Photo Editor · Windows 10 and 11
Rotate and straighten an image
Turn a sideways photo the right way up from the Image menu, or level a tilted horizon a tenth of a degree at a time with the Crop tool. Octoolo does it on your PC and exports a copy that shows upright in every app.
How to rotate an image
- 1
Bring in the photo
Drop the sideways or tilted photo on the Photo Editor, or use File › Open…. Phone photos already show the way the phone was held.
- 2
Turn it
Choose Image › Rotate, then Rotate 90° clockwise, Rotate 90° counter clockwise or Rotate 180°.
- 3
Straighten if it tilts
Press C for the Crop tool and drag outside the box until the horizon lines up with its grid, or type the Angle in the bar above.
- 4
Trim the corners
Pull the box's corners in until no empty corners show inside it, then press Enter.
- 5
Export
Press Export and keep the copy as JPG, PNG or WebP.
Why photos turn up sideways
A phone does not turn the picture itself when you hold it sideways. It stores the photo as the sensor saw it, plus a small note saying which way is up. Most apps read that note; some older programs, upload forms and printers ignore it, and the photo arrives on its side.
Octoolo reads the note when it opens a picture, so the photo shows the right way up. When you export, it writes the pixels the right way up and leaves the note out. The copy then looks the same in every program, whether that program reads such notes or not.
So if a photo looks fine on your PC but turns up sideways once sent, open it in the Photo Editor and export it again, even without turning it.
Straightening a tilted horizon
The Crop tool straightens and crops in one go. Drag anywhere outside the box and it turns, up to 45° either way; the Angle box in the bar above takes exact values in tenths of a degree. The picture turns the other way inside the box, so a line that runs along the grid will be level in the result.
A turned picture no longer fills a straight frame. Where the box reaches past the photo's edges you see empty corners, and anything left there comes out see-through: clear in a PNG, white in a JPG. Pull the corners of the box in until they all sit on the photo. A correction of a degree or two costs a thin strip; at 10°, nearly a fifth of the width and height of a typical phone photo is cut away.
To get it level, look for a long straight line, such as the horizon, a floor, a door frame or the side of a building, and line it up with one of the box's grid lines. The angle is applied to the full-size photo, not to the view on screen, so the tenth of a degree you set is exactly what you get.
Turn, mirror or upside down?
The Image › Rotate menu has five commands, and two of them do something other than turning:
| Command | What happens |
|---|---|
| Rotate 90° clockwise | Turns a quarter to the right |
| Rotate 90° counter clockwise | Turns a quarter to the left |
| Rotate 180° | Turns it upside down, still readable once turned back |
| Flip canvas horizontal | Swaps left and right, like a reflection |
| Flip canvas vertical | Swaps top and bottom, also a reflection |
For a photo that simply came out upside down, use Rotate 180°. Flipping would leave text and faces reading backwards. Mirroring has its own page: flip image.
These commands turn the whole picture, every layer with it. To turn just one layer, such as a logo on a photo, select it and use Edit › Free transform (Ctrl T), then drag outside a corner. Quarter turns swap the width and the height, so a 4000 × 3000 photo turned once becomes 3000 × 4000.
Other ways on Windows
The Photos app that comes with Windows can turn a picture, and Paint has a Rotate menu with quarter and half turns. In File Explorer, selected pictures can be turned from the right-click menu with Rotate right and Rotate left. All of these are fine for a quick quarter turn.
Octoolo is handy when the turn is part of a bigger fix: straightening by a fraction of a degree, cropping what the straightening left, adjusting the light, and exporting a copy without the location details, all in one window.
A turned and leveled photo of a page is also the best start for image to text, which reads straight lines of print more reliably than tilted ones. To turn a video instead, see rotate video; for PDF pages, rotate PDF.
Octoolo or an online tool?
| Detail | Octoolo | A typical online tool |
|---|---|---|
| Your files | Stay on your computer | Usually uploaded to the site's server |
| Without internet | Works | Does not work |
| File size | No limit | Often capped on free use |
| Watermarks and ads | None | Common on free plans |
| Cost | $4.99 a month, all 17 apps | Free with limits, or a plan per site |
Questions, answered
Does rotating a JPG lose quality?
The copy is written fresh when you export, so at quality 88 or more the difference is very hard to see. Export as PNG if nothing may change at all.
Can I rotate by any angle?
Yes. The Crop tool straightens up to 45° either way, Image › Rotate adds quarter turns, and Free transform (Ctrl+T) turns a single layer by any angle. Where the turned photo no longer covers the canvas, the corners are clear in a PNG and filled with white, or a color you pick, in a JPG.
How do I turn a photo 180 degrees?
Choose Image › Rotate › Rotate 180°.
Does straightening change the picture's size?
The result is the size of the crop box. Pull it in only as far as the empty corners need, and watch W and H in the bar above as you drag.
Can I rotate a PNG with a transparent background?
Yes. Export it as PNG or WebP and the clear areas stay clear after the turn.
Can I take back a turn after exporting?
The exported copy stays as it is, but your original was never changed, and the editor keeps your work as you go. Step back with Ctrl+Z or the History panel, and export again.
Rotate image, and 16 more apps.
Download for Windows7 days free, then from $3.99 a month for all 17 apps. Windows 10 and 11.