Rotate PNG Portable Network Graphics Free Online Secure
The picture is turned and saved again. Nothing is scaled, nothing is cropped, and the file never leaves your device.
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Why a photo can be sideways in the first place
A camera sensor is rectangular and does not turn when you turn the camera. When you hold a phone upright, the picture is still recorded in the sensor's own orientation, and a small tag is written into the file saying which way up it should be shown. That tag is part of EXIF, the block of camera data that has travelled inside photographs since 1995. Software that reads the tag shows the photograph upright; software that ignores it shows the sensor's version, lying on its side. This is why the same file looks right on your phone and wrong when uploaded somewhere, and it is the reason most rotation is needed at all.
Where you need it
Scans that came out of the feeder the wrong way up; photographs taken in portrait that every program insists on showing in landscape; a PDF whose pages were scanned sideways and are painful to read; a document whose first page is upright and whose appendix, scanned separately, is not. Rotation is also the quickest cure when a file has to be sent somewhere that will not read the orientation tag.
Questions people ask
Why does my photo look right on my phone but sideways on the computer?
Because the two are reading the same file differently. The photograph is stored in the sensor's orientation with a tag saying how to turn it; the phone obeys the tag, and the other program does not. Rotating the image here resolves the disagreement permanently: the pixels themselves are turned and the tag is set to upright, so every program agrees from then on, whether it reads the tag or not.
Does rotating lose quality?
Not in a quarter turn. A rotation by 90, 180 or 270 degrees moves whole pixels into new places without having to invent any, so the image that comes out is exactly the image that went in. Rotation by some other angle is a different matter: the new grid does not line up with the old one, every pixel has to be estimated from its neighbours, and the picture softens slightly. The pages here turn in quarter turns, so nothing is lost.
Does the file lose quality?
It depends on what the two formats can hold. Converting between formats that store the same thing — a PNG to a BMP, a WAV to a FLAC — loses nothing. Converting into a format that throws information away to save space, such as JPEG or MP3, loses a little every time, and converting back does not bring it back. Where a choice exists, this page errs towards keeping the original quality rather than making the smallest file.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens inside your browser, on your own machine; the file never leaves it and there is no server here that could receive it. That is why a large file is limited by your own memory rather than by an upload, and why nothing you convert can appear in anybody's logs — including ours. The audio and video tools do fetch their conversion engine from this site the first time you use them, some thirty megabytes once; after that the work still happens entirely on your machine.
Why people rotate PNG files
A screenshot taken on a device held sideways. A scan saved as a PNG that arrives on its side. A diagram exported the wrong way round. A photograph of a page that must be upright before it goes into a report. Whatever the cause, the picture is the wrong way up, and the quickest remedy is to rotate the PNG so that it is right in the file itself, wherever it goes. People rotate PNG files for ordinary reasons: because a form wants an upright document, because a picture must fit a layout, because a set of images should all face the same way, or because it is simply irritating to tilt your head.
There is an extra reason to like this page. PNG is a lossless format, so when you rotate a PNG, nothing of the picture is given up. It is the cleanest kind of rotation there is: every pixel arrives in its new place exactly as it was, with no quality cost, however many times you do it. That makes it a very comfortable operation for screenshots, scans of text and graphics, where sharpness matters.
This page lets you rotate PNG files entirely in your browser. The picture never leaves your device, which matters for screenshots that show private information and for scans of documents. Below you will find how the rotation works, what is kept, what to expect from the file, and how to avoid the common mistakes.
How the rotation works
The picture is turned and saved again
To rotate a PNG here, you choose a turn, and the picture is turned and written out again as a new PNG. Nothing is scaled and nothing is cropped. An image of 1920 by 1080 pixels, turned a quarter, becomes 1080 by 1920 pixels, with every pixel simply in a new place.
Whole quarter turns only
You can turn a picture a quarter to the right, a quarter to the left or half a turn. These cover the sideways and upside-down cases that make up nearly all real needs. A picture that is only slightly crooked needs a different kind of tool, one that straightens by a few degrees and has to deal with the corners.
How to tell which way to turn
Look at the picture: if the top of the scene points to the right, it needs a quarter turn to the left to be upright; if the top points to the left, a quarter turn to the right; if it is upside down, a half turn. When in doubt, try one and look at the preview.
What is kept
Every pixel and the proportions
When you rotate PNG files this way, every pixel of the picture is kept. Nothing is resized, cropped or stretched, and the shape of the picture simply changes between landscape and portrait. The colours, the sharp edges and the small text all stay exactly as they were.
The resolution the file records
A picture file records a resolution, the dots per inch it is meant to print at. That note is carried over, so a scan turned upright still prints at the size it did before. This matters for scanned pages, where the physical size is part of the meaning: an A4 page scanned sideways and rotated upright is still A4.
Why the recorded resolution matters
Without it, a program has to guess how large a picture is meant to be on paper, and may print a scan at the wrong size. By carrying the resolution across, the rotated picture knows its intended size, so it fits a page properly when you place it in a document or send it to a printer.
What to expect from the file
Nothing is given up
PNG is lossless, so nothing of the picture is given up when you rotate it. The file is simply written afresh, with the pixels in their new positions. There is no quality loss, no softening and no change to the colours, and you can rotate a PNG as many times as you like without it getting worse. That is the great advantage over rotating a JPG, which loses a little each time.
The file size may differ a little
Because the file is written again, its size may differ slightly from the original. The pixels are identical, but the way they are packed can vary, so the new file may be a little bigger or a little smaller. This is normal and does not mean anything has changed in the picture.
Why the size can change
PNG compresses by finding patterns in rows of pixels. Turning the picture changes which pixels are neighbours, so the patterns the compressor finds differ, and so does the result. For most pictures the difference is a few per cent either way.
What a PNG is, and why rotating it is clean
PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. It stores a picture as a grid of coloured dots and packs it without discarding anything, so the picture you open is bit for bit the picture that was saved. Because nothing is thrown away when a PNG is written, you can open one, change it and save it again as often as you like without it getting worse. That property is what makes it so pleasant to rotate a PNG: the picture is read in full, turned and written out in full, and the result is exactly the same picture in a new orientation.
The contrast with JPG is instructive. A JPG discards a little detail every time it is saved, so every turn of a JPG costs something. A PNG costs nothing. If you have the choice, and the picture is a screenshot, a scan of text or a graphic, keeping it as a PNG and using this page to rotate the PNG is the best of both worlds: lossless and easy.
When the picture started as a JPG
If your picture is a photograph saved as JPG and you want to turn it without any loss at all, you can first convert it to PNG, then rotate the PNG, and keep the PNG as your lossless master. The conversion itself does not lose anything, because the pixels are copied as they are. You can find it in the JPG to PNG converter. The cost is a larger file, which is the usual price of losslessness.
Screenshots, scans and graphics
The pictures people most often need to rotate as PNG files fall into three groups. Screenshots from rotated devices are common: a tablet or phone held sideways produces a sideways screenshot. Scanned pages saved as PNG are common too, particularly from scanners and apps that choose the lossless format for documents. And graphics, such as diagrams and charts exported from other programs, sometimes need turning to fit a layout.
For all three, sharpness is the point. Small text must stay legible, thin lines must stay thin, flat colours must stay flat. That is exactly what lossless rotation preserves. When you rotate a PNG screenshot, the letters in it are as crisp as before, and when you rotate PNG scans of text, every word stays as readable as it was.
Preparing scans for a document
If your scans are going to become a document, rotate them before you assemble the file. It is far easier to rotate PNG files individually, with a preview for each, than to correct pages inside a finished document. Once they are upright, PNG to PDF turns the set into a single file with every page the right way round.
Screenshots from rotated devices
Phones and tablets that rotate their screens sometimes produce screenshots that are sideways relative to what you saw. The picture is correct, but it is stored on its side. Support teams, bug reporters and writers of guides run into this constantly. The quick fix is to rotate the PNG a quarter turn, and the screenshot reads normally.
If you take many such screenshots, it is worth checking them as you go. A sideways screenshot in a document or a ticket makes more work for everyone who reads it. When you rotate PNG screenshots before you send them, the reader sees what you saw, without effort, and your message is taken more seriously for being tidy.
Annotating after rotating
If you plan to draw arrows or add notes to a screenshot, rotate the PNG first and annotate afterwards. Annotations drawn on a sideways picture would need to be rotated with it, and text added before rotation ends up sideways. Doing it in the right order avoids rework.
How to rotate PNG files here
Add your picture
Drop the PNG onto the page or pick it from your device. It is read inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Choose the turn
Pick a quarter turn left, a quarter turn right or a half turn. Check the preview to be sure the picture is upright.
Rotate and check
Press the button and download the corrected picture. Open it and make sure it is upright and that nothing has changed except the direction.
Tips for a clean result
Rotate before other steps
If the picture is going into a document, a watermark or a layout, rotate the PNG first so everything that follows is upright.
Keep the original
Although nothing is lost, keep the original file so you can always return to it.
Use the preview
Choose the turn by looking at the preview rather than guessing, and you will get it right first time.
Questions people ask before rotating
Will the quality drop?
No. PNG is lossless, so nothing of the picture is given up. The file is simply written afresh.
Why is the file a different size?
Because it is written afresh, and the pixels are packed in a slightly different order. The picture itself is identical.
Can I rotate by a few degrees?
No. Only whole quarter turns are possible. A slightly crooked picture needs a different tool.
Is my picture uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser and the picture never leaves your device.
Who needs to rotate PNG files
People working with screenshots
Screenshots from rotated devices arrive sideways. Rotating the PNG puts them right.
Anyone with scanned pages saved as PNG
Scanners often store pages on their side. Rotating the PNG makes them readable.
Designers and writers
Diagrams and graphics sometimes need turning to fit a layout, and PNG's losslessness means they stay sharp.
Common mistakes
Turning the wrong way
Look at the preview, and if it is wrong, start again from the original.
Expecting to straighten a crooked picture
Only quarter turns are possible. Use an image tool to straighten by degrees.
Worrying about quality
There is nothing to worry about: PNG rotation is lossless.
Related tools
For photographs, rotate JPG works the same way, though it costs a little quality each time, and for BMP files rotate BMP. To fix the pages of a document, rotate PDF turns them without any loss. After rotating you can compress the PNG, put pictures into a document with PNG to PDF, or add a watermark. To convert the picture, PNG to JPG gives a much lighter file for photographs.
When to rotate PNG files, and when not to
You should rotate PNG files whenever a picture will leave your own devices and has to look right everywhere: an upload form, an email, a document, a website, a print order. It is unnecessary if the picture will only be viewed in your own gallery, and it is the wrong tool for a picture that is merely slightly crooked, which needs straightening by degrees. For photographs you care about, remember that a lossless PNG copy is the best master to turn.
For the common cases, such as screenshots, scans and graphics, it is quick, private and lossless to rotate PNG files in the browser. Your original is never changed, so you can come back and rotate a PNG again from the original whenever you like, with a different turn if the first was not right. Because nothing is lost, you can even rotate the result again, if you wish.
Batches of pictures
If you have many pictures to correct, rotate PNG files one at a time and keep the originals in a separate folder. Work through them in groups: all the quarter-turn-left ones, then all the quarter-turn-right ones. Check one result in each group at full size before you do the rest.
Large pictures and slow devices
Everything runs on your own device, so very large pictures depend on its memory. A typical screenshot is no trouble for a modern phone or computer. A very large poster-sized PNG may be slow on an older device. If it struggles, give the browser a moment and avoid switching to other apps while it works.
Keeping the file size sensible
Rotation does not make a PNG smaller. If the picture is too large for where it is going, compress the PNG afterwards, or convert photographs to JPG. Doing it after you rotate PNG files means you start from an upright picture and make one decision about size.
Checking the result properly
After you rotate a PNG, open it at the size you will use. Check that it is upright, that small text is still sharp and that nothing has been cut off. If everything looks right, the job is done. If the picture is still wrong, rotate the PNG again from the original with a different choice; nothing is lost either way.
A simple routine to rotate PNG files well
Look at the picture and decide which turn it needs. Rotate the PNG once, using the preview to confirm. Download the result and check it at the size you will use. Then send, upload or place it, and keep the original. This routine takes less than a minute, and it works whether you rotate PNG files once a month or every day. If you rotate PNG files in batches, do them in groups that need the same turn, and check one in each group before you continue. And since nothing is lost, there is never any harm in trying again.
Your picture stays on your device
The rotation happens locally. Your picture is read by your own browser, turned and saved there and handed back. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no copy on a server and no one else who could see it. For screenshots with private information and scans of documents, that is the safe way to rotate PNG files.
A worked example
Say you took a screenshot on a tablet held sideways, and the picture shows an error message lying on its side. You drop the PNG here, choose a quarter turn to the right and check the preview. You press the button and download the corrected picture: every pixel is as it was, only the direction has changed, and the text is as crisp as before. You attach it to your support ticket.
Rotate PNG: a short recap
To rotate a PNG is to fix its orientation for good, with no loss. When you rotate PNG files with this page, you choose the turn, check the preview and download the result. Each time you rotate a PNG, every pixel is kept, so you can rotate PNG pictures as often as you like. If you need to rotate PNG files in bulk, work in groups. And whenever you rotate a PNG that matters, keep the original beside it, so that the very first version is never lost, even though the rotation itself costs nothing.
Before you close the page
Check that you downloaded the corrected picture, that it is upright, and that you kept the original.
Summary
To rotate PNG files here, drop the picture, choose the turn and download the result. Nothing is scaled or cropped, and every pixel and the recorded resolution are kept, so a scan turned upright still prints at the size it did before. PNG is lossless, so nothing of the picture is given up; the file is simply written afresh and its size may differ a little. Only whole quarter turns are possible. Nothing leaves your device.