Upside Down Text Generator

How it works

The generator holds a fixed substitution table covering both alphabets, the digits and common punctuation. Each entry pairs a character with an existing Unicode character that looks like the original rotated through 180 degrees: lowercase letters mostly borrow the turned letters that phoneticians use, such as ɐ (turned a), ǝ (turned e), ɥ (turned h) and ʍ (turned w), while capitals draw on mathematical and other symbols, such as ∀ for A, Ǝ for E, ⊥ for T and ∩ for U. Digits flip too, with 6 and 9 simply trading places, and punctuation follows suit, so a question mark becomes ¿ and an exclamation mark becomes ¡. To produce the classic upside down effect the flipped characters are then written in reverse order, because rotating a line of text also reverses its direction. Characters with no convincing lookalike pass through unchanged. The flipped-only and reversed-only variants apply just one half of the process each.

Worked example

Type Kia ora New Zealand. Working from the last character back to the first, the d becomes p, the n becomes u, each a becomes ɐ, the l stays as l, the e becomes ǝ and the capitals Z and N keep their own shapes because they look the same rotated. The r becomes ɹ, the o stays as o, the i becomes ᴉ and the capital K borrows the turned k, giving puɐlɐǝZ ʍǝN ɐɹo ɐᴉʞ as the upside down result. Keeping the original order instead gives ʞᴉɐ oɹɐ Nǝʍ Zǝɐlɐup, and reversing without flipping gives dnalaeZ weN aro aiK. All 19 characters, including the two spaces, are accounted for in each version.

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