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+1 Vote for variable fonts from me as well. A nonprofit I work for provides a Creative Cloud License for me to use in creating all their marketing content. I use the Affinity Suite for all personal and client projects. Jumping back and forth is a great way to compare products. (I use AI and ID primarily on the Adobe side and Publisher with Studio Link while using Affinity.) Variable fonts and RTL text are two of the biggest features I miss when using Affinity. Other than that, I actually prefer Publisher to ID in a lot of ways. (I love Studio Link!)

This thread is for people (like me) who are interested and hoping for support of Indic languages in Affinity Version 2 (V2). Sadly, there is still no support for Indic languages as of this moment, the 9th November, 2022. Features may be added in a future point-update or point-release. Let's all remain positive and hopeful that the staff and developers at Serif keeps the dialogue for Indic Languages and RTL Language support as open.

Ash; Well-done to you and your team & beta testers. Ash please please give some indication or support for RTL languages as I fear the software will become so complex that a retrofit of some sort would prove impossible. Affinity has built a truly world class software that I at least use on daily basis at work and at home but this vital feature is creating a lot of obstacles. Sorry I did not want to sound I am ranting and once again congrats and well-done.

In this video I share with you how to fix RTL on Affinity Designer but its work Publisher and Photo as well, Free Fix Download Link: https://leomoon.com/downloads/desktop-apps/leomoon-parsinegar/ Enjoy!

Does anyone knows how do I type text from RTL for Arabic text for the 2 softwares mentioned?

So, beta 2.2 is here, and we can see that some very important features have been added, and with remarkable creativity. Development is proceeding slowly but steadily. Since new features are announced as possible during the next months, it is hard to say what we will have in Publisher before the end of the year. Just to recap, however, I'll write down what I still miss for my own needs. - Multipage tables. I work with tabular-heavy data, so I can't really use the current feature. - Object styles. I have to adapt my content to different styles. The current situation is that I should re-apply the object presets to each object in a publication. With their number easily going over 1,000, this is hardly feasible. I need object styles. - Text variables. Much of my work is referred to products available in different variants. The name of the product and of some of its features and controls can change. Without text variables, I have to use search and replace, with the imaginable risk of changing what shouldn't be changed. - Conditional text. Product variants also means an abundance of alternative text and images. - IDML export. This is a show-stopper for two reasons: (1) interfacing with assisted translation software, and (2) compatibility with my colleagues working in InDesign. While some of them may be wanting to switch to Affinity, this is not always possible for a series of reasons (company decisions, unwillingness to change, prestige associated with the Adobe name, lack of support of RTL languages, incomplete support of CJKV languages). And then, back to (1): they wouldn't be able to use their CAT tools. - DOCX export. I see this file format as the perfect interface for ePub and Web. The tools I use for this type of work require DOCX/RTF files. Copy & Paste from Publisher may work for text, but the lack of images would make rebuilding the project quite hard. - ICML import. Not a real show-stopper, but a cause of slowdown. It is the file format generated by Pandoc. I described somewhere else in this forum how to go from ICML to IDML, but it is not exactly a quick operation. Since ICML is just a subset of IDML, it would be very easy for Serif to support it. It's just a matter of adding the file into a <Story> element of a IDML template. - RTL support. Admittedly, I don't have much control on the work of the distributors using RTL languages. And I know that most of them prefer to work in Word or LibreOffice. But I must consider this as a limitation. And it happens, to me, to have to produce short multilingual documents including RTL languages. - Better CJKV support? I have still to understand if horizontal text is managed correctly or not. There is an inexplicable reluctance in talking extensively about this issue from our Chinese or Japanese fellows here in the forum, that I can't still get if it can be used or not. And I can't yet, for various reasons, get information from my colleagues (who don't use the Affinity suite, or only informally admit to have it installed in their secret computer). So, another year of InDesign CC subscription and file lock-in is to be expected Paolo

Hi Matrouk, We don't currently support RTL languages but this is something we would like to add in the future. Thanks C

Hi, Can you please consider supporting RTL languages like Hebrew and Arabic? As a Hebrew speaker, I have to write texts In my designs backwards, which makes me frustrated, and I know there are many other people who would like to get this feature. I use affinity design & photo for around 3 years, and that's the only con I found compared to Adobe's programs. I know that many rtl-languages speakers don't buy Affinity suit just because of this reason.

i trying to use your product but you have problem with Arabic Text From 2015 ( https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/9580-adding-arabic-text/ ) and now after 4 Years with version 1.7 still with no arabic text , how i change Adobe if u can't fix this stupid bug with RTL , Please help us with that problem , you put Hebrew and Arabic in Typography only we need fast fix please thanks

Once again and again and again, please, pretty please, support rtl texts on affinity package, I use affinity publisher to setup Arabic books with long texts, and it takes sooooo long to prepare texts outside affinity then paste them back to the the publisher. Please help!

many messaged you before but no response> We need it ot support Arabic and other RTL languages.

Hi everyone, Just signed up for the forum after purchasing the Affinity V2 Universal License. I asked this question in a private message with Affinity support, and it was also asked in the Affinity V1 section in this forum but seems that no-one has asked this for V2. Hence, I'm raising this up here as well so this won't be forgotten: It would be great if Right-to-Left (RTL) text writing support will be added to the Affinity products for both desktop and iPad versions. I'm aware that this may be difficult to implement, yet this is an essential feature for RTL users. The competitor Adobe has RTL support but as you all know the mandatory subscription plan is why we're here, and so RTL users would love to see this important feature implement. Thanks! I would like I to take advantage of this opportunity to thank Affinity for developing such great products, making it much affordable (and reasonable) for those who still believe and prefer a one-time-purchase permanent license per version, which the competitor Adobe doesn't offer anymore. Also, I would like to thank the community here for their feedback to making the Affinity products even better. Personally, I would love to see Affinity products line grow to include even more products, such as video and audio editing, so eventually combine an entire production software in one suite, just like the Adobe Master Collection.

Hi Affinity Team, Does Affinity V2 support RTL? RTL is in need.

we need RTL writing system on desktop and iPad ! we are waiting along time and still nothing for that , and no body lock seriously for that problem

I'm a photoshop user for 18 years now. affinity suite is the best competitor now. but not supporting RTL text is a major drawback. please fix this. thanks

hi there any updates about rtl typing direction? are you going to work on that any time soon? thx!

Hi Sam Neil, We don't currently support RTL languages which might be the cause of this however I'm not familiar with Farsi fonts to know if they are RTL or not. Thanks C

I'm a Hebrew speaker, and Affinity softwares aren't supporting right-to-left languages, which means I have to write everything backward. Lately, I've heard about a software called "RTL Fixer", which suppose to help me write normally in my language in Affinity. The problem is there is no "about" page or any information about the developer, and even not a trial version. Does anyone here uses RTL Fixer and can tell me about the software? Is it good, is it works, is it safe, is it trustable? Thanks! https://rtlfixer.com/

Hi Mehdy and welcome to the forum. There are many threads on this topic, just search for RTL or Right to Left or the names of any of the various languages that would benefit from RTL text. Here's a link to over 90 posts on RTL just since the launch of v2 in November. I think Serif is very much aware of how many people want RTL. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q=rtl&quick=1&search_and_or=and&start_after=1667952000&sortby=relevancy But I want to dispel the notion that it is "done easily by a short code that reverses letters". Building in support for RTL from the start is straightforward. Adding it after the app is already built is a lot of work because it affects everything. RTL can be applied to paragraphs and ranges of characters so text direction can be reversed even within a paragraph. It affects tables, story direction, page binding, page numbering, and much more. I have no inside information but I wouldn't expect RTL to be added in a minor update. This complex of feature would likely be part of a major upgrade.

Greetings, it seems the RTL text support is missing for Hebrew and Arabic languages when using Text Tool The letters are in reverse order LTR, can this please be fixed ?

Please fix the problem of writing in Arabic from right to left in the next update Without the intervention of external programs

I have a brilliant javascript for InDesign which flips text which is ideal for shorts burst of RTL text. Hopefully sometime soon we'll get scripting support and then I can hopefully modify it to work with Publisher.

Does v2 support rtl? If not teher is any chance to get it in future updates??

i hope affinity team add RTL Support, Diagonal Ruler Guide, and Add Path Effect like inkscape feature

These are very basic to me. The v1 UI is horrible - everything is so tiny on a hi res screen. And you didn't manage to fix that? And so many people had been asking about rtl support? Also nothing? These things make the upgrade pretty useless for me, sorry.