Localize App Store Screenshots to Hebrew

Why Hebrew matters

Israel is small (~9M) but punches far above its weight in ARPU and app sophistication, and local users quickly flag a listing that was flipped rather than genuinely built RTL. Hebrew is right-to-left like Arabic but non-cursive and more compact, so text is often slightly shorter than English, yet the same mirroring discipline applies to icons, arrows and progress bars. Five letters take a distinct final form at word end (כ→ך, מ→ם, נ→ן, פ→ף, צ→ץ), so any tool that reshapes or truncates text must respect them.

Localization tips for Hebrew

1. 1 Mirror the whole layout (icons, directional arrows, progress bars and back buttons), not just the text run.
2. 2 Hebrew is normally written without niqqud (vowel points); do not add them to marketing headlines, as it reads like a children's book or a religious text.
3. 3 Respect the five sofit (final) letter forms ך ם ן ף ץ. A naive slice or reshape routine that ignores them produces broken words.
4. 4 Numbers, prices and Latin brand names stay LTR inside the RTL run; '$9.99' and 'Shotlingo' do not flip.
5. 5 Hebrew has no uppercase and runs a touch shorter than English, so buttons rarely overflow. Build emphasis with weight, not with fake ALL-CAPS that the script doesn't support.
6. 6 Some Java/Android toolchains still resolve Hebrew under the legacy locale code 'iw' rather than 'he'. Verify your resource folders actually load.

Fonts for Hebrew

Noto Sans Hebrew, SF Hebrew (iOS system) or Heebo (a widely used Hebrew-first Google font). All cover the five final letterforms plus geresh/gershayim punctuation; avoid niqqud-heavy display faces unless you deliberately need vowel points.

Hebrew localization FAQ