How it works
This mirror text generator turns each letter to face left, and a second row also runs the line backwards, as a mirror would. Unicode names 20 of its 53 characters reversed. Some apps strip or block these characters, and screen readers may read them badly.
Read the full guide
Two rows, two kinds of backwards
The large card, Flip each letter, turns every letter where it stands, so the line still reads left to right. Mirrored, below it, also reverses the order: that is the AMBULANCE painted on the front of the van. One more flip, Upside down, stands the line on its head.
Why A, M and U stayed plain
Eleven capitals are their own mirror image, A, M and U among them, so the note under the card lists them as stayed plain. That is correct. G is the failure: Unicode has no capital reversed G, so it faces the wrong way. Digits stay too: no character is named a reversed digit.
Tips
- The reversed F and P are real letters from Roman inscriptions. Unicode's notes give reversed F as filia, daughter, and reversed P as puella, girl.
- Two rows draw B differently: the large card uses Lisu letter gha, a B facing left, and Mirrored a Canadian syllabics character with extra strokes.
- Hold the result up to a mirror to check it: the Mirrored row should read normally, give or take the near misses.
Questions and answers
Why is AMBULANCE written backwards on the front?
So that it reads correctly in a rear-view mirror. Wikipedia's article on mirror writing records the same trick on police cars and fire engines, and that Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his personal notes this way, for a purpose that remains unknown.
Where do the mirrored letters come from?
From elsewhere in Unicode: phonetic signs, Cyrillic and Lisu letters, two letters from Roman inscriptions. Each is a character of its own, so no font is involved, and a device without them shows empty boxes.
Is a flip text generator the same as a mirror one?
Flip can mean either. A mirror flips a line left to right, so b becomes d; upside down turns it half a circle, so b becomes q. Both rows also reverse the letter order. Only the large card keeps it.