Bilingual brands: why translating Arabic isn’t enough
Most agencies design in English and translate to Arabic at the end. The result reads like a port. Here’s why we work the other way around — and what changes when you do.
Open most “bilingual” Saudi websites and you can spot it within a screen-and-a-half: the Arabic feels secondary. The line-heights are too tight (Arabic needs 1.7–1.9, English 1.5). The numerals fight the script (mixing Eastern Arabic and Latin numerals in the same paragraph). The headlines wrap awkwardly because the layout grid was set in English first.
This isn’t a translation problem. It’s a design-order problem.
Two different scripts, two different rhythms
Arabic letterforms are connected. They flow horizontally in a way Latin script doesn’t — every word is a single visual unit, not a sequence of separate characters. That changes:
- Letter spacing. Tracking that looks elegant in English looks broken in Arabic. Arabic wants tighter letter spacing (or none at all).
- Line height. Arabic ascenders and descenders extend further than Latin. 1.5 line-height looks generous in English and cramped in Arabic.
- Font weight balance. A Regular Latin font usually pairs with a slightly heavier Arabic — typically Medium or SemiBold — because Arabic strokes are perceived as thinner.
- Number presentation. Eastern Arabic numerals (٠ ١ ٢ ٣) read more naturally in Arabic body text. Latin numerals can feel jarring mid-sentence.
If you design in English first, every one of these decisions gets locked in for English readers — and the Arabic version inherits compromises.
What “Arabic-first” actually means
It doesn’t mean the Arabic version is more important. It means: when there’s a tension between what looks right in Arabic and what looks right in English, the Arabic gets resolved first, and the English adapts.
In practice that looks like:
- Type system. We pick the Arabic typeface before the Latin one. Then we find a Latin pairing that matches its weight perception, x-height, and personality.
- Layout grid. The grid is set in Arabic body copy first — column widths chosen for Arabic legibility (typically 50–65 characters per line, where Latin sits at 60–80).
- Headlines. Hero headlines are written in Arabic first, then the English version is composed to match the visual weight and feel — not the literal translation.
- Numerals. Decided per-context. Eastern Arabic in body text, Latin in tables and forms (where parsing speed matters).
The English version doesn’t suffer. In fact, it usually ends up better, because the constraints of Arabic force a discipline that English designers often skip — tighter line-height ratios, more careful weight pairing, fewer arbitrary tracking choices.
The test
If you can’t identify which language the brand was designed for first by looking at the site, you’ve done it right. If the Arabic feels like an afterthought — or if the English feels weirdly stretched — you’ve done it wrong.
This is the test we use on every project. It’s also why we never accept a brief that says “English version first, we’ll add Arabic later.” Adding Arabic later is the most expensive decision a Saudi business can make.
Working on a brand or product that needs to feel native in both languages? Start a project.