Image Flipper
Flip images horizontally and vertically online for free.
Drag & Drop image here
Supports JPG, PNG, WebP
Related Image Tools
This image flipper mirrors a photo left to right or top to bottom in your browser. Drop in a JPG, PNG or WebP, choose horizontal or vertical, and download the result in the same format. Flipping and rotating are often confused but do different things: a flip mirrors the image across an axis, a rotation spins it around a point. If a photo is sideways, you need the rotator, not a flip — flipping a sideways photo just mirrors the wrong orientation.
When You'd Actually Need to Flip an Image
A horizontal flip is the standard fix for a scanned document or photo captured through a mirror — old-style rear-view dash cams, some webcam software, and flatbed scanners with a mirrored optical path can all produce an image that's laterally reversed even though it's otherwise correctly oriented. A vertical flip is far less common in everyday use, but shows up in specific workflows like preparing artwork for certain printing processes or correcting an upside-down capture from equipment mounted the wrong way. Design work is the other common case: mirroring a UI icon, a game sprite facing the wrong direction, or a logo for a symmetric layout are all genuine flip use cases rather than a rotation.
Front-Camera Selfies Are Often Mirrored by Default
Many phone camera apps display and save front-facing camera shots mirrored, matching what you saw in the live preview (like looking in a mirror) rather than what other people actually see when looking at you. That's a deliberate UX choice, not a bug, but it means any text, watermark, or asymmetric detail in a selfie — a logo on a shirt, a tattoo, handwriting held up to the camera — comes out backwards. A horizontal flip is the standard fix before sharing or printing a selfie where legibility of text or an asymmetric feature actually matters.
A Flip Isn't the Same as an EXIF Orientation Fix
Many phone and camera photos aren't actually stored pixel-rotated at all — the sensor captures the frame one way, and a small EXIF metadata tag tells viewers "display this rotated 90°/180°/270°." Most modern apps read that tag automatically, but some older or less careful software ignores it, which is why a photo can look sideways in one app and upright in another even though the underlying pixels never changed. A flip tool works purely on pixel data, mirroring it across an axis — it doesn't read or write that EXIF orientation flag, so a photo that's only "sideways" because a viewer ignored its EXIF tag needs a rotation/orientation fix, not a flip.
How a Flip Actually Works Under the Hood
A horizontal flip reverses the order of pixels within each row; a vertical flip reverses the order of rows. In a browser-based tool like this one, that's typically done with the Canvas API's scale(-1, 1) or scale(1, -1) transform applied before redrawing the image onto a canvas — a coordinate transform, not a recompression pass. That's part of why flipping even a large image feels instant: no pixel values are recalculated or blended, they're just repositioned.
How to flip an image
- Upload: Drag and drop a JPG, PNG, or WebP file.
- Choose direction: Horizontal (left-right mirror) or vertical (top-bottom mirror) — apply either or both.
- Preview: Check the result before downloading.
- Download: The result keeps the format of the file you added. You can switch to JPG, PNG or WebP before saving.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between flipping and rotating?
Flipping mirrors the image across an axis (left-right or top-bottom) without changing its orientation angle. Rotating turns the whole image around a point (90°, 180°, or any custom angle). A sideways photo needs rotation; a mirrored logo or reversed scan needs a flip.
Why would text look backwards after flipping?
A horizontal flip mirrors everything in the image, including any text — it will read backwards. This is expected behavior, not a bug; flipping is a full mirror, not a selective edit.
Does flipping affect image quality?
No. Flipping just repositions existing pixels — it doesn't resample or compress the image.
Is it safe to use this browser-based tool?
Yes. Processing happens locally in your browser — images are never uploaded to a server.
Is a flip the same thing as fixing EXIF rotation?
No, and mixing them up is a common source of confusion. Many phone and camera photos aren't stored pixel-rotated at all — the sensor captures the image one way, and an EXIF orientation tag tells viewers to display it rotated. A flip tool mirrors the actual pixel data; it doesn't read or change that EXIF tag, so a photo that only looks sideways because of an unread EXIF flag needs a rotation/orientation fix, not a flip.
How is a flip actually implemented under the hood?
A horizontal flip reverses the order of pixels in each row; a vertical flip reverses the order of rows. In browser-based tools this is typically done with the Canvas API's scale(-1, 1) or scale(1, -1) transform before redrawing the image, which is why it's effectively instant even on large files — it's a coordinate transform, not a recompression.
Can I flip only part of an image, like one object instead of the whole photo?
Not with a whole-image flip tool like this one — it mirrors the entire canvas. Flipping a single object while leaving the rest untouched requires selecting that object first (a layer, a selection mask, or a cut-out region) in a full image editor, then applying the flip transform only within that selection.