<bdo>: The Bidirectional Text Override element

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The <bdo> HTML element overrides the current directionality of text, so that the text within is rendered in a different direction.

Try it

The text's characters are drawn from the starting point in the given direction; the individual characters' orientation is not affected (so characters don't get drawn backward, for example).

Attributes

This element's attributes include the global attributes.

dir

The direction in which text should be rendered in this element's contents. Possible values are:

  • ltr: Indicates that the text should go in a left-to-right direction.
  • rtl: Indicates that the text should go in a right-to-left direction.

Examples

html
<!-- Switch text direction -->
<p>This text will go left to right.</p>
<p><bdo dir="rtl">This text will go right to left.</bdo></p>

Result

Notes

The HTML 4 specification did not specify events for this element; they were added in XHTML. This is most likely an oversight.

Technical summary

Content categories Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content.
Permitted content Phrasing content.
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents Any element that accepts phrasing content.
Implicit ARIA role generic
Permitted ARIA roles Any
DOM interface HTMLElement Up to Gecko 1.9.2 (Firefox 4) inclusive, Firefox implements the HTMLSpanElement interface for this element.

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# the-bdo-element

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
bdo

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also

  • Related HTML element: <bdi>