Hi,
Did anyone using Right-to-Left languages had any issue reading Books and PDFs using apple's iBooks and Preview for Mac??
Adobe has this feature in all of it's desktop versions, and even Microsoft already added this option to their Touch-Optimized (aka Metro) "Reader" App for Windows 8, See the screenshot below;
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
AbrahamS_NY wrote:
Did anyone using Right-to-Left languages had any issue reading Books and PDFs using apple's iBooks and Preview for Mac??
Yes, iBooks for Mac does not yet support right-to-left paging of .epub files in RTL languages, and as far as I know the iBookstore does not accept Arabic/Hebrew books.
Vertical layout Chinese/Japanese .epub books are accepted, but if I remember correctly the right-to-left paging they should have is not yet supported either (need to check that).
Regarding PDF's, I don't know, I don't have any to test at the moment.
AbrahamS_NY wrote:
Did anyone using Right-to-Left languages had any issue reading Books and PDFs using apple's iBooks and Preview for Mac??
Yes, iBooks for Mac does not yet support right-to-left paging of .epub files in RTL languages, and as far as I know the iBookstore does not accept Arabic/Hebrew books.
Vertical layout Chinese/Japanese .epub books are accepted, but if I remember correctly the right-to-left paging they should have is not yet supported either (need to check that).
Regarding PDF's, I don't know, I don't have any to test at the moment.
Regarding vertically formatted Chinese/Japanese, it appears that iBooks uses right-to-left scrolling. Unfortunately it also does that when such books are horizontally formatted, which is totally wrong.
The case with iBooks is one issue, and PDF reading is another issue, I should have changed the tittle to "Right-to-Left PDF reading support on iBooks.
When Reading a PDF using "Two Page View" in Preview, it will not mirror the pages properly for a RTL language, it'll show the first page on the left side of the screen and then on the right side will be the next page. However, in a Right-to-Left language, the first page is on the right side and the next page on the left.
AbrahamS_NY wrote:
When Reading a PDF using "Two Page View" in Preview, it will not mirror the pages properly for a RTL language, it'll show the first page on the left side of the screen and then on the right side will be the next page. However, in a Right-to-Left language, the first page is on the right side and the next page on the left.
As with other Preview shortcomings, I think all one can do is ask Apple to fix it via their feedback channel, and use other PDF readers in the meantime. If you send me an example I might be able to get it tested on the next version of OS X.
Apple doesn't accept PDF books in its iBookstore, so it may not focus much on iBooks' behavior for such files.
Well, I already submitted the request to Apple in several feedback pages. Also, I tested how it works with the next version of OS X (Public beta 1) and nothing has changed.
I'll send you a PDF file if you think it'll help you investigate the issue. However, as I already explained, it has nothing to do with the file in particular, it's just a feature that should be added to support the way RTL languages are being read. (See the in first post a screenshot from Microsoft's reader app, or check the settings in your adobe desktop reader).
AbrahamS_NY wrote:
Well, I already submitted the request to Apple in several feedback pages. Also, I tested how it works with the next version of OS X (Public beta 1) and nothing has changed.
Yes, they don't seem to care about this, and appear to be content to force users to use Adobe Reader instead.
I'm astonished that they released the web version of Pages with no support for RTL text at all, and it remains so after a year of updates.
Tom Gewecke wrote:
Yes, they don't seem to care about this, and appear to be content to force users to use Adobe Reader instead.
I'm astonished that they released the web version of Pages with no support for RTL text at all, and it remains so after a year of updates.
And that's pretty bad as Adobe's support for the Mac is not very well.😕
Pages on iCloud is another issue, even Notes in iCloud on the web has no support for RTL text, making it unable to read / edit notes using Hebrew and other RTL languages using iCloud ðŸ˜
Pages on the Mac and on iOS, however, RTL languages is surprisingly well supported ➕ 🙂
Apple iBooks app (on iOS and Mac) added support for RTL languages more than a year ago (I cannot remember the version number). I have developed many Arabic eBooks (ePUB format) which work perfectly and beautifully on iBooks. I still don't understands why Apple doesn't accept Arabic/Hebrew books in their iBookstore. I'm determined to finding out and working on changing that.
RamiXYZ wrote:
I have developed many Arabic eBooks (ePUB format) which work perfectly and beautifully on iBooks.
Does that include having the pages turn from right to left? I had thought the lack of support for that in iBooks might have been the reason for not accepting such books in the iBookstore, but I have not checked the more recent versions to see if that works now.
Yes Tom, pages turn correctly from right to left on iOS and even on Mac (using the mouse). Pages also turn automatically when the feature "Turn My Pages" is enabled. This was supported a little bit more than a year ago (can't remember which version of iBook app), but probably after iOS9 was rolled out, and I stumbled on it by pure chance.
To make this happen, simply set the page-progression-direction to "rtl" in the spine of your .OPF file
<spine page-progression-direction="rtl">
As for the correct display of Arabic text, the correct value for the direction will take care of it.
Example: <body dir="rtl">
I'm very discouraged by the iBookstore policy concerning RTL languages such as Arabic/Hebrew etc.., and I am trying to push for a change. I have been working for a while on an educational initiative to disseminate children Arabic books to Syrian/Iraqi/Libyan/etc.. refugees scattered in camps in the Middle East, and as asylum seekers and immigrants in Europe and NA, but the project was shelved for that reason.
Please refer me to any one who could help.
RamiXYZ wrote:
Please refer me to any one who could help.
You might try the top
https://www.lifewire.com/how-can-i-email-apple-ceo-tim-cook-1171298
Right-to-Left language support on iBooks
