Straighten Crooked Scans in Photoshop

Scanning photographs is a great way to preserve and restore old images, but straightening a scanned picture that wasnit perfectly aligned can be a real pain. But with a little help from Adobe Photoshop, youill have your crooked scans straightened out in not time. Hereis how:


My original scan came out crooked.
  • Select the Measure tool from Photoshopis tool palette. If you donit see it, click and hold on the Eye Dropper tool. The Measure tool is in the fly-out menu.

  • Click and hold on the Eye Dropper to find the Measure tool.
  • Pick part of the image that should be level, and use the Measure tool to draw a line along the objectis edge. I chose the bottom of my scanned photograph.

  • Choose an image portion that should be level.
  • Choose Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary from the menu bar.

  • The Arbitrary menu option holds the key to quickly aligning your image.
  • The Rotate Canvas window displays how many degrees your image needs to be rotated. All you need to do is click the OK button.

  • Just click the OK button... thatis it.

Now my image is straight and level.

This is quicker and easier than using the Rotate tool because Photoshop does the dirty work for you. It figures out exactly how much your image needs to be moved, saving you from having to "eye ball" how level your image is.

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