Invert image colours to make a negative
Inverting an image flips every colour to its opposite: black becomes white, red becomes cyan and blue becomes yellow — the look of a photographic negative. The invert image tool does this exactly, replacing each channel value with 255 − value, while keeping the transparency of PNG and WebP files intact.
Beyond a plain negative you can invert single colour channels, apply a partial inversion, flip only the lightness so a dark screenshot becomes light without changing its colours, or invert the alpha channel of a mask. Compare against the original with the draggable split, watch the histogram mirror itself from left to right, and run whole folders through at full resolution as one ZIP.
How to use the Invert Image
- Add images by dropping, choosing or pasting them.
- Keep Colours (negative) for a classic negative, or choose Lightness only to swap light and dark but keep the hues.
- Untick channels to invert only red, green or blue, and lower Amount for a partial effect.
- Tick Also invert transparency only when you want to flip a mask; otherwise transparent areas stay transparent.
- Download the inverted image, or every image as a ZIP.
Invert Image features
Exact negative
Each red, green and blue value becomes 255 minus itself, so inverting twice gives back the original exactly.
Alpha preserved
Transparent and semi-transparent pixels keep their opacity; logos and icons stay cut out.
Per-channel inversion
Invert any combination of red, green and blue for colour-separation effects and channel checks.
Lightness-only invert
Swaps light and dark in HSL while keeping hue and saturation — handy for dark-mode screenshots and diagrams.
Partial amount
The same blend as CSS invert(): anything between the original and the full negative.
Batch and private
Whole folders are processed locally and bundled into a single ZIP — no uploads, no watermark.
How colour inversion works
An 8-bit image stores each channel as a number from 0 to 255. Inversion replaces each number with its distance from the top: out = 255 − in. A dark navy pixel (20, 30, 80) becomes a pale yellow (235, 225, 175); pure red (255, 0, 0) becomes cyan (0, 255, 255). Because the mapping is its own reverse, inverting the result again restores the original pixel for pixel.
With an Amount a below 100%, the tool uses the same blend as CSS invert(): out = in + a × (255 − 2 × in). At 50% every value becomes 127.5, a flat mid-grey, which is why partial inversions look washed out around the halfway mark.
Inverting images with transparency
The alpha channel is not a colour, so it is left exactly as it was: a transparent background stays transparent and soft edges stay soft. Many quick tools invert all four channels and turn transparent areas solid. Tick Also invert transparency only when you are editing a mask and want its visible and hidden areas swapped (alpha′ = 255 − alpha); untick all three colour channels to flip the mask without touching its colours. JPG has no alpha channel, so save as PNG or WebP to keep transparency.
Lightness-only invert and other uses
- Dark-mode images: Lightness only converts each pixel to HSL and sets
L′ = 1 − L, so a black-on-white chart becomes white-on-black while its red and blue lines stay red and blue. - Scanned film negatives: invert, then use per-channel auto-contrast in the contrast tool to remove the orange cast of colour negative film.
- Checking channels: inverting one channel at a time shows how much it contributes to each colour.
- Creative looks: combine an inversion with a hue shift in Image Hue, or with Grayscale Image for an X-ray effect.
- Not the same as a hue shift: rotating hue by 180° swaps colours but keeps light and dark; inversion swaps both.
Invert Image FAQ
How do I invert the colours of an image?
Add the image, keep “Colours (negative)” at 100% and download. Every red, green and blue value is replaced with 255 minus itself.
Does inverting an image keep the transparent background?
Yes. Alpha is preserved unless you tick “Also invert transparency”. Save as PNG or WebP to keep it.
How do I turn a negative image back into a positive?
Invert it once more — inversion is its own reverse, so you get the original values back exactly. For scanned colour film, also correct the orange film base with per-channel auto-contrast.
What is the difference between inverting and a 180° hue shift?
A hue shift swaps colours but keeps light and dark. Inversion swaps both, so white becomes black as well as red becoming cyan.
Can I invert just one colour channel?
Yes. Untick the channels you want to keep — for example, leave only Red ticked to invert the red channel alone.
Is this invert image tool free and private?
Yes. There is no sign-up and no watermark, and images never leave your browser.