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How to Translate Your Ghost Theme (and Set Up Right-to-Left)

Ghost translates its own parts, but your theme’s words stay in English. Here’s how to translate every word your theme shows visitors in one click, into 40 languages, and switch to right-to-left for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu.

Michal Wlosik

Michal Wlosik

· 4 min read

How to Translate Your Ghost Theme (and Set Up Right-to-Left)

You write your posts in Spanish, Polish or Arabic, but your site still says "Search posts…", "Load more" and "5 min read". Those words come from your theme, not from Ghost, and most themes only speak English.

This guide explains which words Ghost translates for you and which it leaves to the theme, how to translate the theme's own words in one click, and how to switch your site to right-to-left for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu.

An Ectobuilder theme in right-to-left mode with an Arabic headline, menu and buttons; the logo is on the right and the menu reads from right to left
Right to left: the header, menu and buttons are mirrored for Arabic.

What Ghost translates for you

In Ghost Admin, Settings → General → Publication language sets your site's language. Ghost uses it for its own parts of the site: the sign-up and account window (Portal), dates, comments, and the language tag search engines read.

Everything your theme writes is a different story. "Read more", "Search posts…", "Share on X", "Load more", "Close" and "min read" are part of the theme's templates and scripts. A theme can include translation files for them, but most only ship English, and editing those files means editing theme code.

What Ectobuilder adds

  • Every word in one list. Settings → Language lists everything your theme shows visitors: search, sorting, sharing, comments, the picture viewer, code blocks, the dark mode switch and reading time. Change any of them.
  • One-click translation. Pick one of 40 languages and every word is filled in for you, in natural, short wording. You can still edit each one afterwards.
  • Right-to-left layouts. For Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu, pages read from the right: the logo, menu, text and buttons all swap sides.
  • Your own words are already yours. Headlines, buttons and anything else you typed into a section stay as you wrote them, in any language.

How to translate your Ghost theme

1. Open Settings → Language

Open your theme in Ectobuilder, click Settings in the left rail and choose Language.

2. Pick your language and translate

Under Translate your theme, choose your language and click Translate. Every word below is filled in a moment later.

Settings, Language tab: Polish chosen under Translate your theme, and the theme words below filled in, like Szukaj wpisów for Search posts
One click fills in every word. Here, Polish.

3. Check the words

Read through the list. The translation is good, but you know your readers: you might prefer "Szukaj" to "Szukaj wpisów", or a more casual tone. Change any box and it's saved. Empty a box to go back to the English.

4. Reading time

Reading time has two boxes: one for exactly one minute and one for several. In the second, % stands for the number, like % min czytania.

5. Deploy

Deploy your theme to Ghost. While you're in Ghost Admin, set Publication language to the same language, so Ghost's own parts match.

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Translate every word your theme shows visitors in one click, and switch to right-to-left for Arabic or Hebrew.

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Right-to-left sites

When you translate into Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or Urdu, the Right to left setting switches on by itself. You can also set it by hand in the same panel.

  • The layout mirrors. The logo moves to the right, menus read from right to left, text aligns right, and pictures beside text swap sides.
  • Pictures aren't flipped. Photos, logos and screenshots stay as they are. Only their position changes.
  • Check your sections. Most sections follow on their own. A few with a fixed design keep their original side, so look through each page in the editor before you deploy.

Also set Ghost's Publication language to your right-to-left language, so Ghost's own windows and dates follow.

Tips

  • Translate before you design. Some languages are longer than English. German and Polish buttons, for example, can be twice as wide, so it's easier to check the layout with the real words.
  • Keep it short. These words sit on buttons and in small menus. "Load more" in two words works better than a full sentence.
  • Ask a native speaker for a quick look. The list is short, so it takes them a few minutes.

FAQ

Does Ghost support multiple languages on one site?

Not built in. Ghost sites have one publication language. For two languages, people usually run two Ghost sites, or tag posts by language. Each Ectobuilder theme speaks one language, so a second site can use a copy of the theme translated into the other.

Which languages can I translate into?

Forty, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi and Turkish. For any other language, type the words in yourself.

Does it translate my posts?

No. It translates the words your theme shows, like Search posts or Load more. Your posts, pages and the text you typed in sections stay as you wrote them.

Is right-to-left just for Arabic?

It’s for any language written from right to left: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu are switched on automatically, and you can turn it on for others by hand.

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Michal Wlosik

Written by

Michal Wlosik

Founder of Ectobuilder, the AI-powered visual theme editor for Ghost. Indie software builder in Wrocław and co-author of The AdTech Book. I write about Ghost themes, newsletters and building websites with AI.

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