How to straighten a crooked photo, or fix one that shows up sideways

To level a tilted photo, open Rotate image, choose it, and drag the Angle slider until the horizon or a doorframe sits straight. To fix a photo that shows up sideways on a website, open it on the same page and download it: the page reads the phone's orientation note and saves the pixels upright, so it looks the same everywhere.

Steps to straighten a tilted photo

1. Open Rotate image and choose the photo.
2. Find a line that should be level or upright: the horizon, a table edge, a window frame, the corner of a building.
3. Under Any angle, drag the Angle slider, or tap -5°, -2°, +2° or +5° to get close fast. It moves in half-degree steps, up to 45° either way.
4. Watch your chosen line until it sits straight. Double-click the slider to reset to 0°.
5. Download.

Steps to fix a sideways photo

1. Open Rotate image and choose the photo that appears sideways elsewhere.
2. Check how it looks here. In most cases it already shows the right way up.
3. If it does, download it straight away. If not, tap Rotate right or Rotate left first.
4. Upload the downloaded copy wherever the original showed sideways.

Why photos show up sideways

Phones usually save every photo in the sensor's own orientation and add a small note to the file, the EXIF orientation tag, that says which way is up. Photo apps and most browsers read the note and turn the photo for you. Some websites, older programs and upload forms ignore it, and the photo appears on its side.

This page reads the note when it opens the photo, shows it upright, and saves the pixels themselves upright. The saved copy no longer depends on the note, so it looks right everywhere. Most other hidden data, such as the GPS position, is left out when you save.

If you want to keep all the photo's other data and only see what it carries, the photo metadata viewer shows the orientation and every other field without changing the file.

How much a small angle trims

A picture turned by a small angle no longer fills its rectangle, which would leave blank wedges at the corners. The page zooms in from the centre just enough to cover them, and the saved picture keeps its width and height. The bigger the angle, the more of each edge is trimmed:

For a turn past 45°, start with Rotate right or Rotate left and straighten from there.

Straightening tips

• Trust lines near the middle. Lines at the edge of a wide-angle photo bend outward and are not a reliable guide.
• Pick the horizon for landscapes, verticals for buildings. A building photographed from below will lean inward whatever you do; level a vertical near the centre.
• Crop after straightening if you also want a different shape. Crop sits in the same tool list, so you do not need to save in between; the separate crop tool works on the downloaded copy too.
• Stop at "looks right". Half a degree can matter. Zoom into the preview before you download.

Questions

Why does my photo look fine on my phone but sideways on a website?

Your phone reads the orientation note in the file and the website does not. Save the photo through this page and the pixels themselves are upright.

Does straightening lower the quality?

A fine angle blends neighbouring pixels slightly, as every rotation tool does, and trims a little of the edges. Save as PNG, or JPG at a high quality, to avoid extra compression.

Can I straighten several photos at once?

No, the page works on one photo at a time, since each photo leans by its own amount.

Is the photo uploaded?

No. It is turned and saved in your browser, and stays on your device.