Have you ever taken a horizontal photo that you want to fit into a vertical frame? Or did you embed an image over the background and then wanted to rotate it?
With Photoshop, you can easily rotate and change the orientation of not only images, but also text in photos.
What makes it easy to modify images in Photoshop is its ability to work with layers. Each individual image, text, and object is created on a separate layer so you can edit them later.
Name the layers – it’s a good idea. This makes identification easier when working with complex images and multiple layers.
- Start Photoshop, click File in the top navigation bar and click Open to select the image you want to use. We’re going to rotate the shark in the background image.
Rotate an embedded Photoshop image - Launch Photoshop, click File from the top navigation bar, then click Open to select the image That you want to use. We will rotate the shark image on the background image.
2. Select the shark layer on the right side.
- Click Convert under Edit in the top navigation bar and select Rotate.
- Grab the top right corner of the image, rotate it and hit the checkmark or press Enter to save the new orientation.
How to rotate a background image in Photoshop
For this example, let’s say we scanned the image upside down.
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We’ll rotate it by clicking on Image in the top menu bar> Image Rotation> 180 °.
If your image is sideways, follow the same steps, except select 90 ° clockwise or 90 ° counterclockwise from the options under Image Rotation.
Depending on how you want to rotate the image, use one of the options in the Image Rotation section shown above.
Next: You can also make these background images transparent in Photoshop.
- If your image is crooked, you can straighten it by choosing the Crop tool from the left navigation bar.
How to straighten an image in Photoshop - If your image is crooked, you can straighten it by selecting Crop Tool from the right navigation bar.
- To rotate the entire image instead of cutting off parts of it, click Content Aware in the top bar.
- Make sure the Remove Cropped Pixels check box is not selected. Click the Straighten icon on the top toolbar.
- Draw a straight line over the image. When you release the mouse, the image will automatically rotate around the line.
- Photoshop will automatically rotate the image when you release the tool. Press the Enter key to accept the changes.
- If the image does not cover the entire window, you can use the Crop tool to expand the photo to fit the canvas and press Enter.
Save your file
There are several ways to save your file. Start by clicking File> Save or Save As. Using “Save” will overwrite the original file with the edited version.
When you select the “Save As” option, a pop-up window will appear in which you select the location and file type.
Your first choice is to save the file to the cloud or to your computer. If you want to be able to edit your project, be sure to save it as a Photoshop file to preserve the layer structure. You can also save it as the most popular image file types to share with others.
Leave the Layers checkbox unchecked when saving as a Photoshop file so you can edit them later.
How to rotate text in Photoshop
When it comes to rotating text in Photoshop, what’s your goal? Do you want to rotate the axis around one point or rotate the orientation?
How to change the orientation of text using free transform
- Start by creating a new file. Go to File> New> Select Document Type. We’ll be using Photoshop’s default size with a white background.
- In the left sidebar, select the Horizontal Type tool.
- Choose a font style, type, size and case from the options on the toolbar below from the drop-down menus.
- Position the cursor over the background to open a text box. Type what you want over the placeholder text and click the checkmark to accept.
- Using the Move tool in the left pane will allow you to drag text anywhere on the canvas.
We’ll start with simple text on one layer and a white background on another.
- To change the orientation from vertical to horizontal, click Free Transform on the Edit tab in the top bar.
- A border appears around the text. Move the cursor until you see the arrow change from straight to curved. While holding the cursor, rotate the text to a vertical position.
Always remember to select the text layer while editing it.
You can use this same flexible method to rotate text in any direction you choose. Below are some examples of different rotation effects.
Rotate text using the Toggle Text Orientation tool
- The easiest way to change text orientation is to click Type in the left pane.
- Now locate the Change text orientation icon in the top bar and click it.
- Clicking the radio button will rotate the text. You may need to change the size and position of the font to fit on the page.
- If your text does not fit on the page, click the text editing tool to change the font size.
Rotate text 90 ° clockwise
We’ll start with the same simple text on top on one layer and a white background on the other.
With the text layer selected, go to Edit> Transform> Rotate 90 ° Clockwise.
As shown in the screenshot above, this same process allows the text to be rotated 180 ° and 90 ° counterclockwise.
Final Tips
Remember, if you want to be able to edit or retouch your Photoshop projects in the future, you must save them as layered Photoshop files to preserve the layer structure.
To share images with others, you can also save them as popular image file types. In this case, the layers are combined into one and can no longer be edited.
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