Upside Down Text
Flipped text is not a rotated font. Each letter is swapped for a different Unicode character that happens to look like it standing on its head, and the whole string is then reversed.
These are characters, not formatting, which is why they survive a paste into a bio. It is also why a screen reader will not read them as ordinary letters, and why some sites refuse them in a name field.
There is no rotated letter in Unicode
What exists is a scattering of characters encoded for unrelated reasons that happen to resemble a Latin letter turned over. The tool substitutes one for each character you type, then reverses the string. That is why the result survives a paste into a field that carries no formatting.
Where the turned letters were borrowed from
Mostly phonetic symbols, needed by linguists long before anyone wanted a novelty bio line. A few are not Latin at all.
| Typed | Returned | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| a | ɐ | Latin small letter turned a |
| g | ƃ | Latin small letter b with topbar |
| 7 | ㄥ | Bopomofo letter eng |
The stand-in for g is not a turned g; Unicode never encoded one, and fonts draw it to their own design, so it usually looks wrong.
A third of the alphabet is not turned
b and q trade places, as do d and p, and n and u; l, o, s, x and z pass through as typed. Capitals are lowered before flipping, so a name loses its capital. Only 3, 4 and 7 have digit stand-ins, and accented vowels and the letter n with a tilde stay upright.
What the reversal costs
- The text is stored backwards, so cursor, selection and search work on the reversed order.
- Nobody can find it: a search for your name will not match a flipped copy.
- A screen reader announces the phonetic symbols by their Unicode names and the leftover ASCII letters as themselves, in reverse. To a blind visitor that is a list of descriptions, not a word.
Keep it decorative, never a name or heading. The fancy text generator lists the alternatives, small caps is the closest legible one, and letras al revés is the Spanish page.