Writing Arabic in Photoshop was always a huge problem for me.  It forced me into looking for other alternatives that support the Arabic language.  The ones that are worth mentioning are GIMP and Pixelmator.  However, while both had a decent Arabic support, they fell short in almost everything else, so I was back to square one.  See the thing is, there’s  a Photoshop version that Supports Arabic perfectly.  Its called “Photoshop ME” for Middle East and is sold by Winsoft, not Adobe.  The problem with this version though, is the fact that its a lot more expensive.  Not to mention that their license agreement for the student edition/discount prevents you from using it in a commercial context, where Adobe doesn’t.  Long story short, I needed Photoshop to start working on my new project, and decided to go ahead and purchase the Creative Suite – Web Premium (Student Edition) from Adobe, knowing that I won’t be able to use it for any Arabic related stuff.

After a while, I needed to make some graphics with Arabic text, so I started looking for a solution again.  Only this time I stumbled on this page that saved my life, and allowed me to use my current Photoshop version to write Arabic.  I just download the template that’s posted on the page, fired up Photoshop, and started writing Arabic.   Below are the instructions on how to use the template, I copied it from their website:

Open the template in Photoshop CS4. Select the existing text on the type layer of the template and replace it with the Arabic you want. Using this template, you can now cut, copy, and paste between applications without destroying your text flow.

I am now using the template with Photoshop CS 5.1, and everything is working properly.  Thank you Adobe!

P.S.  If the page is not available for whatever reason, you can download the template from HERE.