Rotate & flip: settings and best results

What does Rotate & flip do?

Rotate & flip turns your images in quarter turns and mirrors them, on your own computer. In the app the tool is called Rotate / Flip. Use it to fix photos that come out sideways or upside down, or to mirror an image for a layout. It takes JPG, PNG, WebP and BMP images and gives back one turned copy of each, in the same format.

It also sets phone photos upright for good, so they look the same in every app and on every website.

01Step 1: Open Rotate / Flip and add your images

Click Tools in the sidebar, open the Image tab and click Rotate / Flip in the Edit section. You can also type "rotate" in the search box at the top.

Drop your images on the queue, or click it to pick files. Every image in the queue gets the same settings, so add only the images that need the same turn.

12345

1. 1Rotation
2. 2Flip horizontal
3. 3Auto-fix orientation
4. 4Re-encode quality
5. 5Run rotate

03Step 3: Run, then check the result

Check where the files will go: Default output folder saves them in your workspace’s output folder, in a rotate folder with a subfolder for today’s date, such as 10-15. Click Change to pick another folder for this run. Then click Run rotate.

Each turned image shows Done. Click View to see the original and the result, and Open folder to go to the copies. They keep their original names. To keep going, for example to compress the turned photos, click Chain another tool. See See and compare your results and Where your files are saved.

1234

1. 1Done
2. 2View
3. 3Saved to
4. 4Open folder

Every setting, and when to change it

Rotation

Turns every image by a quarter turn, or upside down.

• RangeNone, 90° ⟳ (clockwise), 90° ⟲ (counterclockwise), 180°
• DefaultNone

Flip horizontal

Mirrors the image left to right, after the rotation.

• DefaultOff

Flip vertical

Mirrors the image top to bottom, after the rotation.

• DefaultOff

Auto-fix orientation

Sets phone and camera photos upright first, using the rotation the camera recorded, so they look the same in every app.

• DefaultOn

Re-encode quality

How carefully JPEG and WebP files are saved again. Higher keeps more detail and makes larger files. PNG and BMP are not affected.

• Range1 to 100
• Default92

How do I get the best result?

• Sort before you run. All images get the same turn. Run the sideways ones and the upside-down ones separately.
• Phone photos that look sideways only on some websites need no rotation at all. Leave Rotation on None with Auto-fix orientation on, and Hangar sets them upright for good.
• Keep Re-encode quality at 92 or above for photos you will edit or print. Lower it only if you also want smaller files.
• Mirror with care. A flip also mirrors any text or logo in the picture.

Why does a result look wrong?

• A file is marked Kept. There was nothing to change: no rotation or flip was picked, and the photo had no camera rotation to fix. Hangar saved an exact copy.
• A phone photo ended up turned the wrong way. Auto-fix orientation was off, so the photo was turned from the way the camera stored it, not the way you saw it. Turn it back on and run the original again.
• The photo turned the opposite way. Use the other 90° button: 90° ⟳ is clockwise, 90° ⟲ is counterclockwise.
• A file failed because its format is not supported yet. HEIC, AVIF, GIF and TIFF images cannot be rotated yet. Convert them with Image Convert first. Animated WebP files are refused too, so they do not lose their animation.

For other errors, see A file failed: what to check.

Limits

• Rotate / Flip accepts JPG, PNG, WebP and BMP. HEIC, AVIF, GIF, TIFF and animated WebP are not supported yet.
• Turns are in quarter turns only. There is no free angle for straightening a tilted horizon.
• One setting applies to the whole queue. There is no per-image setting and no preview.
• JPEG and WebP files are saved again, so a turn is not perfectly lossless for those formats. PNG and BMP keep every pixel.
• The copy keeps the photo’s details from the original, such as the camera and the place it was taken. To remove them, use Strip Metadata.
• Everything runs on your computer. Nothing is uploaded.

Use Rotate / Flip in a chain

Rotate / Flip is available as a step in chains, under the Image steps, with the same five settings as the tool. A saved chain keeps your settings, so you can run it again later.

To start quickly, pick the Straighten & shrink template under Start from a template. It sets photos upright, then compresses them, which suits a folder of phone photos headed for a website. To run the same chain on new files later, see Run a chain on many files.