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Participant
October 19, 2018
Question

Problems copying over Arabic text in AE

  • October 19, 2018
  • 7 replies
  • 15941 views

[Moderator moved from Forum comments to After Effects.]

I am trying to copy already-translated Arabic (which is to read LEFT to RIGHT) text into AfterEffects, but it never looks the same once I copy over. It shows up fine in Word or Google Translate, but the whole thing copies over differently into any Adobe application. I am using Adobe Arabic for the font. Any solutions for this?

7 replies

Participant
April 2, 2025

Hola si llegan a tener problemas pegando textos en arabe, thailandezm indú, y todo ese tipo de caracteres que son de simbolos, lo unico que deben hacer es, ir a boton de PARRAFO, darle a las 4 rayitas en la esquina superior derecha, y clikar en donde dice DISEÑO INTERNACIONAL, asi podran colocar sus textos de manera cortrecta y no desordenada como se coloca si esta activada la opcion que dice diseño latino y asia oriental

Maha254939694rvm
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
August 18, 2022

I joined Adobe recently and will be partnering with the After Effect team regarding Right to Left languages. Since I'm a native Arabic speaker, I would like to know more about the issues and challenges you, as After Effects users are facing while using the app with Arabic texts. Feel free to write to me in Arabic as well if you prefer. Looking forward to receiving your feedback

Participant
February 9, 2023

This is a sample of a text i copy pasted from a pdf doc to a word doc:  

اﻟ􀀆ي ﺗﺤﻘﻖ أهﺪاف اﻟﺴﻴﺎﺳﺔ ا􀀈خﺎرﺟﻴﺔ ﻟﺪوﻟﺔ اﻹﻣﺎرات ﻣﻦ ﺧﺎل ﺗﻮﻓ􀀇􀀄 ﺑﺮاﻣﺞ أ􀀉ﺎدﻳﻤﻴﺔ ﻣﻌﺘﻤﺪة ودورات ﺗﺪر􀀅بﻴﺔ ﻓﻌﺎﻟﺔ وﻣﻄﻮرة وﻓﻘﺎً ﻷﻋ􀀌􀀍 اﳌﻌﺎﻳ،􀀇􀀄 و􀀋􀀊جﻴﻊ اﻟﺮ􀀅ﺎدة اﻟﻔﻜﺮ􀀅ﺔ وﺗﻄﻮ􀀅ﺮ اﻟﻘﺪرات اﻟﺒﺤﺜﻴﺔ ﺑﻤﺎ􀀏 ﺴهﻢ􀀁􀀂  􀀋ﻌﺰ􀀅ﺰ ﻓهﻢ و􀀒دراك ﻃﺒﻴﻌﺔ اﻟﻌﻤﻞ اﻟﺪﺑﻠﻮﻣﺎ􀀐􀀑ي وﻣﺎهﻴﺔ اﻟﻌﻼﻗﺎت اﻟﺪوﻟﻴﺔ.

 

Participant
December 22, 2021

For Adobe Illustrator > Paragraph > Drop down menu > Select Middle Eastern & South Asian Single-line composer.

For Adobe InDesign > Paragraph > Drop down menu > Select Adobe Work Ready Single-line composer.

 

Participant
April 5, 2021

Hello world,

I have successfully solved the problem for myself (phew!) and I am sure this solution will help all.

Do as what everyone said first Preferences > Type > Choose Middle Eastern. Then Restart AE.

After you have done that and since many are not Arabic writers but merely copy and paste people, then you must first PASTE the copied text onto any existing Text / New Text area. Then you must HIGHLIGHT the entire Arabic text pasted and head onto PARAGRAPH section. Click on the burger menu (the 3 horizontal lines on the top right of the Paragraph menu) and then click RESET PARAGRAPH and VOILA! There you have it. Your text will now be joined together and read well.

 

You are welcome. Enjoy! 🙂

Community Expert
April 5, 2021

You just have to choose South Asian and Middle Eastern in the preferences, no need to restart, create a new text layer and paste, it should work directly, no need for any extra steps. Of course, you need to use an Arabic font such as Adobe Arabic.

I'm on windows, the Arabic language is added to my system's languages besides English.

nabi_jung
Participant
June 10, 2021

I had to restart to get copy and paste to work correctly, and even so it still doesn't work on some compositions when I create a new text layer. Just an FYI for anyone working with this problem. My suggestions is to change the settings, restart, make a new composition and new text layer and then copy and paste that one text layer that is behaving correctly. I'm using fonts Adobe Arabic and Cairo.

rCnX518
Participant
October 27, 2020

This is a few years from being a good help and you probably solved it but just in case. . . mostly because I don't believe NO ONE has figured this out yet. . .   After Effects Prefs / Type /     change the text engine from Latin to South Asian and Middle Eastern.  You shouldn't have to restart AE but just so you know. . Any text boxes or layers created after you change that will read right to left and should display Arabic correctly.  Check your fonts to make sure they are not the problem. and lastly. . .check the Kerning and switch between Metrics and Optical to see if that may be causing issues.  There is still some weird glitch with other exotic language fonts where AE refuses to cut and past correctly.  Either Adding glyphs or displaying them completely wrong.  Even having the correct font (according to the web) does not help.  So yes if you're cornered then use Photoshop or Illustrator to create correctly displayed text layers and import that mess into AE.  Good luck and I hope someone has something to add to this.

Roei Tzoref
Legend
October 20, 2018
Martin_Ritter
Legend
October 20, 2018

I dealt with Arabic Text a couple of months ago and almost got crazy while doing so.

Actually the words and letters look completely different in different Arabic fonts. Long words shrink down to something that looks like a letter only and that's totally correct (I got a native speaker right next to me back then).

I ended up with what ScooterD76 said: fix the words into a graphics (using AI or PS) and work with that.

Also note that there is a RTL-option in newer Adobe software, if this is the matter. I also got good results copying the texts into editor (Windows) before inserting into Adobe software.

There is also an Arabic Keyboard for Photoshop Website, which creats copy-ready Arabic words: write arabic in photoshop

Good luck!

ScooterD76
Legend
October 19, 2018

If you do not need the text to be live in AE, the easiest solution would be to use Illustrator to turn the text into objects.