inverting image in Python with OpenCV

You almost did it. You were tricked by the fact that abs(imagem-255) will give a wrong result since your dtype is an unsigned integer. You have to do (255-imagem) in order to keep the integers unsigned:

def inverte(imagem, name):
    imagem = (255-imagem)
    cv2.imwrite(name, imagem)

You can also invert the image using the bitwise_not function of OpenCV:

imagem = cv2.bitwise_not(imagem)

You can use "tilde" operator to do it:

import cv2
image = cv2.imread("img.png")
image = ~image
cv2.imwrite("img_inv.png",image)

This is because the "tilde" operator (also known as unary operator) works doing a complement dependent on the type of object

for example for integers, its formula is:

x + (~x) = -1

but in this case, opencv use an "uint8 numpy array object" for its images so its range is from 0 to 255

so if we apply this operator to an "uint8 numpy array object" like this:

import numpy as np
x1 = np.array([25,255,10], np.uint8) #for example
x2 = ~x1
print (x2)

we will have as a result:

[230 0 245]

because its formula is:

x2 = 255 - x1

and that is exactly what we want to do to solve the problem.

You can also do it with numpy.

import cv2
import numpy as np

image = cv2.imread('your_image', 0)
inverted = np.invert(image)

cv2.imwrite('inverted.jpg', inverted)

Alternatively, you could invert the image using the bitwise_not function of OpenCV:

imagem = cv2.bitwise_not(imagem)

I liked this example.