Reverse video

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Reverse video is a computer display technique wherein the background and text or the colors are reversed [1] so that the appearance is that of a negative of the original display. Highlighting on some computers is a good example of reverse video or inversion. [2]

Usually this is done by inverting the brightness values of the pixels of the involved region of the display with an exclusive or. Since brightness values usually range from 0 to 255, a 255 value becomes 0 and vice versa. A 1 value becomes 254, etc. This is occasionally called a ones complement. If the source image is a neutral gray color, reverse video can be difficult to see.