Right-to-left flipbooks for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu and manga

Oct 9, 2026 3 min read

A magazine printed in Arabic or Hebrew opens from what a Western reader thinks of as the back. Manga does the same. Put that PDF in an ordinary flipbook and the reader starts on the last page and turns towards the cover, which feels wrong from the first click. Right-to-left mode fixes the whole reading experience, not only the direction of the page turn.

What changes in right-to-left mode

The book opens on the right. The cover sits where the reader expects it, and pages turn from left to right, like the printed edition.
Navigation follows. Turning forward means forward in reading order, from the cover towards the end.
Panels move to the right. The thumbnails and table of contents open on the right-hand side, and the thumbnail strip runs right to left.
Page numbers stay right. First page, last page and jump-to-page all count in reading order, so page 1 is the cover and not the back of the book.

Text search and text selection keep working, because the PDF itself is unchanged.

This magazine is set to right to left. It opens from the right, and the page numbers run in reading order:

Turning it on

Right to left is one option in the flipbook settings. Add the PDF as usual, tick the right-to-left option and publish. There is no separate build and nothing to change in the theme.

The shortcode can also switch it on for one embed:

[real3dflipbook id="12" rtl="true"]

That is handy when the same site publishes both directions, for example an English and an Arabic edition of one catalog side by side.

Which view mode to use

Every view mode supports right to left: realistic 3D, CSS 3D, 2D, swipe and scroll.

Magazines and catalogs look best in realistic 3D on desktop, with the spread opening from the right.
Manga and comics read well in swipe mode on phones: one page at a time, flicked in the reading direction.
Newspapers and long reports in Persian or Urdu often work better in scroll mode, where direction matters less and readers skim down the pages.

For more on choosing, see which flipbook view mode to use.

Check the PDF first

Right-to-left mode changes how the viewer moves through the document; it does not reorder the PDF. Two things to check before uploading:

Page order. The first page of the PDF must be the front cover of the right-to-left edition. Most layout apps export it that way when the document is set up as right-to-left. If your PDF starts with the back cover, fix the export rather than the flipbook.
Fonts. Export with fonts embedded. Arabic, Persian and Urdu shaping depends on the font, and a missing font falls back to one that may not join the letters correctly.

The right-to-left page has a live demo that starts on the right-hand page and turns backwards, so you can try the result before setting up your own.

Questions about right-to-left flipbooks

Does right-to-left mode change my PDF?

No. It changes how the viewer moves through the document: where the book opens, which way pages turn and how pages are numbered. The PDF itself stays as it is, so its page order must already match the right-to-left edition.

Can one site have left-to-right and right-to-left flipbooks?

Yes. Right to left is a setting of each flipbook, and the rtl shortcode parameter can switch it on for a single embed.

Do search and text selection work in Arabic and Hebrew?

Yes. Search and selection use the PDF’s own text, which right-to-left mode does not change. Export the PDF with its fonts embedded so the letters join correctly.