The text direction controls the primary direction for widgets containing text, and also the direction in which the children of a container are packed. The ability to set the text direction is present in order so that correct localization into languages with right-to-left reading directions can be done. Generally, applications will let the default reading direction present, except for containers where the containers are arranged in an order that is explicitely visual rather than logical, such as buttons for text justification.

(define-g-enum "GtkTextDirection" gtk-text-direction
  (:export t
   :type-initializer "gtk_text_direction_get_type")
  (:none 0)
  (:ltr 1)
  (:rtl 2))  

:none

No direction.

:ltr

Left to right text direction.

:rtl

Right to left text direction.