How do you type upside down?
You can't type upside down on a normal keyboard, but you can paste it. This generator swaps each letter for a Unicode character that looks like the letter turned half a circle, so a becomes ɐ, e becomes ǝ and h becomes ɥ, then reverses the order. The result reads correctly when you turn your phone over: "hello" comes out as "ollǝɥ". It's plain text, so it pastes into Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Discord and anywhere else.
The flipped characters come from all over Unicode: phonetic letters (ɐ, ǝ, ɹ), a few Greek and Cyrillic lookalikes, maths symbols like ∀ for an upside-down A, and even Korean and Chinese characters for some numbers. None of them were made for flipping. They just happen to have the right shape.
Why doesn't upside down text flip back?
Because some flipped letters are real letters. An upside-down b is q, and an upside-down n is u, so once a word is flipped, there's no way to know whether a q started life as a b or was always a q. Running flipped text through the tool again turns it into something new rather than the original. Keep your original text if you'll need it.
Why do some letters look the same upside down?
Some letters are symmetrical when turned half a circle, so they don't need a replacement. Capital H, I, N, O, S, X and Z, lowercase l, o, s, x and z, and the numbers 0 and 8 all look the same either way. A few others swap with each other: 6 and 9 trade places, as do b and q, and d and p. Everything else gets a lookalike character.
Capital letters are the weakest part of any flip table. Several upside-down capitals (like 𐐒 for B and Ⅎ for F) come from rarely used blocks, and some phones don't have a font for them, which leaves an empty box. If a flipped word shows boxes, try it in lowercase.
What is upside down text used for?
- Bios that make people turn their phone. A flipped line in an Instagram or TikTok bio gets a second look because readers have to work it out.
- Jokes about a bad day. "my week ˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn" says it without an emoji.
- Australia jokes. The oldest use of flipped text online is writing as if you're posting from "down under".
- Puzzles and party games. Clues that only make sense when the paper or screen is turned over.
Upside down text is rotated, not mirrored. Turn your phone over and it reads normally.
Is upside down text the same as mirror text?
No. Upside down text is turned half a circle, so it reads correctly when you rotate the screen. Mirror text is flipped left to right, so it reads correctly in a mirror, like AMBULANCE on the front of an ambulance. The mirror text generator on this site makes true mirrored letters, and this page's Reversed row simply writes your text backwards without flipping anything.
Like all styled text, flipped letters are hard for screen readers, which may read them out as a string of odd symbols. Use them for fun and keep anything important in plain text.