About the Color Inverter
The word inverted covers three different operations, and picking the wrong one wastes an afternoon. Channel inversion subtracts each of red, green and blue from 255, which is what a photo editor means by invert. Hue complement keeps the saturation and lightness and rotates the hue by 180 degrees, giving the colour sitting opposite on the wheel. Flipping lightness leaves the hue and saturation untouched and mirrors the lightness around the midpoint. Pick a method in the toolbar and every line is processed with it.
Which one you want depends on the job. Complement is the choice for accent colours, because the pair keeps a matched intensity that a raw channel flip destroys. Lightness flipping is the quick route to a dark mode draft, since brand hues survive while the tonal order turns over. Channel inversion is right for image work and for anything that has to match what a graphics program produces. Note that a mid grey such as #808080 barely moves under a channel flip and does not move at all under a complement, because there is no hue to rotate.
Every result is shown as a before and after swatch pair with the HEX and RGB values beside it, and the copy button gives you the plain text list. For a single colour with a larger preview, see Invert Color. To build a scheme around a complement, try the Palette Generator.
How to use
- Paste the colours you want to flip, one per line.
- Choose Channel invert, Hue complement or Flip lightness.
- Compare the swatch pairs and copy the results.
Common questions
- Which method gives the true opposite colour?
- Hue complement does. It rotates the hue 180 degrees and keeps saturation and lightness, so the pair stays balanced.
- Why does grey hardly change?
- Grey has equal channels and no hue, so a complement leaves it alone and a channel flip only mirrors its lightness.
- Is the transparency preserved?
- Yes, an alpha channel on the input is carried through to the inverted colour untouched.
- Can I invert a whole palette at once?
- Yes, put each colour on its own line and every one is inverted with the selected method.