---
title: "How to rotate or flip a photo online | ToolSugar"
description: "Turn a photo by 90, 180 or 270 degrees and mirror it in your browser, and see why some pictures open sideways in other apps."
canonical: https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-rotate-an-image
image: https://toolsugar.com/og.png
---

# Rotate and flip a photo, then save it

Updated 2026-11-09

To rotate a photo, turn it left or right in steps of 90 degrees and save the result. Rotate Image on ToolSugar also flips a picture horizontally or vertically. It works in your browser, so the file is not uploaded. It saves PNG and WebP files in their own format and every other type as JPG.

[Open Rotate Image](https://toolsugar.com/tools/rotate-image)

## Rotate a photo in four steps

The preview updates after each click, so you can try a few moves.

1. Add a photo in JPG, PNG, WebP or another common format.
2. Use Rotate left 90 degrees, Rotate right 90 degrees or Rotate 180 degrees, and use the flip buttons to mirror it.
3. Check the preview. Reset puts the photo back the way it was.
4. Press Save image and download the result.

## Rotate or flip: what is the difference

Rotating turns the picture like a page. Flipping mirrors it, as if you held it up to a mirror. A flip can be combined with any rotation.

Use a horizontal flip to correct a selfie where the camera reversed the writing on a shirt or sign. Use a vertical flip to turn a picture upside down without changing left and right.

## Why a photo looks turned in some programs

A phone often stores the pixels in the sensor's direction and adds a small orientation tag. Apps that read the tag show the photo upright. Apps that ignore it show it sideways.

When you rotate and save here, the turned pixels are written into the new file. Every program then shows it the same way.

## Landscape to portrait

Turning by 90 degrees swaps the width and the height, so a wide scan becomes a tall page. The 180 degree turn keeps both numbers. None of the turns crops the picture or leaves empty corners.

## Questions

### Can I tilt a photo by 5 or 10 degrees?

Not here. The tool turns in steps of 90 degrees, which keeps every pixel. A small tilt needs a crop or a filled background, and a photo editor suits that better.

### Does the file type change?

PNG and WebP files keep their format. Any other type, such as GIF, BMP, AVIF or HEIC, is saved as JPG.

### Is a PNG changed when I rotate it?

Only the order of the pixels changes. A PNG stays free of loss, while a JPG is encoded once more after the turn.

[Open Rotate Image](https://toolsugar.com/tools/rotate-image)

## Related guides

- [How to crop an image to a size or aspect ratio](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-crop-an-image)
- [How to resize an image by pixels, percent or KB](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-resize-an-image)
- [How to rotate a video](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-rotate-a-video)
- [How to convert image formats: JPG, PNG, WebP](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-convert-image-formats)