Free tool
Invert Image Colors: Seven Ways, Including Film Negatives
Inverting sounds like one button, but a designer, a photographer and a developer all want something different from it. Pick the kind of inversion that matches your job, compare the original and the result side by side, and save the new file.
Settings
A changed setting does every picture again. Settings are kept in this browser for next time.
Pictures are inverted by your own browser and never leave your computer. Your last choice is kept on this device until you press Reset settings.
Pick the kind of inversion first
The What to invert menu holds seven choices, and they give quite different results from the same file.
| Choice | Result | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Every colour, a negative | Each red, green and blue value is flipped, so white turns black and blue turns yellow | The classic negative look |
| Light and dark only, keep the colours | Brightness is swapped while each colour keeps its hue | A dark version of a light screenshot or a diagram |
| Black and white negative | The picture becomes grey first, then is flipped | A mono negative of a photo or drawing |
| Colour film negative, take out the orange | A full negative, then each colour channel is stretched to remove the orange cast | Scans of colour film strips |
| Red only, Green only, Blue only | Just one channel is flipped | Colour effects, tests and fixes |
Making a dark version of a light picture
A plain negative is rarely what you want for a screenshot, because the blues become orange and skin turns odd. The Light and dark only choice swaps how bright each pixel is but keeps its colour family, so a blue button stays a blue button, only darker or lighter than before. It is a fast way to preview how a light illustration might sit on a dark background.
It is not a replacement for a real dark theme. A designed dark mode adjusts contrast, shadows and brand colours one by one. If your site needs that, a designer will rebuild the artwork, which is part of what we do under web design and UI UX.
Scanning old film negatives
Colour film negatives have an orange tint built into the base. If you simply invert a scan, the whole picture comes out with a heavy blue cast. The film choice flips the colours and then levels each channel separately, cutting off the darkest and lightest 0.2 percent of values in each one, which removes most of that tint automatically.
It is a quick first pass, not a lab. Check the preview. If the result still leans one way, try the other modes, or take the saved file into an editor for fine tuning.
Comparing and saving the result
Each picture shows two tabs, Original and Inverted, and a See at full size link, so you can flip between them before downloading. Add many pictures and the same choice is applied to all of them, with the whole batch available as one ZIP. Files are saved with an inverted ending in their name, so your originals are never replaced.
Save as defaults to Same type. PNG keeps every pixel exactly, while JPG and WebP use the Quality slider to make smaller files with some loss.
Quick checks before you use the file
- Look at skin and sky. A full negative changes them dramatically, and that is normal.
- If the picture has text, check it is still readable in the inverted version.
- Pictures with see-through areas should be saved as PNG so the empty parts stay empty.
- Single channel modes are good for finding which colour is carrying a problem in a photo.
Inverting twice with the full negative option brings every pixel back to its first value, so you can experiment freely with the original file safe on your disk. The other modes are not reversible in that way, since swapping only brightness or flattening to grey throws information away.
If you need to brighten a dark result afterwards, a separate brightness step does that better than inverting again.
Frequently asked questions
How do I invert the colors of an image?
Drop the picture in, leave the choice on Every colour, a negative, and download the result. Each colour value is flipped, so light becomes dark and dark becomes light.
How do I invert only brightness and not hue?
Choose Light and dark only, keep the colours. Colours stay in the same family, while light and dark swap places.
Can I turn a scanned film negative into a photo?
Yes, choose the colour film negative option. It flips the picture and removes the orange cast by stretching each colour channel.
What does inverting one channel do?
It flips only red, only green or only blue, and leaves the rest alone. This gives strong colour effects and helps you see what one channel contributes.
Can I invert a whole folder of pictures?
You can add many pictures at once and download them as a ZIP. The same option is applied to each of them.
Does the tool upload my pictures?
No. The work is done in your browser.
More free tools
- Brighten image: Lighten dark, backlit or flat photos with exposure, shadows, highlights and contrast controls.
- Mirror image: Flip pictures, mirror one half onto the other, or add a fading reflection below.
- Color contrast checker: Test colours against WCAG 2.2, fix them, check a palette and share a link.
- image converter: Convert a mixed set of pictures to JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF or ICO in your browser.
- image compressor: Compress pictures to a quality level or a target size in KB, with a before and after view.