Right-to-left script

Type of writing system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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In a Text_direction_RTLdown.svg right-to-left, top-to-bottom script (commonly shortened to right to left or abbreviated RTL, RL-TB or R2L), writing starts from the right of the page and continues to the left, proceeding from top to bottom for new lines. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu, Kashmiri, Pashto, Uighur, Sorani Kurdish, Punjabi, and Sindhi are the most widespread R2L writing systems in modern times.

Ancient_Chinese_Writing_on_Western_Zhou_Bronze_Lai_Plate_%28closeup%29.jpg
Ancient Chinese was written Text_direction_TDleft.svg top to bottom, right to left
Bhs_psalm1.png
The Hebrew language is still written Text_direction_RTLdown.svg right-to-left, top-to-bottom

Right-to-left can also refer to Text_direction_TDleft.svg top-to-bottom, right-to-left (TB-RL or vertical) scripts of tradition, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, though in modern times they are also commonly written Text_direction_LTRdown.svg left to right (with lines going from top to bottom). Books designed for predominantly vertical TBRL text open in the same direction as those for RTL horizontal text: the spine is on the right and pages are numbered from right to left.

These scripts can be contrasted with many common modern Text_direction_LTRdown.svg left-to-right writing systems, where writing starts from the left of the page and continues to the right.

The Arabic script is mostly but not exclusively right-to-left; mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right.