WebP files keep all their frames, their timing and their transparency. GIFs are written with a 256-colour palette built from the image's own colours.
Whenever the image is actually rotated or flipped, the new file is written without EXIF metadata such as camera model, capture date and GPS location. If you apply 0° without a flip, you get an unchanged copy of the original; HEIC and HEIF files still become PNG.
Formats and limits
- Input formats
- JPG/JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, ICO, TIFF, TGA, AVIF, HEIC, HEIF
- Output format
- Same as the input; HEIC and HEIF are saved as PNG
- Maximum file size
- 200 MB
- Files per job
- 1
- Processing
- On our servers with FFmpeg and ImageMagick. A job can run for up to 15 minutes.
- Watermark
- None
- Storage
- Uploads and results are deleted automatically after 48 hours for guests and after 30 days for free accounts. Paid plans can keep files longer.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my rotated image have more pixels than the original?
Only custom angles do this. The canvas is enlarged to hold the whole rotated picture, so 4032 × 3024 px turned by 2° becomes 4136 × 3163 px. Quarter turns only swap width and height at ±90°.
Is rotating a JPG lossless?
No. The JPG is decoded, turned and compressed again, so every round adds a little loss, even at exactly 90°. Start from the original file rather than from an earlier result. If you need to avoid another JPG generation, convert the file to PNG first and rotate the PNG; PNG avoids additional JPG compression, and its file size depends on the image.
Why is the rotated file smaller or larger in MB than the original?
Because it is re-encoded. The new compression rarely matches the original settings exactly, so JPG, WebP, AVIF and GIF files can come out somewhat smaller or larger, and HEIC or HEIF photos can become larger as PNG. Compare the actual file sizes. Custom angles also add pixels for the filled corners.
Can the corners be transparent instead of coloured?
No. Background for angled rotation always fills the corners with a solid colour, also in PNG, WebP and AVIF files. Pick a colour that matches the image edge, or crop the corners away after straightening.
Does rotating remove the GPS location from my photo?
Yes, as long as you actually rotate or flip it. The saved file carries no EXIF data, so location, camera model and capture date are gone. At 0° without a flip you get the original file back, metadata included, except HEIC and HEIF files, which are converted to PNG.