Quick answer
Mirror the layout, not the image. Navigation, alignment and reading order flip for Arabic and Hebrew. Numbers, clocks, logos and photographs do not. Rebuild the screenshot from a right to left build rather than flipping the file.
The short answer
> Quick answer: Don't flip the image. Run your app in a right to left language, capture it properly, and rebuild the screenshot around it.
A horizontal flip reverses your logo, your numbers and any photograph in the frame. It looks broken to the exact audience you were trying to serve.
Layout direction changes. Content doesn't.
A horizontal flip reverses your logo, your numbers and any photograph in the frame. It looks broken to the exact audience you were trying to serve.
Layout direction changes. Content doesn't.
Which languages this is about
Arabic and Hebrew are the two that matter commercially for most apps.
Persian is the next one worth knowing, and the full list of right to left scripts also includes Thaana, Syriac, N'Ko, Adlam, Samaritan, Mandaic, Garay, Mende Kikakui and Hanifi Rohingya.
Almost nobody ships all of those. Arabic alone opens a very large market.
Both stores support Arabic and Hebrew listings, so this is a real option rather than a theoretical one.
And the competition in those listings is usually thinner than in English, which is the actual opportunity.
Persian is the next one worth knowing, and the full list of right to left scripts also includes Thaana, Syriac, N'Ko, Adlam, Samaritan, Mandaic, Garay, Mende Kikakui and Hanifi Rohingya.
Almost nobody ships all of those. Arabic alone opens a very large market.
Both stores support Arabic and Hebrew listings, so this is a real option rather than a theoretical one.
And the competition in those listings is usually thinner than in English, which is the actual opportunity.
What actually flips
Direction, not content. Here's the practical list.
Text alignment moves from left to right. Navigation moves to the mirror position. Back arrows point the other way.
Reading order reverses, so the first thing a viewer's eye lands on is the top right, not the top left.
Progress bars, sliders and carousels run the other way.
That last one matters for a screenshot set, because your visual flow across the images should run right to left too.
Text alignment moves from left to right. Navigation moves to the mirror position. Back arrows point the other way.
Reading order reverses, so the first thing a viewer's eye lands on is the top right, not the top left.
Progress bars, sliders and carousels run the other way.
That last one matters for a screenshot set, because your visual flow across the images should run right to left too.
What never flips
This is the half people get wrong, and it's the half that looks broken.
Numbers stay left to right. Bidirectional text works this way because mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right inside right to left text.
So a price, a score, a duration or a date reads exactly as it does in English.
Logos don't flip. Photographs don't flip. Clock faces don't flip. Media playback controls generally don't, because play still means forward.
That's why a blanket mirror of the image file is always wrong.
Numbers stay left to right. Bidirectional text works this way because mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right inside right to left text.
So a price, a score, a duration or a date reads exactly as it does in English.
Logos don't flip. Photographs don't flip. Clock faces don't flip. Media playback controls generally don't, because play still means forward.
That's why a blanket mirror of the image file is always wrong.
Why a flipped file looks so bad
Because the errors are the loud kind.
A reversed logo is instantly recognisable as a mistake to anybody who knows the brand, and it's the first thing in the frame.
Reversed digits in a price look like a rendering bug, and a rendering bug in a store screenshot reads as a low quality app.
A mirrored photograph of a person is subtly wrong in a way viewers notice without naming.
So the shortcut that saves you an hour costs you the listing you built it for.
A reversed logo is instantly recognisable as a mistake to anybody who knows the brand, and it's the first thing in the frame.
Reversed digits in a price look like a rendering bug, and a rendering bug in a store screenshot reads as a low quality app.
A mirrored photograph of a person is subtly wrong in a way viewers notice without naming.
So the shortcut that saves you an hour costs you the listing you built it for.
Capture from a real right to left build
The only correct way to do this, and it's less work than it sounds.
Set your test device or emulator to Arabic and run the app. If your app supports the layout direction properly, everything flips itself.
Android's localisation guidance covers switching the locale for testing, including previewing a right to left locale directly.
Capture from that. Now your screenshot is honest, and it's also a test of whether your app actually works in Arabic.
I found two broken layouts in my own app doing exactly this, before either reached a store.
Set your test device or emulator to Arabic and run the app. If your app supports the layout direction properly, everything flips itself.
Android's localisation guidance covers switching the locale for testing, including previewing a right to left locale directly.
Capture from that. Now your screenshot is honest, and it's also a test of whether your app actually works in Arabic.
I found two broken layouts in my own app doing exactly this, before either reached a store.
Your screenshot frame flips too
Easy to forget once the phone image is right.
If your English screenshot has the caption on the left and the device on the right, the Arabic version should usually reverse that.
The reading order is what you're following. Caption first means caption in the top right.
The device frame itself doesn't flip, because a phone is a physical object with a camera in a fixed place.
Our device frames guide covers getting the hardware part right in any language.
If your English screenshot has the caption on the left and the device on the right, the Arabic version should usually reverse that.
The reading order is what you're following. Caption first means caption in the top right.
The device frame itself doesn't flip, because a phone is a physical object with a camera in a fixed place.
Our device frames guide covers getting the hardware part right in any language.
Arabic text is taller than Latin text
A typographic detail that breaks layouts, and it isn't about width.
Arabic script has ascenders, descenders and diacritics that need more vertical room than Latin at the same nominal size.
So a caption box that fits perfectly in English can clip in Arabic, even with the same word count.
Give the caption area extra height rather than shrinking the type, because shrinking Arabic hurts legibility faster than shrinking Latin.
Our caption size post covers the readability floor you're working against.
Arabic script has ascenders, descenders and diacritics that need more vertical room than Latin at the same nominal size.
So a caption box that fits perfectly in English can clip in Arabic, even with the same word count.
Give the caption area extra height rather than shrinking the type, because shrinking Arabic hurts legibility faster than shrinking Latin.
Our caption size post covers the readability floor you're working against.
Don't use a Latin font for Arabic
It won't work, and the failure is silent.
Most Latin fonts have no Arabic glyphs, so your design tool substitutes a system font without telling you.
The result is a screenshot in a typeface that has nothing to do with your brand, and you won't notice unless you read Arabic.
Pick an Arabic typeface deliberately, and check the export rather than the canvas.
Ask somebody who reads the language to look at the final file. That's the only real check.
Most Latin fonts have no Arabic glyphs, so your design tool substitutes a system font without telling you.
The result is a screenshot in a typeface that has nothing to do with your brand, and you won't notice unless you read Arabic.
Pick an Arabic typeface deliberately, and check the export rather than the canvas.
Ask somebody who reads the language to look at the final file. That's the only real check.
Mixed direction inside one line
The trickiest case, and it appears more than you'd expect.
Right to left scripts are mostly, but not exclusively, right to left. An Arabic sentence containing an English product name or a version number mixes both directions in one line.
Software handles this with a bidirectional algorithm. A design tool sometimes handles it badly.
So any caption mixing a Latin brand name into Arabic needs checking visually, not assumed.
The safest option is a caption that's entirely Arabic, with your brand name living in the app icon where it belongs.
Right to left scripts are mostly, but not exclusively, right to left. An Arabic sentence containing an English product name or a version number mixes both directions in one line.
Software handles this with a bidirectional algorithm. A design tool sometimes handles it badly.
So any caption mixing a Latin brand name into Arabic needs checking visually, not assumed.
The safest option is a caption that's entirely Arabic, with your brand name living in the app icon where it belongs.
Order your screenshot set the other way
The part almost every localised listing misses.
Store screenshots are a horizontal row, and an Arabic reader scans that row right to left.
So the screenshot you want seen first should be positioned accordingly in the sequence you upload.
Check how your listing actually renders in an Arabic store before assuming, because the store interface itself flips.
Our how many screenshots post covers how far down the row people realistically get.
Store screenshots are a horizontal row, and an Arabic reader scans that row right to left.
So the screenshot you want seen first should be positioned accordingly in the sequence you upload.
Check how your listing actually renders in an Arabic store before assuming, because the store interface itself flips.
Our how many screenshots post covers how far down the row people realistically get.
Is it worth doing at all?
For some apps clearly yes, for others clearly no, and the test is simple.
Look at your existing installs by country. If you already have users in the Gulf, Egypt, Israel or Iran without an Arabic or Hebrew listing, you're leaving something on the table.
If you have none at all, an Arabic listing alone probably won't create demand.
This is a market you serve better, not a market you conjure.
Our localisation guide covers deciding which markets earn the effort.
Look at your existing installs by country. If you already have users in the Gulf, Egypt, Israel or Iran without an Arabic or Hebrew listing, you're leaving something on the table.
If you have none at all, an Arabic listing alone probably won't create demand.
This is a market you serve better, not a market you conjure.
Our localisation guide covers deciding which markets earn the effort.
Half measures are worse than nothing
Worth being blunt about, because it's a common outcome.
An Arabic description with English screenshots tells a reader you translated the cheap part and skipped the rest.
Worse is an Arabic listing for an app whose interface is still English. Now you've promised something you don't deliver, and the reviews say so.
So localise the app first, then the listing, then the screenshots. In that order.
If you can't do all three, do none of them and spend the time somewhere else.
An Arabic description with English screenshots tells a reader you translated the cheap part and skipped the rest.
Worse is an Arabic listing for an app whose interface is still English. Now you've promised something you don't deliver, and the reviews say so.
So localise the app first, then the listing, then the screenshots. In that order.
If you can't do all three, do none of them and spend the time somewhere else.
Testing without reading the language
You can catch most problems without speaking Arabic, and here's how.
Check that numbers still read left to right. Check your logo isn't reversed. Check nothing is clipped at the edge of a text box.
Check the typeface isn't an obvious system fallback, which usually looks visibly different from everything else in the frame.
I checked a set of localised listings against those four and most failures were one of them.
The one thing you can't check yourself is whether the translation is any good, and that needs a person.
Check that numbers still read left to right. Check your logo isn't reversed. Check nothing is clipped at the edge of a text box.
Check the typeface isn't an obvious system fallback, which usually looks visibly different from everything else in the frame.
I checked a set of localised listings against those four and most failures were one of them.
The one thing you can't check yourself is whether the translation is any good, and that needs a person.
A workable process
Six steps, and none of them involve a flip tool.
Set a device to Arabic and run the app. Fix anything broken in the app first.
Capture clean footage from that build.
Rebuild your screenshot layout mirrored, with the caption area given extra height.
Set the caption in a real Arabic typeface and export.
Have a native reader check the export, then reorder the set for right to left scanning. You can assemble the mirrored layout on the create page.
Set a device to Arabic and run the app. Fix anything broken in the app first.
Capture clean footage from that build.
Rebuild your screenshot layout mirrored, with the caption area given extra height.
Set the caption in a real Arabic typeface and export.
Have a native reader check the export, then reorder the set for right to left scanning. You can assemble the mirrored layout on the create page.
The short version
Mirror the layout, never the file.
Navigation, alignment and reading order flip. Numbers, logos, photographs and clocks don't.
Capture from a real right to left build, because that also tells you whether your app works there at all.
Give Arabic text more vertical room and a real Arabic typeface.
Then have somebody who reads it look at the result, because that's the one step no checklist replaces.
Navigation, alignment and reading order flip. Numbers, logos, photographs and clocks don't.
Capture from a real right to left build, because that also tells you whether your app works there at all.
Give Arabic text more vertical room and a real Arabic typeface.
Then have somebody who reads it look at the result, because that's the one step no checklist replaces.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just flip my screenshots horizontally for Arabic?
No. A horizontal flip reverses your logo, your numbers and any photograph in the frame, all of which should stay as they are. Only the layout direction changes, so you rebuild the screenshot from a right to left build of the app instead.
Do numbers reverse in Arabic and Hebrew?
No. Mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded left to right inside right to left text. So a price, a score, a duration or a date reads exactly as it does in English, which is why mirroring the whole image is wrong.
Which languages are written right to left?
Arabic and Hebrew are the two that matter commercially for most apps, with Persian next. The full list of right to left scripts also includes Thaana, Syriac, N'Ko, Adlam, Samaritan, Mandaic, Garay, Mende Kikakui and Hanifi Rohingya.
Why does my Arabic caption text look wrong in my design tool?
Most Latin fonts have no Arabic glyphs, so the tool silently substitutes a system font. The result is a typeface with nothing to do with your brand, and you won't notice unless you read Arabic. Pick an Arabic typeface deliberately and check the exported file.
Should I reorder my screenshots for a right to left listing?
Yes. The store row is scanned right to left, so the image you most want seen first needs to sit accordingly. Our [iPhone screenshot sizes post](/blog/app-store-screenshot-sizes-iphone-2026) covers the canvas each of those images has to fit.
Build the mockup in your browser.
Drop a screenshot into a real device frame and export at the exact store size — free, no signup.