How to rotate image added to JPEG in preview without trackpad?

[boemtje]

I feel like an idiot for asking, but how do I rotate an image I added to a JPEG in Preview? I selected some part of the image, copied it and now want to rotate that copied part for an arbitrary amount of degrees. I used to do this on my MacBook by simply using two rotating fingers on the trackpad to rotate the image, but I now use a Mac mini with no trackpad (or Magic Mouse for that matter). Apple's help page isn't of much help as it suggests to do exactly that... Is there really no way to this without a trackpad??

https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/rotate-and-modify-shapes-added-to-a-pdf-prvwff3ad934/mac

 

[4sallypat]

command - L

 

[chabig]

Or command-R. These are both located under the tools menu. There is no option to rotate in arbitrary amounts. It's 90 degrees or nothing.

 

[boemtje]

No that's not what I'm after. cmd-R/L rotate the whole file image and indeed only 90degrees.
Im asking to rotate a copy-pasted part of the image an arbitrary amount. Can you do that with a trackpad (as per the Apple help page), just try it yourself if you have a trackpad: open a jpg/png, select an random area, cmd-c, cmd-v (you should now have a copy of the selected area), and will be able to rotate that an arbitrary amount using the trackpad by moving two fingers in a circular motion. Is there no way to this is without trackpad?

 

[chabig]

...will be able to rotate that an arbitrary amount using the trackpad by moving two fingers in a circular motion

Yes, but it snaps to 90 degrees when you take your fingers off the trackpad, so how is that useful? That's purely a trackpad gesture effect and there is no way to do it without a trackpad.

 

[SpeQ]

Is there no way to this is without trackpad?

Did you ever find an answer to this?

 

[chabig]

Did you ever find an answer to this?

Preview can only rotate pictures in 90 degree increments.

 

[SpeQ]

Preview can only rotate pictures in 90 degree increments.

You still don't understand the question. The question is about rotating an annotation in a preview document. Maybe if you had clicked on the link OP provided in the first comment, you would understand.

Open an existing jpeg file in preview, go to view, choose show markup toolbar, add a shape (like a rectangle). You can then move that rectangle and resize it by dragging on the handles. If you have a trackpad, you can rotate that rectangle. The question here is: If you don't have a trackpad, can you rotate that rectangle?

After spending a while searching for a solution, I was unable to find one. The consensus seems to be there is no solution.

 

[chabig]

Yes. I didn't understand the question. I've been experimenting and it looks like there is no tool to arbitrarily rotate objects in Preview annotations using a mouse.

But there is a workaround! If you use SideCar and move the window to an iPad you can rotate the object with your fingers, then move it back to the Mac.

 

[SpeQ]

Yes. I didn't understand the question. I've been experimenting and it looks like there is no tool to arbitrarily rotate objects in Preview annotations using a mouse.

But there is a workaround! If you use SideCar and move the window to an iPad you can rotate the object with your fingers, then move it back to the Mac.

Another semi-workaround is to rotate the image before adding annotation, but that's not very helpful.

It's just strange that it can be done only on a trackpad. It's like the software has the ability, but there's no interface for it. It seems like there should be a modifier key that makes it work. I guess I should be happy that Preview has the abilities it does now, compared to what it used to be.

 

[boemtje]

Did you ever find an answer to this?

Unfortunately not... Really weird. Curious if it works with the Magic Mouse.

Im not sure if it was Preview or some other app (iPhoto maybe?), but in the past when you would have such item selected, an orangey semi circle arrow would pop up above the selection. By clicking that arrow and then dragging your mouse (counter)clockwise would rotate that selection. It's an elegant solution and not sure why there is nothing in Preview right now.

 

[wys]

not the answer you want, but my suggestion is to not use Preview for this. I would try something like Adobe Acrobat Pro. You might also try Microsoft Office such as Word or even PowerPoint.

If you are lucky enough to be working with this stuff programmatically you might be able to do something useful with ImageMagick https://imagemagick.org/index.php or you might try LaTeX to just create the PDF correctly in the first place.

If you need to do basic tweaks to image files that Preview cannot handle, I prefer to use Paintbrush https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/

 

[steve123]

It is 2023 and you still cannot rotate an image or text box in Preview without using a track pad. Unbelievable.