Markup acting strangely in Ventura 13.0.1

Hey hlevinger,

We'd recommend testing Markup in safe mode to see if the same issue happens there. Testing in safe mode will help to isolate the issue further.

This article explains how: Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

"Before you begin

To start up your Mac in safe mode, you need to know what type of Mac you have.

1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > About This Mac.
2. Look at the information in the window to determine what type of Mac you have:

• If you see an item labeled Chip, followed by the name of the chip, you have a Mac with Apple silicon.
• If you see an item labeled Processor, followed by the name of an Intel processor, you have an Intel-based Mac.

1. Use the corresponding set of instructions below to start up your Mac in safe mode.

Start up your Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.
2. Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.
3. Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.
4. Select a volume.
5. Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.
6. The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.

Start up your Intel-based Mac in safe mode

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login window.
2. Log in to your Mac.
3. You might be asked to log in again.
4. On either the first or second login window, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar."

Thanks!

hlevinger,

If the issue remains in safe mode you can ensure you have a backup of your information and reinstall the macOS as recommended in the article here: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

"If the issue continues in safe mode

If the issue continues while in safe mode, or your Mac restarts several times and then shuts down while starting up in safe mode, you should reinstall macOS and make sure that your Apple software and third-party apps are up to date."

Additionally, you can reach out to Apple Support directly to further assist with the issue.

Contact - Official Apple Support

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

Best.

I am in the photos app on my MacBook Air, I select a photo, click on edit, click on the 3 dots (upper right hand corner) select Markup, from there I can add text to a photo. Anything I type is upside down. I can rotate it when I'm done but I shouldn't have to. This just started yesterday. This is happening to me, see my photo below

hlevinger wrote:

I hope this clarifies. Also see other poster’s (OIS48) screenshot showing the upside down text effect in markup in Photos (I believe). That screenshot echoes my experience exactly.

OK. There are two of you.

I did try to reproduce this in Photos, and I couldn't. I tried rotating the image and then marking up. No problem. I've never seen a problem like this in Preview.

However, I have seen this exactly problem in various odd-corners of software development. There is a concept of "flipping" of coordinate systems. Sometimes point (0,0) is in the upper left hand corner and sometimes it is in the lower left corner. There is no real rhyme or reason for when something might be flipped and when it might not be. I'm honestly surprised we don't see this kind of problem more often.

My next question, for both of you, would be to ask what kind of display you are using? Are these external displays? And can they be rotated?

Also, have you tried restarting? When Mac OS X was first introduced, people were so happy that it didn't crash as much as the old MacOS system. People started going for long periods between restarts. But now we are back to a period where more frequent restarts means a more stable system. Maybe you can't AirDrop anymore or your cursor sometimes disappears, or some other strange problem that magically goes away after restart.

Next question would be what kind of computer you have? Do you have an old Intel Mac? Or a newer iPhone with built-in keyboard and display? Let's be honest, that's what the new M1 machines are. 😄 But there is a big difference in this "flipping" behaviour between iOS and macOS.

My best guess is the display. The lowest-level graphics hardware knows the display is, or should be flipped. But then the text and markup is using a different set of APIs that is somehow missing one of the flips and showing up upside down.

And I'm not familiar with this icon:

What is that? Some Camera interfacing with the display? Another very likely candidate is some 3rd party system modification that isn't doing all this flipping perfectly. Maybe it was designed for Intel macOS where everything is flipped. Or maybe it has internal logic to change the flipping based on the graphics platform and now it thinks it is running on a phone. Or all of that is opposite. Either way you flip it, you're flipped.

Ois48 wrote:

MacBook Air with Ventura V. 13.0.1, using Markup, selecting Text, while typing, why is the text upside down? I know I can rotate it when done but why does it type upside down?

What are you saying? Are you using some app called "Markup"? If so, contact the developer of that app and ask.

Or are you using the markup feature in some Apple app? If so, what app?

Are you asking a question for the original poster? Or are you saying that you are seeing the same thing?

Has this image been edited? I ask this because one way to “edit” an image is to apply a matrix transformation. That way it is easy to preserve the original image but display it with the correct rotation.

However, that transformation could also apply to any annotations. This shouldn’t, but it seems like the most likely explanation. Do you only see this problem on certain images?

Are you seeing this behaviour in one specific app? If so, which app? What are the details about your computer?

MacBook Air with Ventura V. 13.0.1, using Markup, selecting Text, while typing, why is the text upside down? I know I can rotate it when done but why does it type upside down?