Universe

Automatic RTL/LTR direction detection for mixed-direction Typst documents.

Sets text.dir per block using the first strong character rule — the same heuristic used by most editors and the Unicode Bidi Algorithm. No manual tagging needed for most content.

Import

// Published package import
#import "@preview/bidi-flow:0.1.0": *

Quick start

#import "@preview/bidi-flow:0.1.0": *
#show: bidi-flow

= Hello        // → LTR heading
= שלום         // → RTL heading automatically

English paragraph here.

פסקה בעברית מופיעה אוטומטית מימין לשמאל.

- English list
- items here

- רשימה בעברית
- מוצגת מימין לשמאל

Example output

API

bidi-flow

Document-level show rule. Detects direction for par, heading, list, enum, and table automatically.

#show: bidi-flow

detect-dir(body)

Inspect a content block and return its detected direction (ltr or rtl). Useful for building your own show rules or templates.

let d = detect-dir(heading.body)
// d == rtl  or  d == ltr
set text(dir: d)

Inline spans — #rl[...] / #lr[...]

Force direction for a mixed-direction fragment:

The price is #rl[₪ 100] today.       // force RTL around the price
בסוף המשפט יש מילה #lr[inline] כך.  // force LTR inside Hebrew

Scope override — #show: setrl / #show: setlr

Force direction for the rest of a scope:

#show: setrl   // everything below is RTL

Directional seeds — #r / #l

Zero-width invisible characters that seed the bidi shaping context. Useful for fixing punctuation and number alignment in mixed runs:

המחיר הוא 100 #r ₪     // nudge shekel sign to correct side

Local installation

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/typst/packages/local/bidi-flow/0.1.0
cp -r . ~/.local/share/typst/packages/local/bidi-flow/0.1.0/

Then import with @local/bidi-flow:0.1.0.

Notes

  • Requires Typst ≥ 0.14.0
  • Direction detection ignores math.equation and raw blocks
  • Works with strong, emph, link, and other inline wrappers
  • #r / #l are content values, not functions — do not call them with brackets