Jernej LeticaPhotography Tools & Stories
Editing Tools

Turn or mirror your photo

Turn a sideways photograph, straighten a tilted horizon or mirror a picture, using the same editor as my image cropper.

Built and written by Jernej Letica

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How to rotate an image

Choose a picture from your device. The editor opens it in the orientation recorded by the camera, ready for your own adjustments.

  1. Choose a JPEG, PNG or WebP file. You can select several images to apply the same turn or flip to the whole batch.
  2. Press 90°, 180° or 270° clockwise, or choose a horizontal or vertical flip. For a tilted horizon, enter a small positive or negative angle and press Apply angle.
  3. Inspect the preview. A turn resets the crop to the full transformed image, so choose an aspect ratio afterwards if you also want to trim the picture.
  4. Download the result. A batch has individual downloads and a ZIP; each batch operation starts from the selected originals.

How I straighten a horizon

I look for a line I can trust before turning a landscape. The edge of a lake is useful; a sloping mountain ridge usually is not. I start with a small angle, check the relationship between water and sky, then crop the corners after the turn. That keeps the final composition intentional rather than letting an automatic crop decide what disappears.

A mirror is a different decision. I sometimes flip a frame to compare how the eye travels through it, but I keep signs, road markings and recognisable places in their real orientation when publishing a documentary photograph. The two flip buttons make that comparison quick without pretending that a mirrored scene is the original view.

A turn and a flip checked by their pixels

In my browser check, a 96 × 64 pixel JPEG became 64 × 96 pixels after a clockwise quarter-turn. Its four coloured corners moved to their expected positions. A horizontal flip then exchanged the left and right corners. The same check opened a JPEG with EXIF orientation 6, applied that camera orientation once, and verified the next turn against the already upright picture.

The lossless JPEG check also turned the fixture four times. It recovered the original quantized image without another round of compression. An unaligned edge or a progressive JPEG instead takes the PNG route, so the tool never trims away part of the photo to make a lossless operation fit.

A quarter-turn, a mirror or a free angle

A 90° clockwise turn moves the top of the picture to the right. A 270° clockwise turn does the same job as a 90° counterclockwise turn. Both exchange width and height. A half-turn leaves the dimensions unchanged, but moves every corner to its opposite corner.

Horizontal flip exchanges left and right, like a mirror beside the picture. Vertical flip exchanges top and bottom. Neither changes the dimensions. For a free angle, positive numbers turn clockwise and negative numbers turn counterclockwise. The canvas grows to hold the complete rotated rectangle, leaving transparent corners around it. Crop those away afterwards if your final frame must be rectangular with no empty areas.

When a JPEG stays a JPEG

A JPEG is stored in blocks. For a baseline JPEG whose width and height fill complete compression blocks, the editor can move and turn the stored coefficients for right-angle operations and flips. It does not decode and compress those coefficients a second time. Keep the full frame, its original pixel dimensions and JPEG selected when downloading to retain that result.

Some photographs use progressive JPEG compression, have partial blocks along an edge, or need a camera orientation applied first. Those cases use the browser-decoded picture and save the transformed result as PNG. PNG preserves those decoded pixels, though it can be much larger than the JPEG. A free angle also needs new pixels along sloping edges and therefore follows the PNG route. Selecting JPEG afterwards makes a fresh compressed export.

Camera orientation is read when the original opens. It is not added again after a turn. This matters for phone photos that store a sideways pixel grid and a separate instruction telling viewers how to display it. The preview is the reference for every operation, rather than the raw direction of that stored grid.

Checks I make before saving

  • Read any lettering after a flip; a mirrored sign is an easy mistake to miss in a small preview.
  • Apply the turn before choosing a crop ratio, because the width and height may exchange places.
  • Keep PNG for transparent corners. If you choose JPEG, empty areas become white.
  • For a batch, choose one operation at a time; the next batch run starts again from the selected files.

Privacy

Your image never leaves your device. Opening, cropping and saving all happen in your browser, so nothing is uploaded or stored, and you do not need an account. The saved file does not keep the original EXIF, GPS or XMP data.

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn a photo counterclockwise?

Use 270° clockwise for a quarter-turn to the left. It produces the same orientation as minus 90 degrees. For a small adjustment to the left, enter a negative free angle and press Apply angle, then inspect the horizon.

Will rotating a JPEG reduce its quality?

Supported baseline JPEGs with complete edge blocks use a coefficient transform for right-angle turns and flips. Other cases save as PNG to preserve decoded pixels. If you change that result to JPEG or crop it, the export is compressed again.

Why does my phone photo open upright already?

Phone cameras can record orientation separately from the pixel grid. The browser applies that instruction while opening the file. Your chosen turn then starts from the upright preview, and the camera instruction is not applied a second time.

Why are there empty corners after straightening?

A tilted rectangle no longer fills an upright rectangular canvas. The tool expands the canvas to keep the whole photo and leaves the corners transparent. Use the crop frame afterwards if you prefer to remove those empty areas.

Can I flip several pictures together?

Yes. Choose several files on this page, then press a flip or turn button. The batch processes them one at a time and offers individual results plus a ZIP. Each operation uses the selected originals, so repeated clicks do not stack batch turns.

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