---
name: "fribidi"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "fribidi"
version: "1.0.18-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fribidi"
---

# fribidi(1)

Convert a logical string to visual.

## NAME

fribidi - Convert a logical string to visual.

## SYNOPSIS

**fribidi** \[*OPTION*\]... \[*FILE*\]...

## DESCRIPTION

A command line interface for the GNU FriBidi library. Convert a logical string to visual.

- **-h**, **--help**

  Display this information and exit

- **-V**, **--version**

  Display version information and exit

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Verbose mode, same as **--basedir** **--ltov** **--vtol** **--levels**

- **-d**, **--debug**

  Output debug information

- **-t**, **--test**

  Test GNU FriBidi, same as **--clean** **--nobreak** **--showinput** **--reordernsm** **--width** 80

- **-c**, **--charset** CS

  Specify character set, default is UTF-8

- **--charsetdesc** CS

  Show descriptions for character set CS and exit

- **--caprtl**

  Old style: set character set to CapRTL

- **--showinput**

  Output the input string too

- **--nopad**

  Do not right justify RTL lines

- **--nobreak**

  Do not break long lines

- **-w**, **--width** W

  Screen width for padding, default is 80, but if environment variable COLUMNS is defined, its value will be used, **--width** overrides both of them.

- **-B**, **--bol** BOL

  Output string BOL before the visual string

- **-E**, **--eol** EOL

  Output string EOL after the visual string

- **--rtl**

  Force base direction to RTL

- **--ltr**

  Force base direction to LTR

- **--wrtl**

  Set base direction to RTL if no strong character found

- **--wltr**

  Set base direction to LTR if no strong character found (default)

- **--nomirror**

  Turn mirroring off, to do it later

- **--reordernsm**

  Reorder NSM sequences to follow their base character

- **--clean**

  Remove explicit format codes in visual string output, currently does not affect other outputs

- **--basedir**

  Output Base Direction

- **--ltov**

  Output Logical to Visual position map

- **--vtol**

  Output Visual to Logical position map

- **--levels**

  Output Embedding Levels

- **--novisual**

  Do not output the visual string, to be used with **--basedir**, **--ltov**, **--vtol**, **--levels**

-

  All string indexes are zero based

### Output:

-

  For each line of input, output something like this:

-

  \[input-str\` =\> '\]\[BOL\]\[\[padding space\]visual-str\]\[EOL\] \[\\n base-dir\]\[\\n ltov-map\]\[\\n vtol-map\]\[\\n levels\]

### Available character sets:

- \* UTF-8

  : UTF-8 (Unicode)

- \* CapRTL

  : CapRTL (Test)            X

-

  \* ISO8859-6 : ISO8859-6 (Arabic) \* ISO8859-8 : ISO8859-8 (Hebrew) \* CP1255    : CP1255 (MS Hebrew/Yiddish) \* CP1256    : CP1256 (MS Arabic) X: Character set has descriptions, use **--charsetdesc** to see

## REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs online at \<https://github.com/fribidi/fribidi/issues/new\>.