Flip PDF pages

Mirroring, not rotating

Flipping produces a mirror image: text reads backwards, and anything asymmetric is reversed. That is quite different from rotating, which turns the page while keeping it readable — and rotation is what most people arriving here actually want.

Where mirroring is genuinely needed

Iron-on transfers. Printed artwork is applied face down, so it must be mirrored first or the design comes out reversed on the fabric. Every design with text has to go through this step.

Screen printing and lithography. Plates and films are frequently produced mirrored, depending on the emulsion side and the press.

Engraving and etching. Where the artwork is transferred face down onto the workpiece.

Window and vehicle graphics applied to the inside of glass, which are read from the other side.

Horizontal or vertical

Horizontal mirrors left to right, which is what transfers and plates need. Vertical mirrors top to bottom, which is much rarer and mostly appears in specialised printing setups.

It is a transform, not a re-render

Each page is placed onto a new sheet through a mirroring transformation matrix, so vectors stay vectors and text stays text — reversed, but still real text rather than a picture of it. Quality is unaffected and the file does not grow.

Selected pages only

The pages field accepts ranges, so a document where only the transfer artwork needs mirroring can be handled without touching the instructions around it.

Check before you commit material

Transfer paper, screen emulsion and engraving blanks all cost money, and a mirrored-the-wrong-way print is only discovered after it is applied. Print one page on ordinary paper first and hold it up to a mirror — if it reads correctly in the reflection, the transfer will read correctly on the fabric.

Mirroring twice

Running a mirrored file through again returns it exactly to the original, since the transformation is its own inverse. Useful if you are unsure which state a file is already in.