Flip, rotate or straighten a photo

Rotate or flip: what's the difference?

Rotating turns the image around its center: 90° right is clockwise, 90° left is counterclockwise. A 90° rotation swaps width and height: a 4000 × 3000 pixel photo becomes 3000 × 4000. Flipping creates a reflection: horizontally, left moves to right and text becomes unreadable, as if seen in a mirror; vertically, top moves to bottom, like a reflection in water. Note that a 180° rotation is not a vertical flip. It's the same as flipping the image both horizontally and vertically, and any text stays readable once you turn the page around.

Mirrored selfie: getting the photo the right way round

A phone's front camera shows a mirrored preview, because that's the image we're used to seeing when we look in a mirror. Depending on the model and the settings, the saved photo may keep that mirror effect: the text on a T-shirt, a sign or a document then appears backwards. A horizontal flip is all it takes to put the scene the right way round, the way others see it. You can also apply the mirror effect on purpose, to create symmetry, make someone look toward the center of a layout or prepare an image for an iron-on transfer.

Straightening a tilted photo without empty corners

A crooked horizon or a document photographed at an angle can often be fixed with just one or two degrees. When an image is rotated by an angle that isn't a multiple of 90°, its corners stick out of the frame and empty triangles appear: the tool automatically crops the edges to avoid them. The bigger the angle, the more gets cropped, so look for the smallest correction that makes the line straight. To adjust the framing afterwards, use "Crop Image"; for a smaller file, "Resize Image" or "Compress Image". For a PDF or a video, there's "Rotate PDF" and "Rotate Video".