Rotate or Flip an Image with sips
Use the built-in sips tool to rotate an image by degrees or flip it horizontally/vertically directly from the command line.
Run `sips -r 90 photo.jpg` to rotate 90 degrees clockwise, or `sips -f vertical photo.jpg` to flip the image.
01Command
Command
$ sips -r 90 photo.jpg && sips -f horizontal photo.jpg02What it does
sips ships with macOS and edits images in place, so there is no export step. The -r flag rotates clockwise and accepts negative degrees to rotate counter-clockwise. The -f flag flips: use horizontal for a mirror image and vertical for an upside-down flip. Because the original pixels are overwritten, copy the file first if you need to preserve the original orientation.
03Risk
!Warning: sips modifies the file in place — work on a copy if the original orientation matters.
04Undo
Undo
$ sips -r -90 photo.jpg && sips -f horizontal photo.jpg05Sources
- sips — scriptable image processing system (macOS man page)Evidence: Documents sips -r degreesCW for rotation and sips -f horizontal|vertical for flipping, applied in place.
Last verified: 2026-09-17 · Category: Media