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[Multi] RTL language text support


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First of all, thank you for making this amazing product. I almost instantly decided to leave Adobe's products after I used Affinity Designer. 

 

One thing I used to find annoying with Photoshop/Illustrator is lack of support for writing text in RTL languages like Arabic or Farsi. It is available only in ME editions which are hard to find and sometimes outdated.

 

Right now, I couldn't get RTL text writing in Arabic to work with Affinity Designer, and it would be great if this feature was implemented.

 

Thanks,

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Hi,

 

I'm really glad you're enjoying Affinity Designer! :) I know that we've already had requests for RTL support and we'll definitely do it, but there are a number of other things which also must be done as a priority, so I'm not sure when it will be added, sorry... I know that it is actually quite difficult to implement, so definitely won't suddenly appear any time soon...

 

Thanks again,

Matt

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I am interested in Affinity designer and photo, but am disappointed that it does not include RTL text support. Apple OSX offers this natively in its apps. I was expecting Affinity to also offer the same as it appears to . 

 

It might be helpful to look at some market numbers for Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi design. It is only expected to explode as one of the strongest emerging markets. 

 

–paul

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Hi,

 

Just wanted to stay if you implement a more sophisticated text engine to support Arabic I would purchase the Affinity Designer. You can take a look into harfbuzz, it's open source and is used as text shaping engine in firefox.

 

Some other features which is necessary for typography:

1. Ability to insert a glyph from a font. The glyph could have a unicode or not.

2. More languages in the character>language panel.

3. Ability to disable and enable more sophisticated typographic feature like contextual alternates.

 

If you need any feedback and help regarding typography features in the app I would be glad to contribute.

 

Best,

Bahman 

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We plan to add r2l scripts eventually, but not for a long while. Sorry.

 

The app already supports contextual alternates and much more. Have you seen the Text > Show Typography panel? Inserting a glyph from a font is something we plan to add.

 

The languages in the Character panel are currently those for spelling, and depend on what dictionaries are available. However, that language is also used to select OpenTyp features, and will affect hyphenation when we implement that. Are you wanting more spelling languages, or are you wanting to set OpenType to a language even if you don't have its spelling dictionary?

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We plan to add r2l scripts eventually, but not for a long while. Sorry.

 

The app already supports contextual alternates and much more. Have you seen the Text > Show Typography panel? Inserting a glyph from a font is something we plan to add.

 

The languages in the Character panel are currently those for spelling, and depend on what dictionaries are available. However, that language is also used to select OpenTyp features, and will affect hyphenation when we implement that. Are you wanting more spelling languages, or are you wanting to set OpenType to a language even if you don't have its spelling dictionary?

I mentioned this because of OpenType features. It should trigger language specific glyph substitutions. I guess at the same time it affects other things like spelling and hyphenation but that's just the text engine.

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I second the suggestion of using HarfBuzz as your text-shaping engine. I know you all are probably well beyond that at this point, but I felt it was still worth mentioning in any event. It supports the full range of OpenType features as well as provides native right-to-left language and Oriental ligature support.

 

But as I just said elsewhere. . . Whether or not you use HarfBuzz, PagePlus proved that you guys have typography as a top-priority, and I trust that you will make it even better in your Affinity product range.

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Exactly just by using Core Text you can take advantage of OSX font shaping technology for RTL fonts. 

 

Well say thanks for Windows support and it's abysmal text system 8(

Mac mini M1 / Ryzen 5600H & RTX3050 mobile / iPad Pro 1st - all with latest non beta release of Affinity

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Here as well,
 
I bought ADesigner on day one being so impressed!
It didn't have RTL support so I left it aside and forgot about it.
Now being so frustrated with Adobe acting like a cables company, I tool a look again and was excited for v1.5 and APhoto's Trial ready to learn and buy it.
I was bummed... I forgot there's no RTL... 
 
Too bad we can't use MacOS's typography... at least as an option to start clean documents with usable texts. Sketch doesn't have an explicit RTL support with advanced features but at least everything is displayed the right way. Like even a browser does when it recognizes the first Hebrew letters.
 
I know here enough designers and companies that would die to unsubscribe from Adobe... Just like Sketch became a job requirement in here... I'm certain there are even more with Arab speakers.
 
Beside that, awesome job Affiniteam!! My appreciation goes deeper than this rant :)

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I also second RTL support. AD can't be a standard among the hebrew and arabic speakers as long as it doesn't support RTL text properly.

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As i’ve Mentioned in another post, RTL is the only thing stoping me from making the full jump to affinity software on Mac.

Please try and make it a priority as it makes using affinity software for projects outside the English speaking world (where myself and many other users currently live) very difficult.

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