Flip or mirror a photo in your browser
Flipping creates a mirror image of your photo. A horizontal flip swaps left and right - useful for selfies that came out reversed, or to make a subject face the other way. A vertical flip swaps top and bottom. This tool does both in your browser, so the image is never uploaded and the result is instant.
How the browser-based flip actually works
Your image loads into an HTML canvas element directly inside your browser, and the flip happens there using JavaScript running entirely on your own device - there's no server involved at any point. A horizontal flip reverses the order of pixels along each row, while a vertical flip reverses the order of rows themselves; both operations complete instantly since they're simple pixel rearrangements rather than any kind of complex recalculation. When you download, the browser generates a new image file from the flipped canvas, with your original photo never having left your device throughout the entire process.
Why selfies often come out mirrored
Many phone camera apps show a mirrored preview on a front-facing camera, matching what you'd see looking in an actual mirror, since that feels more natural while framing a shot. Some apps then save the photo exactly as shown in that mirrored preview, which means any text, logos, or asymmetric details end up reversed in the saved file compared to how they'd look to someone else observing you directly. A horizontal flip undoes exactly that reversal, correcting the image back to how it would genuinely appear to another person.
Common reasons to flip
- Fix a mirrored selfie - front cameras often save a reversed image; a horizontal flip corrects text and faces.
- Change the direction a subject faces - flip so a person or arrow points the other way for a layout.
- Create a reflection - a vertical flip makes a mirror-below effect for designs.
- Match a set - flip one image so a pair faces each other.
No quality loss
Flipping only mirrors the pixels, so there is no loss of quality and the width and height stay the same. You can combine a horizontal and a vertical flip, which is the same as rotating 180 degrees. The download keeps your original format - PNG keeps transparency, JPG stays JPG.
Who actually needs this, and why
Anyone noticing that text or asymmetric details in a selfie look reversed compared to how they actually appear to other people. Designers creating a symmetrical layout or a reflection effect that needs a mirrored copy of an existing image. Users correcting a photo scanned or photographed through a mirror, where everything in the frame reads backward until flipped back to its true orientation.
Private and free
Everything runs on your device: no upload, no account, no watermark, nothing stored. To turn a sideways photo upright instead, use our Rotate Image tool; to trim it, use our Crop Image tool.
Flipping versus rotating: picking the right one
These two operations solve genuinely different problems, and mixing them up is a common mistake: rotation turns an image around a point, fixing a photo captured at the wrong orientation, while flipping mirrors it along an axis without changing orientation at all - a flipped photo is still right-side up, just reversed left-to-right or top-to-bottom. If your photo looks sideways or upside-down, you need rotation; if it looks upright but text or faces seem backward, you need a flip.
Combining horizontal and vertical flips
Flipping an image both horizontally and vertically produces the exact same result as rotating it 180 degrees, since reversing both axes at once is mathematically equivalent to a half-turn rotation. This tool lets you apply either flip independently, so you can combine them if that's genuinely the effect you need, though if you're specifically trying to turn a photo upside-down, our Rotate Image tool's dedicated 180-degree option is the more direct route to the same result.
File format and transparency after flipping
Since flipping only rearranges existing pixels without adding, removing, or blending any of them, a PNG's transparency carries through completely unchanged - any transparent areas stay exactly as transparent after the flip, just mirrored to their new position along with everything else in the image.
Working on a phone or tablet
Because this tool runs through standard browser technology, it works the same way on a phone or tablet's browser as it does on a desktop computer, making it a convenient way to quickly fix a mirrored selfie directly from a phone's camera roll without needing a dedicated photo editing app installed.
A quick check before using the flipped result
After flipping, it's worth a glance to confirm the result reads correctly, especially if the photo contains any text, a watch face, or other asymmetric detail where "correct" has an obvious right answer - these are the fastest way to confirm a flip actually fixed the issue rather than introducing a new one, since a symmetric subject gives no visual clue either way.
File size after flipping
Flipping doesn't meaningfully change file size, since the exact same pixels are simply rearranged into a mirrored layout rather than any content being added, removed, or recompressed. Any small difference you might notice is purely an encoding detail from how the output format happens to compress the rearranged pixel data, not a real change in the photo's actual content or quality in any meaningful way.
Why this matters for personal photos
Because nothing is ever uploaded, this tool works well for mirroring photos you'd rather not send to any server at all - personal selfies, identity-related images, or anything else you'd prefer stayed entirely on your own device from start to finish. The flip happens, the download generates, and that's the complete extent of the process; your photo never exists anywhere outside your own browser tab at any point during the entire flip and download process, from the moment the file is opened to the moment the result is saved.