Turn a mirror image back to normal

A picture is reversed when something between the scene and the file reflected it once. The common culprits are ordinary: a webcam or video-call self-view, which most apps mirror so that you move the way a mirror moves; a document photographed in a mirror, or through the back of a sheet of glass; a slide captured from behind a back-projection screen; a scan or photocopy fed in the wrong way round; a selfie from a phone that saves what its preview showed. In every one of those cases the whole frame is reversed, so mirroring the whole frame is exactly the repair.

Telling which version is right is the hard part when there is no one to ask. Writing is the best witness, so this page measures it. It finds letter-sized marks, compares where each one carries its ink with the centre of its own box, and counts how many lean left. Latin type leans left; a mirror makes it lean right. If the count is decisive the panel says so and suggests a version. If it is not — too few letters, or a script the measurement is not built for — it says “can’t tell”, and the two panes are the answer.

1. 1Open the picture. Drop it, pick it or paste it — a webcam screenshot, a photo of a document taken in a mirror, a scan that went in face down. It is read in this tab.
2. 2Read the measurement. The panel above the controls says whether the writing in the picture reads forwards, reads backwards, or cannot be told — and how many letter shapes that was measured on.
3. 3Choose a version. Keep it as opened, or use the mirrored version. The two panes show both; drag the divider or hold Space to compare. Nothing changes until you press one.
4. 4Save it. Download writes the version you chose. A JPEG can be written by moving its compressed blocks or rewriting its orientation tag, so nothing is re-encoded.

A 1280 × 720 screenshot shows a whiteboard with three lines of printed type — a heading and two sentences — captured from a mirrored self-view. The measurement finds 34 letter-shaped marks and only 4 of them carry their ink on the left: 12 %, well below the 35 % line, so the panel says the picture most likely reads backwards and suggests the mirrored version. The same board the right way round measures 32 marks at 88 %, and a photograph with no writing in it comes back as “can’t tell”. Choosing the mirrored version and saving as PNG writes a 1280 × 720 file whose every sample is the source’s, moved; Check the saved file confirms all 3,686,400 channel values. Had it been a JPEG, the block route would have written it without decoding: 1280 and 720 are both whole multiples of 16, so every block moves.

• The measurement reads Latin letters. Other scripts, handwriting with heavy slant and stylised logos often land in "can't tell". That is a refusal, not a verdict.
• A few words are not enough. Below twelve letter-shaped marks no direction is called, because a short word can lean either way by chance.
• It never decides for you. The suggestion is text and a highlighted button. The file you save is the version you pressed.
• Mixed pictures stay mixed. A screenshot that contains both a mirrored camera view and normal on-screen text cannot be made right in one step; the two parts point opposite ways.

How does the page know my picture is reversed?

It looks at the writing. In Latin type more letters carry their ink on the left of their own box — the stems of b, h, k, n, p and r, the open side of c and e — and a mirror moves it to the right. The picture is measured for letter-sized marks and the share leaning left is counted. Forwards text measured 54 to 100 % in tests on twelve typefaces; mirrored text 0 to 46 %. A call is made only at 65 % either way.

What if there is no writing in the picture?

Then there is nothing to tell the direction from, and the panel says "can't tell" rather than guessing. A face, a landscape or a room looks plausible either way round. Compare the two panes — a parting, a watch, a car's steering wheel or a known building usually settles it.

Why did my video call show me backwards?

Most webcam apps mirror your own preview, as a bathroom mirror does, so moving towards the frame feels natural. Many send the un-mirrored image to everyone else. A screenshot of your own preview is therefore reversed, while the other person saw you the right way round. Mirroring the screenshot gives you their view.

Will it fix the text and leave everything else?

No tool can do that with a photograph: once it is decoded there is no text layer, only pixels. Mirroring puts the whole picture back the right way round, which is what you want when the whole picture was reversed — the usual case for a webcam shot, a mirror photo or a face-down scan.

Does it work for Hindi or other scripts?

The measurement is built for Latin letters. Devanagari, Arabic and others will usually come back as "can't tell", and the two panes remain the way to decide. The page never applies a suggestion on its own.