From 0970cebfeadefd51c6d42f0f660c2e23bdd5f4b5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: BBC-Esq <bbc@chintellalaw.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2025 07:37:37 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Update _hocr.py

---
 src/ocrmypdf/hocrtransform/_hocr.py | 6 +++++-
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/ocrmypdf/hocrtransform/_hocr.py b/src/ocrmypdf/hocrtransform/_hocr.py
index 4858c434..9245a598 100644
--- a/src/ocrmypdf/hocrtransform/_hocr.py
+++ b/src/ocrmypdf/hocrtransform/_hocr.py
@@ -263,9 +263,13 @@ class HocrTransform:
 
     def _get_text_direction(self, par):
         """Get the text direction of the paragraph.
-
+    
         Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, are right-to-left languages.
+        When the paragraph element is None, defaults to left-to-right.
         """
+        if par is None:
+            return TextDirection.LTR
+            
         return (
             TextDirection.RTL
             if par.attrib.get('dir', 'ltr') == 'rtl'