Whatever your reason for wanting to invert the colors of a picture on your Android device, we’re here to help show you how. Our step-by-step tutorials walk you through how to invert your device’s colors, as well as how to invert only the color(s) of individual photographs and pictures found in the Gallery app.
Follow our tutorials below to learn how to invert colors on a picture on Android. For everything else, see our FAQ section at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to invert colors across your Android device (Stock Android)
- On your Stock Android device (such as a Google Pixel smartphone), unlock the phone to get to your homescreen
- From here, pull down the notification window by dragging down from the center-top of the screen
- Next, pull down once more to open the notification and settings window fully
- Scroll from left-to-right through the settings shade to locate a button labeled ‘Invert colors’ and tap this
- Note: If the ‘Invert colors’ button isn’t initially present, simply tap the pencil ‘Edit’ button at the bottom of the menu window, locate ‘Invert colors’ and drag and drop it into the menu window, then follow step 4
- You have successfully inverted the colors across your Android device and can view whatever pictures you like in inverted color by visiting your Gallery app as normal
How to invert colors across your Android device (Samsung Galaxy)
- On your Samsung Galaxy Android device, unlock the phone to view the homescreen
- Swipe up to take you to your apps screen and then locate and tap on ‘Settings’
- Scroll down and tap on ‘Accessibility’
- Next, tap on ‘Visibility Enhancements’
- Finally, tap the ‘Color inversion’ toggle button from OFF (gray) to ON (blue)
- You have successfully inverted the colors across your Android device and can view whatever pictures you like in inverted color by visiting your Gallery app as normal
How to invert the colors on a single picture on Android (any device)
- To invert just the colors of one or multiple images from your Gallery app, first head to the Google Play Store and use the search bar to search for the free image editor app called ‘Negative Image’
- Once you’ve located ‘Negative Image’ tap on it, and then tap on ‘Install’ and wait for the installation to finish
- Next, tap ‘Open’ beneath ‘Negative Image’ in the Google Play Store, or find the downloaded app in your app screen and tap on it there
- Once the app has opened, tap the small ‘Gallery’ icon in the bottom-right of the screen and then give the app permission to view Gallery and write Gallery, and once done, tap on this icon again
- Select the image from your Gallery which you wish to invert the color of
- Note: This app does have ads, which you’ll have to close by tapping the ‘X’ button in the top-right of them whenever they pop-up
- Note: This app does have ads, which you’ll have to close by tapping the ‘X’ button in the top-right of them whenever they pop-up
- As soon as you’ve loaded the photo into Negative Image, you’ll see its color has been inverted. To save this inverted image to your device, simply tap the ‘Save’ icon in the top-right of the app
- Repeat as often as you like to invert the colors of any image or photo
There’s all the different ways you can invert color on your Android device, from inverting the colors of the entire smartphone to inverting just the colors of one image. If you have any further questions, or would like more info, see our FAQs below.
FAQs
Why would I want to invert colors on a picture on Android?
Color inversion for Android refers to the process of inverting the colors across your device to the ‘negative’ or opposite versions of themselves. If you’ve ever seen a roll of camera negatives, you’ll know that this is what inverted color looks like.
Color inversion on Android often comes under the umbrella of ‘Accessibility’, suggesting that for some users with limited or differing sets of abilities, negative colors may actually be easier to read than the default color settings.
It is quite possible, however, that you may also simply like the cool look of inverted colors on your device, or prefer it because it makes it harder for other people to snoop at what you’re doing when you’re using your device in public.
Whatever you want to invert the colors on a picture on Android for, our tutorials above explain how to do it in two different ways. Just follow our step-by-step tutorials to find out.
Can you invert just the colors of photos instead of over the entire device?
When you toggle ‘Color Inversion’ or ‘Invert Color’ to ON on an Android device, you’ll instantly notice that this setting inverts all of the colors across your entire device. This can be useful to those who require it for purposes of accessibility. However, it may not be what you’re really looking for when you arrived at this article.
It’s quite possible that instead you’re just looking to learn how to invert the colors of a single photograph or picture in your Gallery app, rather than every color across every aspect of your Android device. If that’s the case, we’re pleased to tell you that there is indeed a way to invert just the colors of individual pictures. However, in order to do that, you will have to download a third-party (free) app, because Android itself does not provide the means to do so otherwise.
Can I invert colors on pictures on my iPhone using these methods?
No, the method for inverting colors on the pictures on your iPhone differs slightly from the methods described above for doing so on your Android device. However, ultimately the result is the same, and the technique used is not so very different. On an iPhone, search for ‘color inversion’ in the search bar of your settings app and find the ON/OFF toggle from there.