How to Rotate an Image in Microsoft Paint

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2024-05-30

In this tutorial, we'll learn how to rotate an image using Microsoft Paint, which is installed by default on Windows.

Step 1: open Paint and open the image you want to rotate.

Warning: if the image you want to rotate is a JPG file (typical format for photos), it's a better idea to use the Photos app that comes installed in Windows instead to avoid JPG artifacts when saving. The tutorial makes more sense if you are rotating non-JPG files, or you are also doing other things to them, like resizing or flipping.

See Danger: Your Image Files may be Destroyed by Default for details.

Step 2: click the "Rotate" tool button on the ribbon. This will make a dropdown menu appear.

The location of the rotate button in Microsoft Paint, and its dropdown menu. — The location of the rotate button in Microsoft Paint (red rectangle), and its dropdown menu.

Step 3: click on one of the options in the menu: "Rotate left 90°," "Rotate right 90°," or "Rotate 180°." It seems it's not possible to rotate by an arbitrary number of degrees. Use a more advanced image editor like Krita if you want to rotate by 20 degrees, for example. After you click on one of the three options, the image will be rotated.

Step 4. after you're finished, click File -> Save as -> PNG picture on the menubar to save the image.