RTL Direction not having any effect #4511

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1. radarhere commented on Apr 2, 2020

   

   radarhere

   on Apr 2, 2020

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   Could you adjust the code that you've provided so that it's self-contained? At the moment, I don't know the value of name or what arabic_reshaper does.
2. radarhere commented on Apr 10, 2020

   

   radarhere

   on Apr 10, 2020

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   This is the sequel to #4496

   So from that, it seems reasonable to presume that arabic_reshaper is https://pypi.org/project/arabic-reshaper/, and that 'محمد' is a valid value for text_to_be_reshaped.

   from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFont
   import arabic_reshaper
   
   def PhotoAlterer(name):
       image = Image.open('check.jpeg')
   
       draw = ImageDraw.Draw(image)
   
       font = ImageFont.truetype('din-next-lt-w23-medium.ttf', size=60)
   
       text_to_be_reshaped = '%s' % name
       reshaped_text = arabic_reshaper.reshape(text_to_be_reshaped)
       (x, y) = (1050, 427)
       color = 'rgb(255, 255, 255)'  # white color
       draw.text((x, y), reshaped_text , fill=color, font=font, direction="rtl")
   
       image.save('pImg/%s.png' % name)
   
   PhotoAlterer('محمد')

   You may be interested in #3081 (comment), but more likely, you're looking for #3125 (comment)

   The direction parameter sets the overall paragraph direction, the individual character's direction is determined by BiDi algorithm. Unicode bidi control characters can be to force text direction to be LTR or RTL and override the algorithm (though that is not usually something very useful todo, expect for ancient scripts that can be written in either direction or pseudo RTL localization strings).
3. CovertError commented on Apr 13, 2020

   

   CovertError

   on Apr 13, 2020

   Last edited by radarhere

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   yes I have tried that library but the same thing still happens the text just keeps going LTR my temp solution to this is to find the size of the message and subtract it for the x coordinates like so

   gettingTextSize = draw.textsize(reshaped_text, font=font)
   spaceToAdd = gettingTextSize.__getitem__(0)
   width = 1050 - (spaceToAdd)
4. CovertError commented on Apr 13, 2020

   

   CovertError

   on Apr 13, 2020

   Last edited by CovertError

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   Could you adjust the code that you've provided so that it's self-contained? At the moment, I don't know the value of name or what arabic_reshaper does.

   arabic_reshaper is really helpful if fixes the Arabic language with python somehow without it Arabic letters wouldn't be attached together so let's say "محمد" this is how it should look like and it's just the name Mohammed but in Arabic, so without the arabic_reshaper it would look like "م ح م د" I had to use spaces to emulate it but essentially the letters would be separated

   maybe a good it's good to just shift to using arabic_reshaper instead of libraqm I'm really sure what are you using it for but it's just easier to work with other libraries like arabic_reshaper
5. nulano commented on Apr 13, 2020

   

   nulano

   on Apr 13, 2020

   Last edited by radarhere

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   I have opened Ubuntu 18.04 live in VirtualBox with a full Pillow install from master with raqm following the Installation documentation to test this. I ran the following commands in a Python console:

   from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFont
   import arabic_reshaper
   from bidi.algorithm import get_display as bidi_get_display
   im = Image.new("RGB", (400, 400), "white")
   d = ImageDraw.Draw(im)
   text = "\u0645\u062D\u0645\u062F"   # محمد in unicode code points
   reshaped = arabic_reshaper.reshape(text)
   reshaped.encode("unicode-escape")    # prints b'\\ufee3\\ufea4\\ufee4\\ufeaa'
   bidi = bidi_get_display(reshaped)
   bidi.encode("unicode-escape")    # prints b'\\ufeaa\\ufee4\\ufea4\\ufee3'
   
   # test without libraqm
   fb = ImageFont.truetype("KacstBook.ttf", 60, layout_engine=ImageFont.LAYOUT_BASIC)
   d.text((0,   0), text, "black", font=fb)    # shows م l ح l م l د (l added to stop browser shaping)
   d.text((0, 100), text, "black", font=fb, direction='ltr')    # fails as expected
   d.text((0, 200), text, "black", font=fb, direction='rtl')    # fails as expected
   d.text((100,   0), reshaped, "black", font=fb)    # shows محمد, but reversed
   d.text((100, 100), reshaped, "black", font=fb, direction='ltr')    # fails as expected
   d.text((100, 200), reshaped, "black", font=fb, direction='rtl')    # fails as expected
   d.text((0, 300), bidi, "black", font=fb)    # shows محمد correctly
   
   # test with libraqm
   fr = ImageFont.truetype("KacstBook.ttf", 60, layout_engine=ImageFont.LAYOUT_RAQM)
   d.text((200,   0), text, "black", font=fr)    # shows محمد correctly
   d.text((200, 100), text, "black", font=fr, direction='ltr')    # shows محمد
   d.text((200, 200), text, "black", font=fr, direction='rtl')    # shows محمد
   d.text((300,   0), reshaped, "black", font=fr)    # shows محمد correctly
   d.text((300, 100), reshaped, "black", font=fr, direction='ltr')    # shows محمد
   d.text((300, 200), reshaped, "black", font=fr, direction='rtl')    # shows محمد
   d.text((300, 300), bidi, "black", font=fb)    # shows محمد, but reversed
   
   im.save("a.png")

   As you can see, you can either use libraqm to handle text shaping (in which case arabic_reshaper has no effect and python_bidi causes a conflict), or you can use arabic_reshaper+python_bidi with the basic layout in Pillow (the 'legacy' option).

   The direction parameter has no effect on arabic, as it only affects the direction of symbols (e.g. a comma, plus, minus, ...) as @radarhere quoted in the comment above. See also #3125 (comment) from the same discussion:

   With regards to 2 in the original post, I don't think this is how rtl works. English characters are strong characters, and have a definite directionality. However, weak characters, such as arithmetical symbols, do not and are able to be shown right-to-left by Pillow.
6. nulano commented on Apr 13, 2020

   

   nulano

   on Apr 13, 2020

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   yes I have tried that library but the same thing still happens the text just keeps going LTR my temp solution to this is to find the size of the message and subtract it for the x coordinates like so

   gettingTextSize = draw.textsize(reshaped_text, font=font)
   spaceToAdd = gettingTextSize.__getitem__(0)
   width = 1050 - (spaceToAdd)
   

   Oh, I think I see the problem now. The xy parameter always specifies the top-left point of the text. The direction parameter is not used to make text appear to the left of this point, but as a hint to the shaping algorithm used by libraqm. If you wish to have text appear to the left of this point, you have to use the steps such as in your comment.

   # using libraqm
   fr = ImageFont.truetype("KacstBook.ttf", 60, layout_engine=ImageFont.LAYOUT_RAQM)
   text = "\u0645\u062D\u0645\u062F"   # محمد in unicode code points
   x, y = (1050, 427)
   w, h = d.textsize(text, font=fr)
   d.text((x-w, y), text, "black", font=fr)
   
   # using arabic_reshaper + python_bidi
   fb = ImageFont.truetype("KacstBook.ttf", 60, layout_engine=ImageFont.LAYOUT_BASIC)
   text = "\u0645\u062D\u0645\u062F"   # محمد in unicode code points
   reshaped = arabic_reshaper.reshape(text)
   bidi_text = bidi.algorithm.get_display(reshaped)
   x, y = (1050, 427)
   w, h = d.textsize(bidi_text, font=fb)
   d.text((x-w, y), text, "black", font=fb)
   

   To see what the direction parameter actually does, pass it undirected text, such as "+-=" (as mentioned in my previous comment):

   font = ImageFont.truetype("DejaVuSans.ttf", 60, layout_engine=ImageFont.LAYOUT_RAQM)
   draw.text((0, 0), "+-=", "black", font=font, direction="ltr")    # shows +-=
   draw.text((0, 100), "+-=", "black", font=font, direction="rtl")    # shows =-+
   
7. nulano commented on Apr 13, 2020

   

   nulano

   on Apr 13, 2020

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   If you wish to have text appear to the left of this point, you have to use the steps such as in your comment.

   Looking at the docs, it looks like there is an undocumented parameter anchor=None that might be intended for this. Looking through the history, this has been present since the PIL fork, but never implemented, and always ignored. The only other mention I can find is in #285 ("might be implemented in the future"). #1660 seems to have attempted to do this in a different way, but was not accepted. I'll try to make a PR for this using the anchor parameter later today.
8. hugovk

   closed this as completedin #4930on Oct 5, 2020
9. aclark4life

   added

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   on Oct 8, 2026