RTL direction support
Autopilot
Merged in a post:
True RTL Caption Rendering on Video Canvas
Ahmed Hoza
Background
In the Caption Editor, Arabic text appears in the correct order.
On the video canvas, the same captions are rendered left-to-right, breaking word order and punctuation placement for RTL languages.
Impact
Produces incorrect Arabic captions on exported videos.
Forces an external round-trip to other subtitling tools, adding time, cost, and risk of errors.
Blocks accessibility and localization for millions of RTL viewers and creators.
Requested Behavior
Canvas RTL support: Apply the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm for captions rendered on the video canvas.
Direction control: A per-project and per-caption Text Direction toggle: Auto / RTL / LTR (separate from alignment).
Mixed-direction text: Correct handling of Arabic with numbers, Latin words, URLs, and brand names in the same line.
Control characters: Respect standard bidi markers (e.g., RLM/LRM, RLE/LRE/RLO/PDF) when present.
Punctuation & digits: Proper mirroring for parentheses/brackets and correct placement of the Arabic question mark (؟); option to prefer Arabic-Indic digits if desired.
Font shaping: Ensure proper Arabic shaping/ligatures on the canvas (e.g., via a shaping engine), independent of alignment.
I/O fidelity: Preserve text direction when importing/exporting SRT/VTT (and ideally ASS/SSA), and avoid re-ordering text on re-import.
Why this matters:
Correct RTL rendering is not just cosmetic—it’s readability, accuracy, and accessibility.
This unlocks professional workflows for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu creators who otherwise must leave Descript for final captioning.
Manal Taweela
YES Please
ג
גיל פישר
Joining the request
אליה הלל
Yeah, this makes the platform totally unusable for me, even though it transcribed my audio pretty well in Hebrew (which is officially not supported)... Would love to see support for RTL text...
S
Shafiq
I'd love this feature too