Can you use CSS to mirror/flip text?

Question

Is it possible to use CSS/CSS3 to mirror text?

Specifically, I have this scissors char “✂” (✂) that I\'d like to display pointing left a

Answer 1

Real mirror:

.mirror{
    display: inline-block; 
    font-size: 30px;

    -webkit-transform: matrix(-1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0);
    -moz-transform: matrix(-1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0);
    -o-transform: matrix(-1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0);
    transform: matrix(-1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0);
}

<span class='mirror'>Mirror Text<span>

Answer 2

I cobbled together this solution by scouring the Internet including

• Stack Overflow answers,
• MSDN articles,
• http://css-tricks.com/almanac/properties/t/transform/,
• http://caniuse.com/#search=transform,
• http://browserhacks.com/, and
• http://www.useragentman.com/IETransformsTranslator/.

This solution seems to work in all browsers including IE6+, using scale(-1,1) (a proper mirror) and appropriate filter/-ms-filter properties when necessary (IE6-8):

/* Cross-browser mirroring of content. Note that CSS pre-processors
  like Less cough on the media hack. 

  Microsoft recommends using BasicImage as a more efficent/faster form of
  mirroring, instead of FlipH or some kind of Matrix scaling/transform.
  @see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532972%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
  @see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532992%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
*/

/* IE8 only via hack: necessary because IE9+ will also interpret -ms-filter,
  and mirroring something that's already mirrored results in no net change! */
@media \0screen {
  .mirror {
    -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(mirror=1)";
  }
}
.mirror {
  /* IE6 and 7 via hack */
  *filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(mirror=1);
  /* Standards browsers, including IE9+ */
  -moz-transform: scale(-1,1);
  -ms-transform: scale(-1,1);
  -o-transform: scale(-1,1); /* Op 11.5 only */
  -webkit-transform: scale(-1,1);
  transform: scale(-1,1);
}