About the Image Flipper
Flipping sounds trivial until you need it. Selfie cameras hand back a mirrored frame, so text in the shot reads backwards. Sprite sheets need a facing pair drawn once and mirrored for the other direction. A layout that was designed for a left hand gutter needs the artwork reversed to sit on the right. All of that is one option away here.
The mirror and the rotation are applied in a single canvas transform, which avoids the extra resampling pass that two separate edits would cost. Because a quarter turn swaps the two dimensions, a 1600 by 900 photo comes out as 900 by 1600 when you choose 90 or 270 degrees; half turns keep the original shape. The transform is a pure reflection, so no pixel is interpolated and nothing softens.
Transparency is kept by default, which matters for logos and sprites. If the destination cannot handle an alpha channel, set the backdrop to white or black and the empty pixels are filled before encoding. Saving as JPG always flattens, so the backdrop choice decides what shows through there. Note that flipping deliberately discards the EXIF orientation flag rather than rewriting it, because the pixels themselves have already been rearranged and a stale flag would rotate the picture a second time. To read that flag on the original, open EXIF Viewer first.
How to use
- Drop or paste the picture into the left pane.
- Choose a Mirror axis, and add a quarter turn under Rotate if the picture is sideways.
- Set what should sit behind transparent pixels when you plan to save a JPG.
- Download the flipped copy.
Common questions
- Does flipping reduce the image quality?
- No. A mirror or a quarter turn only moves whole pixels, so the copy is pixel for pixel identical to the original in a rearranged order.
- Why did my photo change from landscape to portrait?
- A 90 or 270 degree turn swaps width and height by definition. Choose 180 if you need the original dimensions back.
- Can I mirror only half of the picture to make a symmetry effect?
- Not in one pass. Cut the picture with the image splitter first, flip one half, then place the two halves side by side in an editor.
- Is the orientation tag from my camera respected?
- The browser applies it while decoding, so what you see is what a photo app shows. The saved copy has no orientation tag at all, which prevents a double rotation.