Thursday, 30 September 2010

How To Write Upside Down On a Computer

I am not sure when it would be useful to be able to write upside down on a computer, but should you wish to do so, here’s how you do it:



  1. Go to http://www.writeupsidedown.net/

  2. Type your text into the uppermost box

  3. Select the text in the bottom box and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl C on a PC)

  4. Paste the text into your document or web page.


Easy!


This is what it looks like (based on the above text):



¡ʎsɐǝ
˙ǝƃɐd qǝʍ ɹo ʇuǝɯnɔop ɹnoʎ oʇuı ʇxǝʇ ǝɥʇ ǝʇsɐd ㄣ
(ɔd ɐ uo ɔ ןɹʇɔ) pɹɐoqdıןɔ ǝɥʇ oʇ ʇı ʎdoɔ puɐ xoq ɯoʇʇoq ǝɥʇ uı ʇxǝʇ ǝɥʇ ʇɔǝןǝs ᄐ
xoq ʇsoɯɹǝddn ǝɥʇ oʇuı ʇxǝʇ ɹnoʎ ǝdʎʇ ᄅ
/ʇǝu˙uʍopǝpısdnǝʇıɹʍ˙ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ oʇ oƃ ⇂
:ʇı op noʎ ʍoɥ s’ǝɹǝɥ 'os op oʇ ɥsıʍ noʎ pןnoɥs ʇnq 'ɹǝʇndɯoɔ ɐ uo uʍop ǝpısdn ǝʇıɹʍ oʇ ǝןqɐ ǝq oʇ ןnɟǝsn ǝq pןnoʍ ʇı uǝɥʍ ǝɹns ʇou ɯɐ ı



Some uses for this facility could be:



  • Book covers.

  • Novelty items.

  • Special effects in a story.

  • Greetings cards.


Yes, you could simply enter the text in the usual way, and then turn the page upside down, but that doesn't allow you to mix normal and upside-down text in the same document.


An alternative might be to create a document in the normal manner, and then scan it into the computer as an image, which you can then insert upside-down into an ordinary document. However, not only is that a whole ton of hassle, the quality of the text in the picture will almost certainly not be as clear as the ordinary text.


So, it looks like for producing upside-down text on a computer, that upside-down website is your best bet.

2 comments:

  1. Surely there's a much easier way to produce upside down text in Word?Insert a text box into your document, then type some text into that box. Use the bottom right corner 'handle' and drag it upwards over and above the top line of your text box. Voila, your text now appears upside down.A word of warning, though, if you save the document as a .pdf file, the text gets turned the right way round; this also applies to text printed vertically using the change text direction command

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  2. Thanks for that, Doug. I guess the upside-down text site is good for people who don't have Word or something similar. I suppose you could get around that PDF "feature" by inserting the upside-down text as a graphic.

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