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RTL guide: building Arabic websites that don't look "translated"

Most Arabic websites are English templates flipped around — and Arab visitors notice. This guide comes from real project experience.

Mohammed Katanani May 2026 8 min read
RTL guide: building Arabic websites that don't look "translated"

Arabic support isn't just dir="rtl" and done. These are the details separating professional sites from flipped templates:

Use CSS logical properties

/* instead of */
margin-left: 16px;
/* use — flips automatically with direction */
margin-inline-start: 16px;

Pick an Arabic font designed for screens

IBM Plex Sans Arabic, Tajawal and Cairo are excellent. Avoid fonts designed for print.

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