Flip Image Left to Right, Mirror a Selfie or Rotate 90 Degrees

To flip an image left to right, open it in our flip image tool, press Flip horizontal and save. To turn a sideways photo the right way up, use rotate image and rotate it 90 degrees left or right. Both run in your browser on phone or laptop, and the saved file has its pixels physically turned, so it shows correctly on every site and exam portal.

Flip vs rotate: what is the difference?

• Flip horizontal (mirror): swaps left and right, like a reflection. Text reads backwards. This is what you want for a mirrored selfie.
• Flip vertical: swaps top and bottom. Rarely needed for photos, sometimes for scans or design work.
• Rotate 90 degrees: turns the whole picture a quarter turn. This fixes photos that are lying on their side.
• Rotate 180 degrees: turns it upside down. Two 90-degree turns in the same direction.

A rotated photo is never mirrored, and a flipped photo is never turned. If a photo is both sideways and mirrored, do both in the same tool before saving.

How to flip an image left to right (mirror a photo)

1. Open flip image and choose your photo.
2. Press Flip horizontal. The preview updates straight away.
3. Press Save image and download the result.

The same tool has Rotate left, Rotate right and Flip vertical buttons, so you can combine them. It works on one image at a time and keeps the original format (JPG stays JPG, PNG stays PNG).

Mirror selfie: why selfies come out backwards

Front cameras show you a mirror image while you frame the shot, because that is what feels natural. Some phones save the photo mirrored like the preview; others save it un-mirrored, so it looks "wrong" to you. Either way, the clue is text in the background reading backwards, or a parting in your hair on the wrong side.

Fix an existing photo by flipping it horizontally. To stop it happening, check your camera settings:

• iPhone: Settings > Camera > Mirror Front Camera. When it is on, selfies are saved as you saw them in the preview.
• Android: many camera apps have a similar option, often called "Mirror front camera", "Save selfies as previewed" or "Flip selfies", in the camera's settings. The name and location depend on the phone maker.

For ID and exam photos it rarely matters which way round your face is, but text on a badge or T-shirt should read correctly.

Rotate image by 90 degrees

1. Open rotate image and choose the photo.
2. Press Rotate right (clockwise) or Rotate left (anticlockwise) until it is upright. Press twice for 180 degrees.
3. Press Save image and download.

Rotating by 90 or 180 degrees never crops the image. A 4000 x 3000 photo becomes 3000 x 4000; nothing is lost. The tool only turns in 90-degree steps. To straighten a slightly tilted photo (for example 3 degrees), use your phone's built-in editor, which has a straighten slider, and then crop the edges.

Sideways upload fix (exam portals and forms)

The most common reason people need to rotate: a photo or scanned document looks upright in the gallery but appears sideways after uploading to a form, email or website.

This happens because phones often save the image unrotated and add a small orientation tag that tells apps how to display it. Your gallery reads the tag; some portals, older software and preview systems ignore it. Rotating and saving with our tool writes the pixels the correct way up, so it no longer depends on the tag.

If the upload still turns sideways, it is usually the original file being uploaded instead of the new one. The saved copy ends in -edited, so choose that file. After rotating, you can crop and compress it for the form, for example with crop image and the right compress tool. For exam uploads, see how to reduce photo size to 20 KB or 50 KB.

How to rotate an image on a laptop

• Windows Photos: open the image and press Ctrl+R to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, or use the rotate button in the toolbar. In Edit mode you can also flip and straighten.
• Paint: Rotate on the Home toolbar offers rotate right 90°, rotate left 90°, rotate 180°, flip vertical and flip horizontal. Save afterwards.
• Mac Preview: Tools > Rotate Left (Command-L) or Rotate Right (Command-R), and Tools > Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical.

Or use our tool in any browser, which works the same on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook.

How to rotate or flip an image on iPhone

In the Photos app, open the photo, tap Edit, then tap the crop icon. At the top you will find buttons to rotate (90 degrees at a time) and to flip horizontally, plus a straighten dial below the photo. Tap Done to save.

If a portal still shows it wrong, save a fresh copy with our rotate image tool in Safari and upload that file from the Files app.

Rotate or flip without losing quality

• 90- and 180-degree rotations and flips do not cut or resize anything.
• JPGs are re-saved at high quality (92%), so the change is not visible. If you need several edits, do them all in one go and save once, instead of rotating, saving and reopening repeatedly.
• PNGs are lossless, so nothing changes in the pixels at all.

Common mistakes

• Flipping when you meant to rotate. A flipped portrait looks normal at a glance but text and logos are reversed.
• Uploading the original instead of the edited copy.
• Expecting the tool to straighten a small tilt. It turns in 90-degree steps only.
• Editing a WhatsApp-forwarded copy instead of the original photo, which is already compressed.

Questions