jamalmohafil Arabic Design — clean Arabic in AI-generated UI
Arabic is a cursive, connected script: letters join, and diacritics (ً ّ َ) sit above/below the baseline. Most AI-generated CSS is tuned for Latin type — and that's exactly what breaks Arabic. Apply these rules by default whenever the design contains Arabic; don't wait to be told.
Rule 1 — NEVER negative letter-spacing on Arabic (the #1 bug)
Latin design trends love tight tracking (letter-spacing: -0.02em). On Arabic, negative tracking
overlaps the letter joins and crushes words into an unreadable blur. Positive tracking is just as
wrong — it disconnects letters that must join.
/* ❌ WRONG — crushes connected letters into a blur */
h1 { letter-spacing: -1.5px; } /* element contains Arabic */
/* ✅ RIGHT */
h1 { letter-spacing: normal; } /* or 0 — always, for any element containing Arabic */
- Any element containing Arabic (or mixed Arabic+Latin) →
letter-spacing: normal. Full stop. - Negative/positive tracking is allowed only on pure-Latin/numeric elements (big stat numbers,
$99,VS, all-caps Latin labels).
Rule 2 — Use a real Arabic font (never Latin-font fallback)
A Latin font with no Arabic glyphs silently falls back to a system font — mismatched weight, broken look. Always declare an Arabic-capable font explicitly, with a full stack:
/* pick one that matches the design's mood: */
font-family: "Cairo", "Tajawal", "IBM Plex Sans Arabic", "Noto Kufi Arabic", sans-serif; /* modern UI */
font-family: "Almarai", "Rubik", "Baloo Bhaijaan 2", sans-serif; /* rounded/friendly */
font-family: "Noto Naskh Arabic", "Amiri", serif; /* editorial/classic */
- Load the Arabic weights you actually use (400/700 at minimum).
- Never apply
font-style: italicto Arabic (fake oblique breaks the script) and never rely ontext-transform(Arabic has no case).
Rule 3 — Line-height must clear the diacritics
Bold display Arabic needs vertical room, or dots/diacritics collide with the line above.
| Context | Safe line-height |
|---|---|
| Display headline (large, bold) | 1.3 |
| Mid headline | 1.35 |
| Body / captions | 1.5–1.7 |
If unsure, go looser. Clipped diacritics are an instant "looks broken" tell.
Rule 4 — Direction & bidi (the "words are reversed" family of bugs)
- Set direction once at the root (
<html dir="rtl">for Arabic-first pages) — children inherit. Don't sprinkledirattributes on every element. - Use logical CSS properties so layout flips correctly:
margin-inline-start,padding-inline-end,text-align: start— instead ofmargin-left,text-align: left. - Wrap embedded Latin words/numbers inside Arabic text in an isolated span so the bidi
algorithm doesn't reorder them:
.ltr { display: inline-block; direction: ltr; }حدد أول <span class="ltr">MVP</span> قبل ما تبدأ - The
direction: ltrparent leak (root cause of reversed word order): layout containers set todirection: ltrfor card/column order leak LTR into the Arabic text inside — soMarketplace مدمجrenders asمدمج Marketplace. Fix: LTR only for layout order; every Arabic text block inside gets explicitdirection: rtl. - The
الـ+ Latin-word trap: never place the Arabic definite-article prefix (الـ,بالـ,للـ) immediately before an isolated Latin word — the detached letters jump to the wrong side. Drop the article (عبر CLInotعبر الـ CLI) or rephrase. - Flip directional icons (arrows) in RTL contexts; a "next" arrow points left in Arabic UI.
Rule 5 — Punctuation & line breaks
- Use Arabic punctuation in Arabic sentences:
؟not?,،not,. - If a
?or،floats to the wrong side, the cause is almost always a straddling Latin token — wrap it in.ltror rephrase so the sentence doesn't break mid-clause around it. - When splitting a headline across lines, each line must continue the sentence naturally — Arabic readers read stacked lines as one flowing thought.
Rule 6 — Mobile legibility
Arabic letterforms are denser than Latin at the same px size. For social/mobile canvases (e.g. 1080px wide), keep body text ≥ ~36–40px and prefer heavier weights (600–800) for display text.
Pre-ship checklist
- No negative
letter-spacingon any Arabic-containing selector:
Every hit must be pure-Latin/numeric. If it wraps Arabic →grep -nE "letter-spacing:\s*-" file.htmlnormal. - Every Arabic element has an explicit Arabic-capable
font-family. - Display Arabic has line-height ≥ 1.3; body ≥ 1.5.
- Embedded Latin words/numbers wrapped in
.ltr; noالـ/بالـ/للـdirectly before a Latin word:grep -noE "(الـ|بالـ|للـ) ?<?[A-Za-z]" file.html - No
direction: ltrancestor leaking into Arabic text blocks. - Render and look. Screenshot the result and inspect: letters connected (not crushed, not separated), diacritics not clipped, punctuation on the correct side, word order correct.