How to Straighten (Align, Rotate)
a Picture
Most image-editing programs have options that allows you to rotate a picture clockwise or counter-clockwise to an angle of your choice.
Windows Paint, the no-frills image-editing program that comes with Windows, will only let you rotate a picture in 90 degree increments; however,
most other programs offer more sophisticated alignment options. With a picture opened in Paint, the Rotate command will be found under
Images.
Rotating a Picture with Irfanview
Irfanview (my favorite program for opening, cropping, and resizing photos) also has a rotation option under Image that lets you choose Rotate Left or Rotate Right. These commands will rotate a picture 90º counter-clockwise and 90º clockwise, respectively.
Clicking on Image>Custom Rotation will let you rotate a picture clockwise to any angle from 1º to 359º. If you want to rotate a picture counter-clockwise, place a minus sign (-) in front of the number you type in.
If you rotate a picture in Irfanview, but are not pleased with the result, you can click Edit>Undo (or Ctrl+Z) to return the image to its previous state.
Irfanview is a totally free program that can be downloaded from:
www.irfanview.com.
Picasa can be downloaded from:
http://picasa.google.com.
Rotating a Picture with Picasa
Picasa is free from Google and is an image-management program I recommend for anyone with a large collection of digital photos. However, Picasa's command structure tends to be a little complicated, so here's a step-by-step guide on how to straighten a photo with Picasa.
Picasa Needs Some Time to "Index" All Your Photos
In order to work properly, however, Picasa should be installed a few hours before its first use. This is because it "indexes" all your pictures, much like Google indexes files on the Internet.
Upon launching Picasa, you should see a collection of "Thumbnails" of the images in your "My Photos" folder. The left side of your screen will list all the various folders Picasa has found which contain pictures, with "My Photos" normally marked as the album currently being viewed.
Use the vertical scroll bar to find your target picture. If it's not in the My Pictures folder (which is found inside your My Documents folder), place it there before launching Picassa2. Yes, you can browse to find pictures in other folders, but Picasa is easier to use if the target images are placed inside My Pictures.
If you right-click a Thumbnail of your target picture, Rotate Clockwise and Rotate Counter-Clockwise options will appear, with which can realign the image in 90º increments.
Left-clicking an image's thumbnail view will copy it into the "Picture Tray" in the lower left of the window. You can display a full size view of the picture by double-clicking this icon - or by right-clicking it and choosing View & Edit. Doing either will display a list of editing options to the left of the enlarged picture.
Choose Basic Fixes>Straighten and a grid will overlay the photo, which can help you realign it. A button on a sliding scale under the picture lets you realign the picture with amazing ease and accuracy.
Clicking Apply will create a straightened version of the photo, while leaving the original in place. You then need to click File>Save a Copy, whereupon the edited photo will be given the same name as the original, with a "1" added to the name (such as photo1.jpg).
Further edits and saves would create copies thus incrementally named (photo2.jpg, photo3.jpg, etc.) all of which will be stored in the folder currently in use. (Again - this is usually your My Photos folder).
Straightening a Picture with Microsoft's "Picture It!"
Picture It! has a similar tool that works in a rather unique way. Under Format, click on Straighten Picture. Then choose a line, such as the edge of a door, which you want "upright" instead of "leaning." Click one end of the line, followed by clicking its other end, and the photo will immediately realign itself.
An alternative of way doing this is to click Rotate>Custom, whereupon you can click an up-arrow which will cause the picture to rotate clockwise in one degree increments. Clicking the corresponding down-arrow will rotate the image counter-clockwise. You can also type in an estimated number of clockwise degrees, press Enter, and fine-tune the result with individual clicks.
With the photo now realigned, click on the Crop tool and draw a rectangle with your left mouse-button held down. Clicking Done will leave only the cropped area displayed, whereupon choosing "Save a Copy As" will let you name the edited image, while leaving the original intact.
When you use Picasa's straightening tool, the picture is automatically cropped. To do your own cropping, click Crop>Manual to draw a rectangle as described above, followed by clicking Apply to remove the discarded areas. Alternatively, you can click one of three standard
photo sizes (4x6, 5x7, or 8x10) for automatic resizing.
My preferred program for cropping, however, is Irfanview. When a picture is opened in Irfanview, you can immediately draw a rectangle around the area you want to save. Click the Scissors icon to Cut the cropped area, followed by clicking the Paste icon to reinstate the cropped area while discarding the unwanted material.
My reason for explaining these steps in Irfanview and Picasa is that the programs are totally free. MS-Picture-It! can be purchased, but sometimes comes packaged with new computers.
With other image-editing programs you can click on Help (or press F1 on your keyboard) and then type rotate or rotation or align or alignment or straighten into a Search box for specific details.
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Senior Computer Tutor
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