Flip Image: Mirror Photos Horizontally or Vertically

Flipping an image turns it into its mirror reflection. It sounds trivial, yet it solves several everyday problems: a selfie where your hair parting is on the wrong side, a product facing away from the text on a banner, a set of photos that should all point the same way on a collection page, or a design that needs a mirrored copy for printing on glass or fabric.

This tool flips one photo or a batch in your browser. You see the result before you save, you can treat each photo differently, and the files never leave your device.

How to flip an image

1. Drop your photos into the box above, or click it to choose them. JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP and AVIF are supported, up to 200 at a time.
2. Click ⇋ Flip horizontal (mirror) to swap left and right. Click ⇵ Flip vertical to swap top and bottom. Click a button again to undo it.
3. With several photos, keep Same settings for every photo ticked to flip all of them the same way. Untick it and click a thumbnail to flip only that photo.
4. Choose the format: Original keeps each file's format, or pick JPG, PNG or WebP.
5. Click Download this photo or Download all (ZIP). Flipped files get -flipped added to their name.

Horizontal, vertical or both

A vertical flip is not the same as turning a photo upside down. Turning (rotating 180 degrees) keeps the picture readable when you turn your head; a vertical flip mirrors it. Text in a vertically flipped photo reads backwards. If a photo is just upside down, use both flips or the rotate image tool's 180° button.

Why selfies look mirrored

The front camera preview on a phone works like a mirror, because that is what people expect to see. Phones then disagree on how to save the photo. Some save it as the preview looked (mirrored), others save the real, unmirrored view, which then looks wrong to you because you are used to your mirror image. On an iPhone you can choose the behavior in Settings, Camera, Mirror Front Camera. Many Android camera apps have a similar "save selfies as previewed" setting.

The quick fix for a photo you already took is a horizontal flip. Watch for text: a shirt logo, a sign or a book title in a mirrored selfie reads backwards, so a flip that makes your face look familiar can make the text wrong. Choose whichever matters more for that photo.

Flipping product photos

On a collection page or in an ad, the direction products face changes how the layout reads. Shoes, cars, furniture, bottles with a label and models looking to one side all have a direction. Flipping can make a set consistent, or point a product toward your headline text. Two cautions apply:

• Do not flip anything with readable text or a logo. A mirrored label looks wrong and can mislead shoppers about the product.
• Do not flip asymmetric products in a way that misrepresents them. A left-handed tool, a watch with the crown on one side or a jacket with a single chest pocket would show a version that does not exist.

For marketplace listings, accurate photos matter: buyers compare what arrives with what they saw. If you research products to sell on Amazon, Etsy or eBay, AM Jarvis's Marketplace Research helps compare ideas and write listings that fit each marketplace.

Mirroring for print and crafts

Some printing methods need a mirrored image so the result reads correctly:

• Iron-on transfers and sublimation on light fabric are usually printed mirrored, because the paper is placed face down. Check your transfer paper's instructions, as some are not.
• Window decals applied from inside the glass need a mirrored print to read correctly from outside.
• Rubber stamps and screen printing films often need mirrored artwork.

Flip the design horizontally, save it as PNG to keep it lossless, and send that file to the printer.

Batch example

A furniture seller has 40 photos of chairs. 28 face left and 12 face right, and the collection page looks messy. The fix takes about a minute:

1. Drop all 40 photos in and untick Same settings for every photo.
2. Click each of the 12 right-facing thumbnails and press Flip horizontal for each.
3. Click Download all (ZIP). The 28 left-facing photos are saved unchanged in the new format, and the 12 come out mirrored.

Check that no chair has a visible brand tag or text before you publish the flipped versions.

Flipping on a phone

Open this page on your phone, tap the drop box and choose the selfies or product shots from your library. The flip buttons and the preview work with a tap, and the saved photos go to your Downloads or Files app, ready to share to Instagram, WhatsApp or your store app. Most phone galleries can flip too, but some only save the change as an edit inside the gallery, so the photo you upload elsewhere may still be the original. A downloaded file from this tool always contains the flipped pixels.

For a batch on a phone, keep groups to 20 or 30 photos at a time. Full resolution phone photos use a lot of memory while they are saved, and smaller groups finish faster.

Flipping for design and layout

Designers flip images for balance more often than people think. In a web banner with text on the left, a model looking right, toward the text, pulls the eye into the message; the same model looking left leads the eye off the page. In a two-column layout, a flipped copy of a decorative image on the opposite side creates symmetry. For thumbnails and ads, a product angled toward the headline reads more naturally. Flipping is the quickest way to test these options: flip, preview, and keep whichever version reads better. Keep the original file too, so you can always go back.

Troubleshooting

• The text in my photo is backwards: that is what a mirror does. Flip it back, or crop the text out before flipping.
• I flipped vertically and the photo is mirrored: a vertical flip mirrors top to bottom. For an upside down photo, press both flip buttons, which equals a 180 degree rotation.
• An animated GIF stopped moving: GIFs are opened as their first frame, so the saved file is a still image.
• A thumbnail is blank: the browser cannot open that file type, most often HEIC from an iPhone. Convert it with the HEIC to JPG converter first.
• The flipped photo is larger in KB: the new file is saved at the quality you set. Lower the quality to 85, or choose JPG instead of PNG for photos.

Quality, privacy and limits

A flip moves pixels without blending them, so the image is exactly as sharp as before. If you save as JPG, the photo is compressed again at the quality you set, 90 by default; choose PNG for a lossless copy. The camera's orientation tag is applied when the photo opens, so you flip what you actually see. Downloads are made from the full resolution photo, while the preview uses a smaller copy for speed. Your photos are processed in your browser, never uploaded, and the saved files do not include camera data such as GPS location.