How to Flip an Image on Mac

Flip an image in Preview

Preview is the default image viewer on macOS. It opens JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC, WebP, and PDF files. Flipping takes two steps — no settings to change, no toolbar to customize.

1. Double-click the image in Finder to open it in Preview. If another app opens instead, right-click the file → Open With → Preview.
2. In the menu bar, click Tools → Flip Horizontal (to mirror left-to-right) or Flip Vertical (to mirror top-to-bottom).
3. Press Command-S to save. The file is overwritten in place.

If you want to keep the original untouched, use File → Export before saving to write the flipped version to a new file. You can also change the format (JPEG, PNG, TIFF) during export.

Flip multiple images at once in Preview

Preview can batch-flip a group of images in one pass — something most people don't realize.

1. Select all the images in Finder (click the first, then Shift-click the last, or Command-A to select all in a folder).
2. Right-click → Open With → Preview. All images open in a single Preview window with a sidebar showing thumbnails.
3. Press Command-A in Preview to select every thumbnail in the sidebar.
4. Go to Tools → Flip Horizontal (or Flip Vertical). Every selected image flips at once.
5. Press Command-S to save them all. Or use File → Export Selected Images to write copies to a different folder.

This works well for a handful of files. For larger batches or when you need more control, the flip image tool lets you drag in as many images as you want, flip them all, and download the results — entirely in your browser, nothing uploaded.

Flip an image in the Photos app

If the image lives in your Photos library (synced from your iPhone, imported from a camera, or dragged in), you can flip it without leaving Photos.

1. Open Photos and double-click the image to view it full-size.
2. Click Edit in the toolbar (or press Return).
3. Click the Crop tool in the adjustment panel.
4. In the toolbar above the image, click the flip icon — two triangles pointing at each other. This flips the image horizontally.
5. Click Done. Photos keeps the original; you can revert any time via Image → Revert to Original.

Photos only has a horizontal flip button. For a vertical flip, rotate the image 180° first (click the rotate button twice), then flip horizontally. The combined result is a vertical mirror.

Horizontal vs. vertical flip

A horizontal flip mirrors the image along the vertical axis — left becomes right. Text in the image appears reversed. This is what most people mean by "mirror an image."

A vertical flip mirrors along the horizontal axis — top becomes bottom. This is less common but useful for correcting scanned documents, reflection photography, or flipping textures for design work.

Preview offers both directions directly. If you need to see both options side by side before deciding, the horizontal flip tool and vertical flip tool let you toggle between them in a live preview.

Flip an image from the Terminal

If you prefer the command line or need to script batch operations, sips (Scriptable Image Processing System) is built into macOS. No install needed.

1. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal).
2. To flip horizontally: sips --flip horizontal image.jpg
3. To flip vertically: sips --flip vertical image.jpg

sips overwrites the file in place. To process every PNG in a folder: sips --flip horizontal *.png. Combine it with find for recursive flipping across subdirectories.

What about Quick Look and Markup?

Pressing Space on an image in Finder opens Quick Look. You can rotate an image from Quick Look's toolbar, but there is no flip option. The same applies to Markup — the annotation layer available in Quick Look, Mail, and Notes. It handles drawing, text, shapes, and rotation, but not mirroring.

If you want to avoid opening Preview entirely, the flip image tool works in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox on any Mac. Drag your image in, pick horizontal or vertical, and download the result. The file never leaves your computer — processing happens locally in the browser.

Format and quality notes

Flipping rearranges pixel data — it doesn't re-encode the image. In Preview, the saved file keeps its original format and compression level. HEIC files from your iPhone stay as HEIC; PNGs stay lossless.

If you need to change the format after flipping (say, converting HEIC to JPEG for web upload), use Preview's File → Export dialog and pick the target format. Or use the flip image tool, which outputs in the same format you provide.