Right-to-left mark (RLM)

The right-to-left mark (RLM) is a control character used to guarantee that the text following it is displayed in a right-to-left (RTL) direction. This non-printing character is crucial for managing text directionality in documents that include both right-to-left (RTL) and left-to-right (LTR) scripts.

RLM is employed to keep the correct visual alignment and reading order in multilingual and bidirectional texts, for the content to be presented accurately and intuitively.

Key points about the right-to-left mark (RLM): 🔄 #️⃣

• As a non-printing control character, RLM influences the text direction without appearing in the visible text.
• RLM is represented by the Unicode code point U+200F RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK (‏), which can be inserted to control the directionality of text.
• It is commonly used in multilingual documents, localization projects, and web development to prevent misalignment and maintain the intended text flow.
• Proper use of RLM in coding and text processing ensures that the directionality of text is preserved, avoiding issues with punctuation and text alignment in complex scripts.

Right-to-left (RTL) and bidirectional languages (texts) have a complex writing system. Therefore, localizers and developers must use RLM and LRM non-printing characters to display them properly.