There are many reasons that you might want or need to rotate an image. If you have a scanned picture or a digital camera image that should be vertical but opens as a horizontally oriented picture, rotating it 90 degrees corrects the problem. This is a common occurrence when you use a scanner because it's usually quicker to scan with the picture horizontal, regardless of its normal orientation (see Figure 4.5). Figure 4.5. Placing the short side horizontally shortens the scanning time.
Rotate 180 Degrees and 90 Degrees Clockwise or CounterclockwiseTo rotate the entire image, use the Image Rotate Canvas submenu shown in Figure 4.6. Choose 90 degrees clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW) to straighten up a sideways image, or 180 degrees if you somehow brought in a picture upside down. Figure 4.6. The Rotate Canvas submenu.
Rotate by DegreesTo rotate the canvas by something other than a right angle, choose Image Rotate Canvas Arbitrary to open a dialog box like the one shown in Figure 4.7. Enter the number of degrees to rotate. If youre not sure, guess. You can always undo and try again with a different number of degrees or a different direction if needed. Click the radio button to indicate the rotational direction: clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW). Then click OK to perform the rotation. Figure 4.7. You can even rotate by fractions of a degree.
Rotate a SelectionRotating a selection, as opposed to turning the whole canvas, is done in the same manner as resizing one. First, make the selection. Then use Edit Transform Rotate to place a bounding box around your selection. Drag on any of the corner handles to rotate the selection around its center point. You can see the center point as the target-shaped object in the middle of the selection in Figure 4.12. If you need to rotate the selection off-center, drag the center point to where you want it and then rotate the selection. Figure 4.12. Drag any corner point to rotate the selection.
Free TransformYou can use Edit Free Transform to make any of the changes described. Drag the handles as you press modifier keys to rotate, skew, scale, or distort as much as you want. You can also access the numeric transformations in the Tool Options bar. To distort relative to the center of the bounding box, press Alt/Option as you drag. To distort freely , press Control/Command instead. To skew, press Shift+Control (Windows) or Shift+Command (Mac). Or, if you change your mind, press Esc to cancel the transformation. |