Cropping, Rotating and Flipping Images

Cropping for Composition

A crop removes everything outside a rectangle. Used well, it takes away distractions at the edges, moves the subject to a stronger position and fits the picture to where it will be shown.

• Rule of thirds: the crop grid divides the frame into thirds. A subject or horizon near one of these lines often looks more balanced than one in the dead centre.
• Leave space in the direction of movement: a person looking or walking to the right usually needs more room on the right side of the frame.
• Check the edges: avoid leaving a thin sliver of an object at the border.
• Straighten first: rotate a tilted horizon by a small angle before the final crop, because straightening creates corners that you will want to crop away.

Common Aspect Ratios

The aspect ratio is the width divided by the height. Fixing it while cropping makes the result fit a frame, print or layout without stretching or a second crop.

These are common conventions, not rules. Platforms change their recommended sizes and ratios from time to time, so check each platform's current requirements before you prepare images for it, and keep important content away from the edges in case previews are cropped.

Resolution After Cropping

Cropping does not scale anything: the pixels inside the crop area are kept and the rest are discarded. A 4000 × 3000 photo cropped to its central quarter becomes 2000 × 1500 pixels. A tight crop of a small image can end up too small for its purpose, and enlarging it afterwards cannot add the missing detail.

Compare the output size with where the image will be used. A slot that is displayed 1200 pixels wide needs about 1200 pixels of width, or more for high-density screens. For print, multiply the print size in inches by the resolution you want; 300 pixels per inch is a frequently quoted target, so a 6-inch-wide print would need about 1800 pixels. The Crop Image tool shows the exact output size while you drag the box or type pixel values. To make a large crop smaller afterwards, use the Image Resizer.

Rotating and EXIF Orientation

Many cameras and phones do not turn the pixels when you hold the device upright. They store the image in the sensor's orientation and add an EXIF "Orientation" tag that tells viewers how to rotate it for display. Programs and websites that read the tag show the photo upright; those that ignore it, or tools that remove the metadata without applying it, show the same photo sideways or upside down. The opposite problem also happens: a program turns the pixels but leaves the tag, and another viewer rotates the image a second time.

The Rotate & Flip Image and Crop Image tools apply the tag when they open a photo, so you work on the upright picture. The saved file has upright pixels and no orientation tag, so it looks the same everywhere. Turns in 90° steps move pixels without resampling; a custom angle, such as 1.5° to straighten a horizon, resamples the image and softens it slightly.

Flipping and Mirrored Text

Flipping (mirroring) is not the same as rotating. A horizontal flip swaps left and right, so any text, logo, number plate, clock or road sign in the picture becomes reversed and obviously wrong. Faces also look subtly different when mirrored, because faces are not exactly symmetrical. Use a flip on purpose, for example to undo the mirror effect of a front camera or to make a subject face into a layout, and check the result for reversed text. Flipping vertically and then horizontally gives the same result as rotating by 180°.

Re-encoding, Quality and Transparent Corners

Browser-based tools, including LeedyBox, decode the image, change the pixels and encode a new file. For JPG and WebP this is lossy, so each save loses a little detail, even for a 90° turn. Some desktop programs can rotate JPG files in 90° steps without re-encoding; the LeedyBox tools cannot. Make your edits in one session and save once, use a high quality setting such as 90 or above for photos, or choose PNG when the decoded pixels must stay unchanged. See reducing image file size for the trade-off between quality and size.

A custom angle leaves empty corners. You can expand the canvas and fill them, or keep the original size and cut them off. PNG and WebP can keep the corners transparent; JPG cannot store transparency, so they need a colour, usually white. The same applies to circle crops, as explained in JPG vs PNG vs WebP vs AVIF.

Frequently Asked Questions