Question

or control the rotation to specific degrees with CSS

Answer 1

You can use transform: rotate(35deg). More in this article. For the moment, you have to add in the vendor-specific transforms as well, so for instance (cribbing from the article):

.rotate35 {
    /* Safari */
    -webkit-transform: rotate(35deg);

    /* Firefox */
    -moz-transform: rotate(35deg);

    /* IE */
    -ms-transform: rotate(35deg);

    /* Opera */
    -o-transform: rotate(35deg);

    /* Standard */
    transform: rotate(35deg);
}

You can do a 35-degree angle for older IEs that require filter. This will work in IE7 and IE8:

filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(M11=0.81915204, M12=-0.57357644, M21=0.57357644, M22=0.81915204,sizingMethod='auto expand');

Note, however, that the matrix transformation will leave you with a different offset than the CSS3 way shown above. You can compensate on the CSS3 side by setting the -webkit-transform-origin to left top, or on the IE side by positioning your element with a conditional style sheet or CSS hack.

Check out the MS docs or the cool page I used to generate the above.