هذه الصفحة متاحة بالإنجليزية حالياً. النسخة العربية قيد الكتابة.

Building right-to-left interfaces from day one

Mirroring a finished English product is the expensive way. Here is the cheap way, and the three things that never flip.

Sample article5 min readSquad 03
01

Logical properties, always

Use inline-start and inline-end instead of left and right, from the first stylesheet. The browser mirrors the layout for free when the document direction changes. Retrofitting this later means touching every rule.

02

What flips and what does not

Navigation, grids, reading order and chevrons flip. Logos, product screenshots, code and phone numbers do not. Decide this list once and write it down; most RTL bugs are someone being inconsistent about it.

Illustrative excerpt
.card { padding-inline-start: 16px; border-inline-end: 1px solid var(--line); }
[dir="rtl"] .logo { /* nothing. The logo does not flip. */ }
03

Write, do not translate

Arabic copy written for Arabic readers is shorter, clearer and sounds like a person. Translated English sounds like a manual. Budget for a writer, not a service.

Sample article. Written to show the register, not to claim the result.

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    Product6 min readSquad 02

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