How this calculator works
There is no font style that rotates text, so upside-down text is built from separate Unicode characters that resemble rotated letters. For example, a lowercase a becomes the turned a at U+0250 and an uppercase A becomes the turned A at U+2200. The tool replaces each character that has a turned lookalike and copies the rest unchanged. Turning the whole message over also reverses the left-to-right order, so the calculator can reverse the output as well; that is the setting that makes the message readable to someone sitting across from you.
Formula
For each character: replace it with its upside-down counterpart from the fixed map; characters without a counterpart are copied unchanged. If the order setting is reversed, reverse the resulting string. Character count reports the number of code points in the original text.
Worked example
Hello flips to H, turned e, l, l, o, which is the string H, U+01DD, l, l, o. With the reversed order setting selected, the output is read from the other end, so a person across the table sees the original word the right way up.
Advertisement
Frequently asked questions
Why does some text come back unchanged?
Only characters with a convincing turned lookalike are replaced. Many punctuation marks, accented letters and non-Latin scripts have no counterpart, so they stay as they are. The result is still readable but mixes turned letters with upright ones.
Which order setting should I use?
Use reversed when you want the message to read correctly after the page or screen is turned over. Use same order when you want the characters flipped but the reading order left alone, which is useful for testing or for a decorative effect.
Will upside-down text paste into messages?
It is plain Unicode text, so it pastes into most apps and websites. A few services restrict characters to basic Latin and may reject or strip the lookalikes.
Can I turn the text back?
This page does not invert the result automatically, because several lookalikes map many-to-one. Keep the original text if you need to edit it later. The same tool on the flipped output will not always recover the exact original.