Support RTL languages

[HalHart]

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.

 

 

[HalHart]

The question is, why doesn't Affinity add this feature to its softwares? It isn't supposed to be to complicated.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, HalHart said:

The question is, why doesn't Affinity add this feature to its softwares? It isn't supposed to be to complicated.

It is extremely complex to do a good, and complete, implementation.

[HalHart]

Ok, but why wouldn't Affinity team work on this? Many other companies did. And I guess there's somewhere a rtl library they can use.

Anyway, I understood that supporting rtl isn't in the planning for the near future, which is too bad. Why? There are so many users who would like to get this feature.

Lately I designed kind of a school newspaper in Hebrew, and I head to save the background and add the text in PowerPoint, which really complicates the work process, and also causes a less good result.

[walt.farrell]

25 minutes ago, HalHart said:

And I guess there's somewhere a rtl library they can use.

It is not simply using an RTL library. Serif have said it involves a complete rewrite of their text layout processing.

[HalHart]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It is not simply using an RTL library. Serif have said it involves a complete rewrite of their text layout processing.

Still think that's worth it

[walt.farrell]

Just now, HalHart said:

Still think that's worth it

But only Serif can understand the development and support costs vs the additional revenue they might gain. And compare that with a similar analysis for  the other functions they need or want to implement.

 

[HalHart]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

But only Serif can understand the development and support costs vs the additional revenue they might gain. And compare that with a similar analysis for  the other functions they need or want to implement.

 

Well as a requests forum, I published my request. I would be happy if one of the developers will address the question

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, HalHart said:

Well as a requests forum, I published my request. I would be happy if one of the developers will address the question

And it's your right to make the request. You'll find more if you do a forum search for RTL or Arabic.

But the developers probably won't comment.

In case you're not aware, Serif generally does not comment on their future plans, and generally does not respond in this part of the forums. This area is for us to make requests, and they will read them and factor them into their plans. But they do not tell us about their plans. 

However, for this particular request, in the other threads where it has come up, they have said it would be nice to have, but it's not a top priority, and is a huge effort, and that it will not come any time soon.

I have not seen anything from them since then to indicate that their position has changed.

[HalHart]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

And it's your right to make the request. You'll find more if you do a forum search for RTL or Arabic.

But the developers probably won't comment.

In case you're not aware, Serif generally does not comment on their future plans, and generally does not respond in this part of the forums. This area is for us to make requests, and they will read them and factor them into their plans. But they do not tell us about their plans. 

However, for this particular request, in the other threads where it has come up, they have said it would be nice to have, but it's not a top priority, and is a huge effort, and that it will not come any time soon.

I have not seen anything from them since then to indicate that their position has changed.

Alr, thank you!

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

[Tony W]

On 4/3/2022 at 6:08 PM, HalHart said:

Well as a requests forum, I published my request. I would be happy if one of the developers will address the question

Affinity could create a right to left text option as an chargeable app in their store (if its technically possible - as Adobe did as a plug-in on the older Photoshop). The charge will hopefully defray cost & even make a profit. 
In India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, the Arab world etc large numbers of users or potential users, would make a target user pool. Perhaps @Sean P & the Affinity team will consider it. 

[Alfred]

2 minutes ago, Tony W said:

Perhaps @Sean P & the Affinity team will consider it.

I’m not sure why you’ve tagged a member of Serif’s QA team. Sean and his colleagues may well provide input about suggested improvements and new features, but the decision isn’t theirs to make.

[Tony W]

They may not be decision makers (I have no idea who these may be) - but perhaps they have an ability to provide direct feedback to the decision makers at Affinity

- who I guess are too busy to read through all the posts on the forum about the subject.

I added the paid app point as there is a cost to creating right to left which would only be of use to an unknown % of Affinity users and they (including me) could pay for it. 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Tony W said:

They may not be decision makers (I have no idea who these may be) - but perhaps they have an ability to provide direct feedback to the decision makers at Affinity

- who I guess are too busy to read through all the posts on the forum about the subject.

This section of the forums is for us to speak to the team that plans the future enhancements. We are speaking directly to them, here. 

[HalHart]

7 hours ago, Tony W said:

Affinity could create a right to left text option as an chargeable app in their store (if its technically possible - as Adobe did as a plug-in on the older Photoshop). The charge will hopefully defray cost & even make a profit. 
In India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, the Arab world etc large numbers of users or potential users, would make a target user pool. Perhaps @Sean P & the Affinity team will consider it. 

Great idea! I would buy this

[HalHart]

As I said before, I know there are many people around there who don't buy Affinity just because of this missed feature. Maybe if Affinity will add it - even with an additional cost - and will advertise it in Rtl-languages-speakers countries, they will all buy it 😁

[Tony W]

On 4/9/2022 at 12:43 PM, walt.farrell said:

This section of the forums is for us to speak to the team that plans the future enhancements. We are speaking directly to them, here. 

As a newbie I really didnt know if this was a good place to reply to @HalHart to amplify their request re right-left text. Im delighted to know its the right place 

[HalHart]

Anyway, let's hope they'll decide to put this request into practice this time! 🤞

[Barron]

Hello as the owner of a design agency with 6 desktops and many MacBooks for all employees, I look forward to switch to affinity for all my employees but can only do so when RTL for Hebrew is supported!

 

This is not a feature... This is a make-it or brake-it for me

 

Thanks!

[Tony W]

Hi @Barron - Right to Left has a vast pool of users. Adobe in their earlier versions of Photoshop had a plug-in for RTL (I cant remember if it was paid-to-download). Would a similar option be one you could use in Affinity? eg pay for that extra feature.
I dont have InDesign, but it is used by a publisher of my writing. Its not perfect with RTL - and does have occasional glitches where a few individual words of the cursive Arabic is displayed LTR (and each letter is unlinked). So from my point of view Affinity has a market for RTL and a competitor who offers it but hasn't mastered it.

[abdouAllâh]

Bonjour j'espère que vous allez bien si Allâh, Le Seigneur des mondes, le veut.

J'ai acheté affinity designer et affinity photo je vous remercie de nous fournir ce programme à ce prix très compétitif.

Cependant je travaille en langue arabe et en français et j'ai dû acheter "RTL fixer" pour pouvoir écrire en arabe. Je parle de Affinity designer. Le problème étant qu'il n'est vraiment pas optimisé pour cette noble langue et cela doit poser problème à pas mal d'utilisateurs. Ce serait bien et dans l'intérêt de chacun de remédier à cela par la volonté d'Allâh.

Je vous fais part des problèmes rencontrés :

Lorsque je veux prendre un mot et le mettre à la ligne je suis obligé de le couper (ctrl x) et puis d'aller à la ligne, d'écrire une ou 2 lettres, d'introduire le mot puis d effacer ces 2 lettres...

Également, lorsque je suis en langue arabe dans l'application et que je saisis le raccourci clavier de Windows pour changer de langue (Windows et espace), j'atterris dans ceci (image en annexe)...

Il y a aussi ce problème : quand j'entre un texte, il ajoute des lettres sans ma volonté comme dans cette image où il est écrit abdouAllâh (عبدلله). Comme vous pouvez le voir 3 lettres se sont ajoutées...

Ces problèmes rendent le travail très pénible j'espère de vous une solution dans l'intérêt de chacun car je ne dois pas être le seul dans ce cas...

 

Comme l'on dit les personnes avant dans la discussion, cela vous ouvrira des portes en orient pour des clients et je peux parier que cela attirera beaucoup de gens qui paient adobe cloud alors que c'est cher et que affinity designer est aussi bien (pas pour tout) et même mieux dans différents aspects...

 

Merci

[Tony W]

Je suis d'accord @abdouAllâh
Affinity est excellent et à un très bon prix.
Je ne suis pas aussi patient que tu dois l'être pour fixer chaque mot
alors espérons qu'une option de droite à gauche deviendra disponible
même à un coût - car il en coûtera pour développer le service qui ne sera utilisé que par un pourcentage des personnes qui l'utilisent - pas tout le monde.

[Movie Discovery]

Joining to the request for RTL support.

In trial now and it would be a deal breaker for me too. It's inconvenient to write backwards all the time

[Nadir]

My thoughts and hopes were truly disappointed!
Is right-to-left typing support still ignored in new versions?
I hope the team ignores announcing new releases and features for customers from Asia and Africa who need this important feature (RTL). Rather, I think it is clear racism from the Affinity developers team.