PPTX Export Bug - Hebrew (RTL) text renders incorrectly
R
RH Electronics
Hi Gamma team,
I'm reporting a bug with PPTX export when the presentation contains Hebrew (RTL) text.
When exporting a presentation with Hebrew content to .pptx, the text appears broken/reversed in PowerPoint. After investigating the exported XML, I found two issues:
- All text runs use lang="en-US" even when the content is Hebrew. This should be lang="he-IL" for Hebrew text runs.
- The fonts used in the export (Readex Pro Semi Bold, Nunito) don't have proper Hebrew glyph support. When PowerPoint substitutes a fallback font, the rendering breaks. The export should either embed the fonts or use standard Hebrew-compatible fonts (e.g. Arial).
Additionally, rtlCol="0" is set on text body properties, which should be rtlCol="1" for RTL content.
After manually fixing these three attributes in the XML, the presentation renders correctly in PowerPoint.
Would appreciate if you could look into this.
Thanks
Nik Payne (Gamma design)
RH Electronics thanks a ton for the super detailed writeup (and for digging into the XML). I’m going to pass this to the team because the lang + font fallback + rtlCol combo sounds like a very actionable repro.
Quick couple questions so we can pin it down:
1) Which PowerPoint are you opening the PPTX in (Windows/Mac, and version if you know it)?
2) In Gamma, is the whole deck RTL, or is it mixed LTR + Hebrew on the same slide/text box?
If you’re up for it, a tiny sample deck (or even one slide) that reproduces it would help us verify the fix fast.