RTL Support

AdminLTE ships an RTL (right-to-left) stylesheet alongside the standard LTR one, generated from the same source via rtlcss. Use it for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu, and any other right-to-left scripts.

The pre-built RTL stylesheet

Every release publishes RTL variants of every CSS file:

dist/css/adminlte.css           ← LTR (default)
dist/css/adminlte.rtl.css       ← RTL
dist/css/adminlte.min.css
dist/css/adminlte.rtl.min.css

Optional stylesheets get the same treatment — the Select2 compatibility theme, for instance, ships as adminlte-select2.rtl.css / .rtl.min.css alongside its LTR build.

To switch a page to RTL, swap the stylesheet and set dir="rtl" on the <html> element:

<html lang="ar" dir="rtl">
  <head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="dist/css/adminlte.rtl.min.css" />
  </head>
  <body class="layout-fixed sidebar-expand-lg bg-body-tertiary">
    <!-- ...same markup as LTR -->
  </body>
</html>

That’s it — the sidebar now docks to the right, scroll bars flip, padding/margin utilities mirror, and Bootstrap Icons stay LTR-safe (most icons aren’t directional). For a live example, see layout/layout-rtl.html.

Bootstrap’s dir="rtl" attribute

Setting dir="rtl" triggers Bootstrap 5.3’s logical property pathway as well — .ms-* becomes right-margin instead of left, .float-start floats right, etc. You don’t need separate Bootstrap classes for RTL; the same utility names work in both directions.

When you have a mixed-language UI

If your app shows RTL content on an otherwise-LTR page (eg. an Arabic text block inside an English admin panel), you can scope dir="rtl" to a single element:

<body>
  <!-- LTR app shell -->
  <main dir="rtl" lang="ar">
    <!-- this block only is RTL -->
  </main>
</body>

Bootstrap and AdminLTE handle nested direction switches correctly — the inner element’s direction is what counts.

Building RTL yourself

If you’re building AdminLTE from source and you’ve modified the SCSS, regenerate the RTL CSS:

npm run css-compile     # builds LTR
npm run css-prefix      # adds autoprefixer
npm run css-rtl         # generates *.rtl.css from the LTR output
npm run css-minify

The full pipeline is wired into npm run css, so most of the time you just run that.

The conversion is handled by postcss running rtlcss — both are already in devDependencies. If you need to opt-out a specific rule from the LTR-to-RTL flip, use rtlcss control directives in your SCSS:

.brand-link {
  /*rtl:ignore*/
  margin-left: .5rem;   // stays left-margin in both LTR and RTL
}

What flips automatically

What doesn’t flip

• Bootstrap Icons (SVG glyphs) — most icons are direction-neutral; arrows that do indicate direction (bi-arrow-right, bi-chevron-right, etc.) need to be manually swapped to their -left siblings.
• Inline images, charts, and third-party widgets — their internal layout doesn’t react to dir. Check each integration (Chart.js, FullCalendar, Tabulator) for an RTL option. The demo’s Chart.js preset sets rtl: true on legends and tooltips when <html dir="rtl">.
• Numbers — digits stay LTR even in RTL contexts (this is standard Unicode bidi behaviour, not a bug).

Common gotchas

• The .min.css minified RTL build is .rtl.min.css, not .min.rtl.css. Filename order matters; the build script emits the former.
• Don’t mix LTR and RTL stylesheets on the same page — pick one. If you need a mixed-direction app, use dir="rtl" on the relevant subtree, not a separate stylesheet.
• Icon mirroring: when you swap an icon for RTL, also update its aria-label if it indicates direction (eg. “Next page” should still say “Next page” — only the glyph rotates).