HTML dir Attribute

The dir attribute specifies the directionality of the element‘s text.

Possible values are left-to-right (ltr) or right-to-left (rtl).

Example

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A dir on a paragraph.
The text displays right-to-left. Note the position of the period.

This text is displayed from right-to-left.

<p dir="rtl" 
   style="background-color: #f6f8ff; padding: 25px;">
   This text is displayed from right-to-left.
</p>

Using dir

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The dir attribute specifies the direction of the element's text.

The text direction can be set to left-to-right (ltr) or right-to-left (rtl).

Here is a list of the languages that are written from right-to-left (rtl):

Arabic
Aramaic
Azeri
Dhivehi/Maldivian
Hebrew
Kurdish (Sorani)
Persian/Farsi
Urdu

Note: dir is a global attribute that can be applied to any tag.

Syntax

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<tag dir="ltr | rtl | auto" />

Values

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Value	Description
ltr	Sets the text direction from left-to-right. This is the default.
rtl	Sets the text direction from right-to-left.
auto	Specifies that the browser will decide the text direction.

More Examples

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Two right to left languages: Arabic and Hebrew.
With dir='auto', the browser correctly identifies the directionality.

سيتم عرض هذا النص من اليمين إلى اليسار.

טקסט זה יוצג מימין לשמאל.

<p dir="auto" 
   style="background-color: #f6f8ff; padding: 25px;">
   سيتم عرض هذا النص من اليمين إلى اليسار.
</p>

<p dir="auto" 
   style="background-color: #f6f8ff; padding: 25px;">
   טקסט זה יוצג מימין לשמאל.
</p>

Browser support

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Here is when dir support started for each browser: