Flip and rotate
How to Flip and Rotate a Photo in Photasium
A phone shot can come in sideways, a scan can come in upside down, and a product can face the wrong way for a listing. In Photasium that happens in the tab: the file never goes to a server.
The whole canvas, or one layer
Flip on the Image menu mirrors every raster and every text layer across the document, and the canvas keeps its width and height. Rotate on the Image menu turns the whole canvas. A quarter-turn swaps width and height. 180° keeps the size and turns the picture upside down. Custom grows the canvas so the turned corners still fit.
Flip and Rotate on a layer row mirror or turn that one layer, and the canvas keeps the size it has. Canvas Size changes the working area around the picture. Crop sets a rectangle and drops what sits outside the working canvas. Image Size scales every layer to a new pixel count.
A photo that came in sideways
A phone often saves a portrait on its side, and a story or a square post wants the person upright. Image → Rotate → 90° Clockwise or 90° Counterclockwise swaps the width and the height, so a landscape frame becomes a portrait and the subject stands up.
A mirror selfie can face the wrong way for the caption you have in mind. Image → Flip → Horizontal mirrors the person and leaves the canvas the same size. Text can sit on the side you just opened up.
A listing often wants the product facing one way, toward a price you add beside it. Flip on that layer mirrors the product and leaves a logo or a second photo where it was. Flip on the Image menu mirrors every layer, so the price and the product both switch sides. Layers is where you pick the row.
A diagram, a chart, or a window shot can land sideways when the capture came from a phone. A quarter-turn puts the labels upright. The canvas swaps width and height with the picture, so the window still fills the frame.
A scan of a page or a print can come in upside down. 180° turns it over and keeps the width and height, so the page stays the same number of pixels. A custom angle straightens a page that went through the scanner a few degrees off, and the canvas grows so the corners of that page still fit.
Flipping and rotating in Photasium
Open a photo
Open the editor, then File → Open, or drop an image on the canvas.
Flip the canvas
Open Image → Flip, then Horizontal or Vertical. Horizontal mirrors left and right. Vertical mirrors top and bottom. The command applies at once, and the canvas keeps its width and height. A raster that fills the canvas stays in place, and its pixels mirror. A smaller layer moves across the canvas to the mirrored position, and its pixels mirror too. A mask on a raster mirrors with that layer. An existing rotation on a raster changes sign. Type moves across the canvas, its scale flips on that axis, and its rotation changes sign too. A second flip on the same axis puts the picture back. The command palette (⌘K) lists Flip: Horizontal and Flip: Vertical under Image, in Simple and in Advanced.
Rotate the canvas
Open Image → Rotate. 90° Clockwise, 90° Counterclockwise, and 180° apply at once. 90° Clockwise and 90° Counterclockwise swap width and height, so a landscape becomes a portrait, and the view fits the new canvas. 180° keeps the width and height and turns the picture upside down. Four clockwise quarter-turns, or two half-turns, bring the canvas back to the size and orientation you started with. The opposite quarter-turn does the same after one quarter-turn. Custom… opens Rotate image. The hint says it turns the whole canvas, the canvas grows to fit, and positive values rotate clockwise. Degrees starts at 15, the field is already selected, and the step is 0.1. Apply turns the canvas. Cancel, Escape, or a click outside leaves the photo as it was. Degrees 0, or a multiple of 360, closes the dialog and leaves the photo as it was. 450° is the same quarter-turn as 90°, because a full turn is dropped. A custom angle grows the canvas to the corners of the turned rectangle. Undo brings the previous canvas back. A later custom turn of the opposite number turns the canvas you have now, including any extra margin from the first turn. If the new width or height would be over 8192 pixels, a note says Rotation would exceed the 8192 px limit, the dialog stays open, and the photo stays as it was. The command palette lists the three fixed turns under Image. Custom is only on the Image menu. Flip and Rotate on the Image menu are there in Simple and in Advanced.
Flip or rotate one layer
With Advanced pressed, the Layers panel lists the rows. Right-click a raster or a text row. Flip and Rotate are on that menu, next to Transform and Distort. Horizontal and Vertical mirror that layer and leave it where it is. A raster’s pixels mirror in place, and a mask on that layer mirrors with them. If the layer already has a rotation, the pixels mirror inside the layer and that rotation stays. Type mirrors in place: its scale flips on that axis, and the letters stay on the same spot. 90° Clockwise, 90° Counterclockwise, and 180° turn that layer around its centre and leave the canvas size as it is. Custom… opens Rotate layer. The hint says it turns the active layer around its center, and that positive values rotate clockwise. Degrees starts at 15. Apply adds that angle to the layer’s current angle. A full turn lands on the same orientation. The corners of a turned layer can sit outside the canvas, and an export of this document leaves that part out. A locked row disables Flip and Rotate. From the command palette, the same command reports Layer is locked and leaves the layer as it was. A group row and an adjustment layer do not list Flip or Rotate. The command palette still lists the layer flip rows for those layers, and choosing one leaves the row as it was. With Advanced pressed and a layer selected, the palette lists Flip: Horizontal and Flip: Vertical under Layers. Those rows flip the active layer. The rows with the same names under Image flip the whole canvas. The history row for a layer flip reads Flip layer. A layer turn reads Move or transform.
Undo if the turn is wrong
Undo restores the canvas, the layer positions, and the pixels from before that flip or turn. The history row for an image flip reads Flip image. A canvas turn reads Rotate image.
Image flip and image rotate clear a selection and any crop box. A layer flip or a layer turn leaves a selection where it was. A photo you open uses a transparent background, so the extra corners from a custom canvas turn show the checkerboard. PNG and WebP keep those pixels clear. JPEG fills them with white. Fill paints the new area if you want a colour there. File → New can start with a solid background, and that colour fills the working area, including corners a later turn adds.
A group is a folder. Image flip and image rotate still turn the rasters and the type inside it, and the group row itself stays. An adjustment layer keeps its settings and recolours whatever is composited below it, so the same settings apply after the picture turns. Image → Flip and Image → Rotate turn a locked layer along with the rest of the document. The layer menu leaves a locked row as it was.
A raster keeps its pixel count, and type keeps its font size. Canvas Size adds or removes working area around the picture. Crop redraws the document into a new rectangle. Image Size scales every layer. Select (V) drags a layer if you want it in a different place after the turn.
The picture, the right way up
The canvas or the layer is in the orientation you set, nothing was uploaded, and undo brings the previous pixels back. If a custom turn added more margin than you wanted, undo and use a quarter-turn, or open Canvas Size and set the working area.
Download PNG, JPEG, or WebP if you need a file to send. Come back later and the document is still listed under the editor, until this browser’s storage is cleared. Flip and Rotate sit with the other photo editing tools: change the canvas size, pick one layer, and export a listing.