Rotate ICO

How to Rotate an ICO File Online

1. Choose Your ICO Files: Drag and drop ICO images onto the page or click "Choose ICO files" — up to 50 at once. The first photo opens in the editor and the rest line up as thumbnails below it; with two or more photos open, "Add more" adds files to the same batch.
2. Rotate It: In Rotate, click "90° left" or "90° right" for quarter turns, or drag "Fine angle" (−45° to 45°) to straighten a tilted horizon; "Background for exposed corners" picks "Auto-crop corners", "White", "Black" or "Transparent". The rotation applies to every photo in the batch.
3. Pick the Output Format (Optional): "Save as" keeps "Same as original" or saves as JPG, PNG, WebP or another format. For JPG, WebP and AVIF output, the "Quality" slider (40–100) trades file size against detail. Resize, Crop, Rotate and Flip all work in the same session, and "Undo" steps back.
4. Download: Click the Download button, which names the output format (for example "Download PNG"), for one photo, or "Download all (.zip)" for a batch — "Download one by one" saves the files separately. The editor opens ICO files right in your browser whenever your browser can decode them, so those files are not uploaded. A file it can't decode is either processed on our servers and deleted automatically afterward — the editor says so before you download — or skipped with a note. No sign-up, no watermark.

Why Rotate an ICO File?

ICO is Microsoft's container format for Windows icons and browser favicons, introduced in Windows 1.0 and still the default for favicon.ico in 2026. A single .ico can pack several sizes and color depths in one file, which is why the editor rebuilds that set for you: it opens the largest size in the file and saves an ICO holding the size you choose (up to 256 px) plus 16, 32 and 48 px entries, instead of you re-exporting from a source PNG and rebuilding the multi-size container by hand.

• Fix a sideways favicon — A site logo that ships sideways in favicon.ico looks broken in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari (PNG favicons cover 95.85% of users, but ICO is what most CMSes still drop in the site root).
• Reorient a Windows app icon — Custom .exe and shortcut icons that were exported at the wrong orientation can be corrected without re-running the design pipeline through Photoshop and Gif Movie Gear.
• Match a redesigned brand mark — When a logo's canonical orientation flips, every favicon and Start menu icon needs to follow. Rotating each existing .ico file is faster than regenerating from source artwork.
• Repair scanned or imported icons — Icons created from screenshots or scans of legacy software are often saved at 90 off. A 90 rotation of the largest size fixes them without resampling (the smaller entries are then scaled down from it).
• Generate mirrored or paired icons — Theme packs that need a left- and right-facing variant of the same icon (arrow icons, navigation widgets) get the second variant from a rotation pass.
• Prep for upload constraints — Some ICO upload validators (CMS favicon uploaders, Windows manifest tools) reject files that fail an orientation check; rotating to the expected baseline before upload sidesteps the rejection.

ICO Format Quick Facts

ICO vs PNG vs SVG for Favicons

Rotation Angle Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Will rotating my multi-size ICO preserve all the embedded sizes?

Not as they were. A typical favicon .ico packs 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48 entries (often plus a 256x256 PNG-compressed entry on Vista-and-later builds). The editor opens the largest size and says so when the file opens; the ICO you save holds the size you choose (up to 256 px) plus 16, 32 and 48 px entries, each scaled down from the rotated image. So a browser still gets the right size for its DPI, but hand-tuned small entries are replaced by scaled-down ones, and other sizes such as 24 or 64 px are not kept unless you pick that size.

Why do 90, 180, and 270 rotations look perfect but a 15 degree rotation looks fuzzy?

Right-angle rotations are pure pixel re-ordering — every pixel keeps its exact color and lands on a clean grid coordinate. Non-right-angle rotations require resampling: the renderer has to interpolate new pixel values along the rotated grid, which softens edges. At 16x16 there are only 256 pixels total, so any blur is highly visible. Stick to 90, 180, and 270 for icons whenever possible.

Will transparency survive the rotation?

Yes. ICO supports two transparency types — the 1-bit AND mask used in older 4-bit and 8-bit entries, and the 8-bit alpha channel introduced in 32-bit entries with Windows XP. The transparent regions are rotated alongside the color data, and every entry of the saved ICO is a PNG-compressed image with a full alpha channel, so a logo on a transparent background stays on a transparent background.

Should I rotate the ICO directly, or convert to PNG, rotate, and convert back?

Rotate the ICO directly. A round-trip through PNG forces you to pick one size to export, lose the multi-entry container, and rebuild it (you'd typically use a PNG to ICO step). Rotating here saves you that rebuild: the saved ICO again holds 16, 32 and 48 px plus the size you choose, scaled from the largest size of your file. If your ICO has hand-drawn small sizes you need to keep exactly, rotate those entries in an icon editor instead.

What sizes should a favicon.ico contain in 2026?

A pragmatic minimum is 16x16 and 32x32 — those are the two sizes Chrome, Firefox, and Edge actually pull from favicon.ico. Many sites also pack 48x48 (Windows Explorer) and a 256x256 PNG-compressed entry (Windows large-icon view). Modern guidance pairs favicon.ico with an SVG and a 180x180 PNG Apple Touch Icon, since iOS Safari does not use SVG favicons.

Can I rotate the icon by exactly the angle I see on screen?

Yes — drag "Fine angle" in Rotate (−45° to 45°, 0.1° steps), nudge it with the "−0.5°" / "+0.5°" buttons or type the angle, and use "90° left" or "90° right" for larger turns. Just remember any non-90 multiple introduces resampling, which looks worse the smaller the embedded size, and icons are square: a tilted result is centred on a transparent square.

Does rotating change the file size?

It can, even for 90 and 180 rotations, because the saved ICO is rebuilt: PNG-compressed entries at 16, 32 and 48 px plus the size you choose, which may be more or fewer entries than your original had. The Output line shows an estimate before you download. Custom angles tend to produce slightly larger files because the resampled image has more unique pixel values, which compresses worse. If size matters, run a compress ICO pass after rotating.

Why does my rotated favicon still look wrong after I refresh?

Browsers cache favicon.ico aggressively. Hard-refresh with Ctrl+F5 (Cmd+Shift+R on macOS) or visit the favicon URL directly (yoursite.com/favicon.ico?v=2) and reload. Some browsers cache favicons across browser restarts; clearing the site's cached files via DevTools is the most reliable check.

Is anything sent to a server?

Not when the editor opens the file in your browser: ICO files it can decode are processed right there and are not uploaded. A file it can't decode is either processed on our servers and deleted automatically afterward — the editor says so before you download — or skipped with a note. Either way: no account, no watermark.

Can I batch-rotate dozens of .ico files at once?

Yes — drop up to 50 ICO files at once (a mixed batch works too). The rotation angle you set applies to every file in the batch; "Download all (.zip)" saves every rotated result in one ZIP, or use "Download one by one" to save them separately.