How do I design emails for Right-to-Left (RTL) languages?
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Designing for Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian isn't flipping your LTR template sideways. It's rebuilding your entire layout. Start here. Add dir="rtl" to your HTML and body tags. That tells the browser text flows right to left. But that's just the beginning. Your visual hierarchy reverses too. Navigation, images with direction, content columns. all of it mirrors. What sat on the left now sits on the right.
Your CSS needs work. CSS logical properties like margin-inline-start instead of margin-left create direction-aware spacing (if your email client supports them. not all do). For safety, you might need separate RTL stylesheets. Pay attention to icons and imagery. Arrows pointing left in English point right in Arabic. Progress bars, sequences, illustrated steps all need RTL versions. A right-pointing arrow says nothing to an RTL reader except "I didn't think about you."
Mixed-direction content gets tricky. English brand names or numbers in Arabic text need bidirectional isolation using <bdi> tags or Unicode control characters. Otherwise your text renders jumbled. Test with native speakers. RTL design done well shows respect. RTL design done as a simple mirror of LTR shows you didn't bother.
Next step: Start with a simple RTL test email. Add the dir attribute, reverse your columns, flip your icons. Send it to a team member or contact who reads Arabic or Hebrew natively. Get their feedback before you template-ify the whole thing. Then use our email client support matrix to check dir attribute compatibility with your target inboxes.
Related: internationalization, email design best practices.
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