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Invert image colors, without the upload.

Turn a picture into its negative: every colour becomes its opposite, and transparency stays as it was. Photos, scans and screenshots stay on your device.

  • Free, no sign-up
  • Transparency kept
  • JPG, PNG and WebP

Drop a picture to invert

or choose from your computer paste with Ctrl V

Ready · JPG, PNG and WebP · several at once0 bytes uploaded, ever

How to invert the colors of an image

  1. Add your pictures

    Drop them above or choose them. There is nothing to set.

  2. Invert

    Press Invert image colors. Every picture on the page becomes its negative.

  3. Save and download

    Save each picture, or all of them as one .zip.

What stays and what doesn't

An inverted picture is decoded, changed and saved again in the format it came in. These are the things that do not come along to it:

  • camera and capture details such as make, model and date taken
  • the GPS location
  • titles, authors, keywords and comments
  • the small preview stored inside the file
  • content credentials and edit history (C2PA)
  • the embedded colour profile (colours are changed to sRGB first; very saturated colours can look slightly flatter)
  • the stored print resolution
  • other data stored in or after the picture, such as a motion-photo clip, program-specific blocks or a modification time

A JPEG or WebP saved again loses a little detail.

When it won't run

Two things stop a run before it writes anything, and each is said on the file's row. A file that cannot be read is reported as damaged, and a picture too large for this device says so, with the limit. In both cases nothing is changed and your original stays as it was. A file in a format the page does not take, such as a GIF, gets a sentence instead of a row.

  • The picture is an animation. This tool would keep only the first frame, so it leaves the file alone.
  • The picture stores its colours as CMYK. This tool can't change it without altering the colours.
  • The picture stores 16 bits per colour. This tool works in 8 bits and would flatten it, so it leaves the file alone.

Inverting colors: what to expect

Each pixel's red, green and blue value is replaced by 255 minus itself, so white becomes black, a bright blue becomes a dull yellow and a mid grey stays near mid grey. Transparency is left alone: a see-through area of a PNG or a WebP stays see-through. Inverting twice gives back the same pixels for a PNG.

People use it to read a white-on-black screenshot as black on white, to look at an X-ray or a scan in the opposite tones, and to make a light logo for a dark background. A scan of a colour negative will not come out as a finished photo: film has an orange tint of its own that inversion leaves in place.

A JPEG or a lossy WebP is saved again at about the quality it had, so inverting a JPEG twice gives a picture that is close to the first and not the same bytes. A PNG is written exactly. A picture with a wide-gamut colour profile is brought to standard sRGB first, and the row lists the profile as not carried over.

The work happens in your device's memory: a JPEG or WebP of up to 40 megapixels and a PNG of up to 50 on a computer, and 16 megapixels of any format on a phone. A picture over the limit is refused on its own row.

Questions

Are my pictures uploaded?

No. Your pictures are processed inside your browser, on your own phone or computer, and saved straight from this page. The reading at the top of the page counts every byte sent, and it stays at 0 B.

What does inverting do to a photo?

It makes the negative: light areas turn dark and dark areas turn light, and each colour becomes its opposite. A blue sky turns orange, and a green leaf turns pink.

Does inverting touch the clear parts of a PNG?

No. Each pixel has a colour and, apart from that, an opacity, and inversion works on the colour alone. A cut-out sticker or a logo on a clear background keeps its outline and its clear surroundings after it turns into a negative.

Can I turn a scanned colour negative into a photo with this?

Not into a finished photo. Colour film has an orange tint of its own, and inverting leaves that tint in the picture, so the colours come out off. A scan of a black and white negative works well.

Can I get the original back?

Your original file is never changed, so you still have it. Inverting the result again gives back the same pixels for a PNG and a close copy for a JPEG.

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