How do you rotate a layer only?

RG
Posted By
Rags_Gardner
Aug 2, 2004
Views
7195
Replies
7
Status
Closed
How can I rotate a single layer or a selection in an layer without rotating the entire image? I have researched all my PS books and the forums and can’t figure out how to do this. I need to rotate a portion of a layer by an arbitrary angle.

Transform allows some contortions, but nothing that allows you to grab a corner and rotate around an axis. Image rotate arbitrary rotates all pixels in all layers.

Any ideas?

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CW
Colin_Walls
Aug 2, 2004
Just select the layer, and select all [CTRL-A]. Then use Edit/Transform/Rotate. If you want exact multiples of 45 degrees, just hold down SHIFT.

I’m assuming PS 7. Dunno about older versions.
JM
John Mensinger
Aug 2, 2004
Or, with the layer active, press Ctrl+T. Now move your cursor just outside one of the corner handles until it, (the cursor), changes to a two-headed, bent arrow. Click and drag to rotate, again holding down Shift for angle constraint.
O
Ol__Whozit
Aug 2, 2004
<quote=Rags>"I have researched all my PS books and the forums and can’t figure out how to do this."
Either you have really lousy books and only know of this forum, or you’re too lazy to look, and can’t be bothered to read.
The built in help files (F1) in Photoshop tell very clearly and specifically what the above replies told you, and any simple web search for "Photoshop rotate layer" would have pointed you in dozens of directions, some with photographs to illustrate how to do it…Ah, but then you would have had to look it up. This way it was presented to you with hardly any effort on your part at all. You’ll never learn Photoshop well with that approach, but you may not really want to. Oh well, carry on.
D
DrJohnD
Aug 2, 2004
Ha ha ha

I was going to say the same thing. (F1) will tell you how to do that.
RG
Rags_Gardner
Aug 2, 2004
Thank you all for the help. I was using free transform and overlooked edit-transform-rotate. I also thought that Ctrl-T was the same as free transform. I don’t use keyboard shortcuts much because I haven’t memorized them all.

Ol’ Whozit, I did the research for two days. Apparently I’m not only incompetent, I’m also inept. I’ve been using PS since V5.5 (three years). Currently on PS CS and love it. This April I attended a one-week class devoted to Photoshop. Anyone who claims to be proficient in all the features and functions available in Photoshop is more of a Buffoon than I. In the future I will limit my participation to forum groups (such as Nikonians) that are a little more civil.

Thanks again Colin and John. Cheers, Rags: 🙂
RS
rrose_selavy
Aug 2, 2004
Ol’ Whozit, I did the research for two days. Apparently I’m not only
incompetent, I’m also inept.

Ol_whozit’s post seemed quite civil to me, under the circumstances. Your question was about a fundamental and basic photoshop feature that is not only readily found in the Help files but –

… I’ve been using PS since V5.5 (three years).

– by writing that, it’s hard to imagine that you wouldn’t know this.

…proficient in all the features and functions available in Photoshop
….

But this is not an issue of ALL the features and functions, but a fundamenatally basic, novice level use of the appplication.
CW
Colin_Walls
Aug 3, 2004
Rags

I offered you help, as I know that visitors to this forum have all levels of ability and I try to be patient. PD has a very large feature set and, IMHO, it is possible to be quite an expert and still miss something that other people regard as quite basic.

Do stop by here again. For the most part, you’ll get good help and you will learn a lot from reading other posts.

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