Text Scaling Help [SOLVED!]

[Cardibro123]

I need help!

How would I scale text so it fits in a box? I have been trying to do this for a while, but I can't find something that's efficient and not laggy!

Here's an example of what I have so far.

Code: Select all

function love.load()
    text = "Button"
end

function love.draw()
    love.graphics.setColor(1,1,1)

    love.graphics.print(love.timer.getFPS(),0,0) -- To check for lag

    local bx = love.graphics.getWidth()/5 -- Set box width
    local by = love.graphics.getHeight()/5 -- Set box height
    love.graphics.rectangle("fill", love.graphics.getWidth()/2-bx/2, love.graphics.getHeight()/2-by/2, bx, by) -- Draw box centered

    love.graphics.setColor(0,0,0)

    love.graphics.setFont(love.graphics.newFont(math.min(bx/4,by/3))) -- Set the font to a size that works with the current text

    local tw = love.graphics.getFont():getWidth(text) -- Get text width
    local th = love.graphics.getFont():getHeight(text) -- Get text height

    love.graphics.print(text, love.graphics.getWidth()/2-tw/2, love.graphics.getHeight()/2-th/2) -- Draw text centered
end

Everything works about this, except if I change the text to something short, the text is too small, and if I change the text to something longer, the text is too big.

How would I make this, but it works on any text?

Any help will be appreciated!

[BrotSagtMist]

Do you realise that love.draw is excuted 60 times a second?
You are rebuilding and reloading all you infos/data for every frame, if you continue that way your project will crush every computer with 100% cpu usage just from showing a few buttons.
Use the love.resize callback instead so stuff is only called when needed.

Next, scaling letters in a way that they retroactively fit in a textbox is a next to impossible task (for easy code), thats why no one does it.
You would have to create a font, check if the text fits with that font and then repeat the process till you find a match, for every string anew.
Or you take the size of that check and do procentual math and render with a scale, that would however end in blurry text.
So basically if the textbox is 100 pixel width and getwidth(text) reports to take 75 pixel, you got 100/75= 1.333 and then you set the overall scale to 1.333.

[Cardibro123]

First of all, thank you for taking the time to respond.

I see what you are saying about love.draw being rerun every frame. I will make sure not to make that mistake in the future! And, I get what you are saying on how to scale the text and it makes more sense now! I will have to try that out when I get the chance.

Once again, thank you for your help!

[dusoft]

Or don't scale and just use self-contained word-wrap with printf:
https://love2d.org/wiki/love.graphics.printf

[Cardibro123]

I know how word-wrap works using printF, but I have not heard of self-contained word-wrap before. Is there another document I can read to understand it? Any help would be appreciated, and thank you for responding.

[dusoft]

The word-wrap takes care of your width (that's why it is self-contained, you don't have to contain it in any other way...).

If you need to fit text with the largest-possible size into your desired container then scaling directly using sx, sy in printf is the better way. The ratio should be easy to calculate from the text dimensions and your container width/height.

Follow what BrotSagtMist says and never put any resource initialization in update/draw etc. - that's what love.load is for.

[Cardibro123]

Got it! I can see the differences and when to use them. Thank you for helping me!