RTL Support

For right-to-left (RTL) languages such as Arabic and Hebrew to be semantically appropriate, in addition to translating the texts, you need to also mirror the layout.

Chakra UI makes it possible to support RTL languages and LTR languages in the same app. There are 2 methods of adding RTL support:

Using the RTL Stylis Plugin
Using RTL-aware style props

Using RTL Stylis Plugin

Since Chakra UI is built on top of @emotion/react, you can leverage stylis plugins like stylis-plugin-rtl to automatically transform the generated styles to their RTL equivalent.

Here's how to set it up.

Install the stylis plugin and emotion's cache

npm i stylis stylis-plugin-rtl @emotion/cache

# or

yarn add stylis stylis-plugin-rtl @emotion/cache

Create the RTL provider using CacheProvider from emotion

src/components/rtl-provider.js
import { CacheProvider } from '@emotion/react';
import createCache from '@emotion/cache';
import rtl from 'stylis-plugin-rtl';

// NB: A unique `key` is important for it to work!
const options = {
  rtl: { key: 'css-ar', stylisPlugins: [rtl] },
  ltr: { key: 'css-en' },
};

export function RtlProvider({ children }) {
  const { locale } = useRouter();
  const dir = locale == 'ar' ? 'rtl' : 'ltr';
  const cache = createCache(options[dir]);
  return <CacheProvider value={cache} children={children} />;
}

Add RTL provider to the application's root

pages/_app.js
import { ChakraProvider } from '@chakra-ui/react';
import { RtlProvider } from '@/components/rtl-provider';

function App(props) {
  const { Component, pageProps } = props;
  return (
    <ChakraProvider>
      <RtlProvider>
        <Component {...pageProps} />
      </RtlProvider>
    </ChakraProvider>
  );
}

export default App;

Add the dir and lang attributes to the html tag.

You'll need to make a few changes to your markup. In the <html> tag, you'll need to add a dir attribute with a value of rtl or ltr. Here's what your <html> tag should look like:

/**
 * `lang` can be "ar", "en", "he", etc.
 * `dir` can be "rtl" or "ltr"
 */
<html lang='ar' dir='rtl'>
  {/* Content */}
</html>

In Next.js, you can achieve this by adding a pages/_document.js file and using this API:

pages/_document.js
import NextDocument, { Html, Head, Main, NextScript } from "next/document"

class Document extends NextDocument {
  static async getInitialProps(ctx) {
    return await NextDocument.getInitialProps(ctx)
  }

  render() {
    const { locale } = this.props.__NEXT_DATA__
    const dir = locale === "ar" ? "rtl" : "ltr"
    return (
      {/* 👇🏻 Here's the place to change the `dir` and `lang` */}
      <Html dir={dir} lang={locale}>
        <Head />
        <body >
          <Main />
          <NextScript />
        </body>
      </Html>
    )
  }
}

export default Document

Add a way to switch between LTR and RTL

For example, in Next.js, you can change the locale on the route by leveraging the built-in useRouter hook.

src/components/lang-switcher.js
function LangSwitcher() {
  const { locale, push, reload, pathname } = useRouter();
  const nextLocale = locale === 'en' ? 'ar' : 'en';

  const onClick = async () => {
    await push(pathname, { locale: nextLocale });
    // force a reload for it to work correctly.
    reload();
  };

  return <button onClick={onClick}>Change to {nextLocale}</button>;
}

export default LangSwitcher;

Caveats of this approach

You might need to force a reload of the page to get it working correctly.
You might need to change the placement of components like Popover, Drawer, Tooltip to match RTL.
The need to install extra packages like stylis, stylis-plugin-rtl might increase your final bundle.

Using RTL-aware style props

This is the recommended way to support RTL in Chakra UI. With this approach we use the appropriate CSS logical properties, and manage the placements of components like Popover, Drawer, Tooltip to match RTL.

Here's how to set it up:

Add a direction key to the theme
You can use the extendTheme function or any other preferred approach to add direction key to the theme. Then, add the custom theme to ChakraProvider.
note
Due to the fact that some CSS logical properties aren't supported in all browsers, we flip the styles based on the direction as a temporary polyfill.
src/components/chakra-rtl-provider.js
```
function ChakraRTLProvider({ children }) {
  const { locale } = useRouter();
  const direction = locale === 'ar' ? 'rtl' : 'ltr';

  // 👇🏻 Here's the place we add direction to the theme
  const theme = extendTheme({ direction });

  return <ChakraProvider theme={theme}>{children}</ChakraProvider>;
}
```

Add the dir and lang attributes to the html tag.

In Next.js, you can achieve this by adding a pages/_document.js file and using this API:

pages/_document.js
import NextDocument, { Html, Head, Main, NextScript } from "next/document"

class Document extends NextDocument {
  static async getInitialProps(ctx) {
    return await NextDocument.getInitialProps(ctx)
  }

  render() {
    const { locale } = this.props.__NEXT_DATA__
    const dir = locale === "ar" ? "rtl" : "ltr"
    return (
      {/* 👇🏻 Here's the place to change the `dir` and `lang` */}
      <Html dir={dir} lang={locale}>
        <Head />
        <body >
          <Main />
          <NextScript />
        </body>
      </Html>
    )
  }
}

export default Document

Replace style props with their RTL-aware equivalent

To get our internal RTL system working, you need to replace all physical *-left or *-right styles (passed as props or in the sx prop) to their bi-directional versions (*-start or *-end).

For example:

Replace paddingLeft or pl prop with paddingStart or ps
Replace marginRight or mr prop with marginEnd or me
Replace borderLeftRadius with borderStartRadius

Here's a list of the RTL-aware style props you can use alongside other CSS logical properties:

Style prop	Replace with	Description
`paddingLeft`, `pl`	`paddingStart`, `ps`	padding in start direction
`paddingRight`, `pr`	`paddingEnd`, `pe`	padding in end direction
`marginLeft`, `ml`	`marginStart`, `ms`	margin in start direction
`marginRight`, `mr`	`marginEnd`, `me`	margin in end direction
`roundedLeft`, `borderLeftRadius`	`roundedStart`, `borderStartRadius`	rounded borders in start direction
`roundedRight`, `borderRightRadius`	`roundedEnd`, `borderEndRadius`	rounded borders in end direction
`roundedTopLeft`, `borderTopLeftRadius`	`roundedTopStart`, `borderTopStartRadius`	rounded borders in top start direction
`roundedTopRight`, `borderTopRightRadius`	`roundedTopEnd`, `borderTopEndRadius`	rounded borders in top end direction
`roundedBottomLeft`, `borderBottomLeftRadius`	`roundedBottomStart`, `borderBottomStartRadius`	rounded borders in bottom start direction
`roundedBottomRight`, `borderBottomRightRadius`	`roundedBottomEnd`, `borderBottomEndRadius`	rounded borders in bottom end direction
`borderLeft`	`borderStart`, `borderInlineStart`	border width in start direction
`borderRight`	`borderEnd`, `borderInlineEnd`	border width in end direction
`left`	`insetStart`,	horizontal position in start direction
`right`	`insetEnd`,	horizontal position in end direction

Add a way to switch between LTR and RTL

For example, in Next.js, you can change the locale on the route by leveraging the built-in useRouter hook.

src/components/lang-switcher.js
function LangSwitcher() {
  const { locale, push, reload, pathname } = useRouter();
  const nextLocale = locale === 'en' ? 'ar' : 'en';

  const onClick = async () => {
    await push(pathname, { locale: nextLocale });
  };

  return <button onClick={onClick}>Change to {nextLocale}</button>;
}

export default LangSwitcher;

Asides updating the style props you use in your application, we think this is the best approach. In the end it's up to your team to decide which approach to go with.

Additional resources

Blog Post - Setup an i18n routing with Nextjs and Chakra UI
MDN CSS Logical Properties

Using RTL Stylis Plugin​

Caveats of this approach​

Using RTL-aware style props​

Additional resources​

Using RTL Stylis Plugin

Caveats of this approach

Using RTL-aware style props

Additional resources