How to invert the colours of an image
- Add your images by dropping them in, choosing files or pasting from the clipboard.
- The preview shows the negative straight away. Pick a Format if you want something other than the original.
- Download the inverted image, or all of them as a zip.
When an inverted image is useful
- Dark versions of diagrams and screenshots. Black lines on white become white lines on black, which suits dark slides and dark mode documentation.
- Black and white film negatives. Photograph or scan the negative on a light box, invert it and you have a viewable positive.
- One-colour logos and icons. Inverting gives a quick white-on-black version to check how the mark holds up on a dark background.
- Art and posters. Negatives of high-contrast photos, plants and architecture make striking graphic images.
What to watch out for
Every colour changes, not just black and white. A red warning in a diagram turns cyan and a blue link turns yellow. If you only want light and dark swapped, make the image black and white first and then invert it.
People look odd in an inverted photo because warm skin tones flip to cold blue and green. That is expected and the same thing behind the blue cast on colour film negatives: this tool does a straight invert with no colour correction, so colour film needs a photo editor or film scanning software to look natural.