Improve Right-to-Left Rendering for Persian (Farsi) Text

[Mazafard]

Persian (Farsi) is a right-to-left (RTL) language, and currently, text in Farsi does not render correctly in all parts of the interface. Specifically, lines of text start from the left, rather than the right, which breaks the natural flow and readability of the language.

We’ve previously discussed this and made some related commits, but to move forward effectively, we need to align on the best strategy for handling RTL rendering across the board.

Expected (Correct RTL rendering):

Current (Incorrect LTR rendering):

I’m happy to provide more specific examples or assist with testing if needed

[indeyets]

Is it possible to implement this without knowledge of language? Because, currently, freefeed doesn't have such knowledge.

There are some plans for adding detection of language to the code, but we're not there yet

[davidmz]

@Mazafard so you suggest to right-align post texts, but keep the comment texts left-aligned?

[davidmz]

I tried this once (https://freefeed.net/davidmz/512bea, I can reproduce that version), but didn't get a positive reaction...

[davidmz]

Ah, here it is: #1671
You can try on the test instance: https://freefeed-freefeed-react-client-preview-pr-1671.surge.sh/

[davidmz]

@Mazafard, could you comment on that?

[Mazafard]

@davidmz Yes, certainly. If there’s no urgency, I’ll review it over the weekend

[Mazafard]

Is it possible to implement this without knowledge of language? Because, currently, freefeed doesn't have such knowledge.

Browsers handle direction well using dir="auto", no need for explicit language detection at this stage.

@Mazafard so you suggest to right-align post texts, but keep the comment texts left-aligned?

Yes, for now that’s the most practical solution, improves RTL readability without disrupting the overall flow.

Ah, here it is: #1671 You can try on the test instance: https://freefeed-freefeed-react-client-preview-pr-1671.surge.sh/

Yes, I’ve seen it. It works correctly and is a solid first step. We can iterate on the layout design later.

[davidmz]

@Mazafard I'd like to invite you to test the version at https://frf-rtl-2025.surge.sh/. It uses our main backend, so you will be able to test the display of actual posts.

In this version, the text of RTL posts is right-aligned, but also the entire post body layout, including attachments and avatar, is right-aligned too. I think it looks good and should be easy to read.

I haven't touched everything starting from the date line (likes, comments…), it's still aligned to the left.

[Mazafard]

You did it perfect and bug-less.
In my opinion, any change to the structure and layout of the timeline adds a new layer of complexity that makes it harder to maintain.

Take a look at these screenshots to see how the new structure might introduce new issues :(

Compared to the previous structure you had designed, that design was safer, and we could gradually add features on top of it to control the entire feed.

[davidmz]

Is that too radical?:))

My past version didn't get much support, mainly because of the display of short texts: https://freefeed.net/davidmz/512bea.

Yes, if the feed has both LTR and RTL posts, my new template might look strange, but I think it's a matter of habit. And then we can think step by step about the date line, likes and comments.

[Mazafard]

I don’t think it was about acceptance. Personally, I saw your original change as solid and didn’t notice any issues, even with short Persian posts, it looked fine within the layout.

If it’s about habit, that’s understandable. Sometimes people push back on changes just to engage, not necessarily because something’s wrong.

From my side, the initial version worked well. Other platforms also display short RTL texts this way without shifting action elements, and it feels natural.

[davidmz]

Ok, one more question then. What you think about the arashi's remark (https://freefeed.net/davidmz/512bea#c06f)?

نمیشه متن فید همون چپ بمونه ولی راستچین بشه ؟

As far as I understand, the idea is to have text itself right-aligned, but move the whole text block to the left if it short. On your example it will be like this:

[Mazafard]

In Persian, Arabic, and also Hebrew, text is written from right to left, and it naturally starts from the right side of the page. So that kind of suggestion feels more like a joke to me, to be honest.

[davidmz]

Good! Ok, I deployed right-aligned version to the Beta frontend (https://freefeed.net/settings/appearance#beta). Could you check it out?

[Mazafard]

Yes, I checked it. Visually, I think it's displaying correctly, apart from users who might not be used to this feature yet 👍