Producing Arabic video: RTL, voice and subtitles
Most video tools "support Arabic" in the sense that their interface is translated. That is very different from producing correct Arabic content — and the gap is visible on screen.
A translated interface is not native production
A tool with an Arabic menu can still generate broken Arabic subtitles. The three most common defects have nothing to do with interface language:
- Detached letters. Arabic is a connected script; a rendering engine that ignores ligatures displays isolated characters that a native reader cannot parse.
- Reversed order. Mixed Arabic-Latin text — a brand name inside an Arabic sentence — requires a correct bidirectional algorithm, without which segments swap places.
- Alignment. An Arabic subtitle flush left inside a layout designed for Latin script immediately signals foreign-made content.
Voice is the most discriminating point
Arabic speech synthesis carries a specific difficulty: written Arabic generally omits short vowels. The same grapheme can therefore be pronounced several ways depending on grammatical context, and an engine that skips this vocalisation step produces an approximate reading.
Then there is register. Modern Standard Arabic suits institutional or informational content; it sounds artificial for lifestyle content aimed at a Moroccan or Gulf audience, where a dialectal register is expected. No tool decides this for you — it is an editorial call to make before production.
A markedly less crowded market
For a brand, the asymmetry is interesting. Short-form video production in English or French is saturated; the Arabic equivalent is far less so, while short-form consumption is comparable.
In practice, the same production can be shipped in three languages from one brief and one set of visuals, with only voice and subtitles changing. That is the point of an end-to-end trilingual system: Viffly handles French, English and Arabic with correct reading direction across the whole path, from interface to final render.