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.. include:: common.txt
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.. module:: pygame.font
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:synopsis: pygame module for loading and rendering fonts
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| :sl:`pygame module for loading and rendering fonts`
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The font module allows for rendering TrueType fonts into a new Surface object.
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It accepts any UCS-2 character ('\u0001' to '\uFFFF'). This module is optional
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and requires SDL_ttf as a dependency. You should test that :mod:`pygame.font`
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is available and initialized before attempting to use the module.
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Most of the work done with fonts are done by using the actual Font objects. The
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module by itself only has routines to initialize the module and create Font
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objects with ``pygame.font.Font()``.
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You can load fonts from the system by using the ``pygame.font.SysFont()``
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function. There are a few other functions to help lookup the system fonts.
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Pygame comes with a builtin default font. This can always be accessed by
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passing None as the font name.
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To use the :mod:`pygame.freetype` based ``pygame.ftfont`` as
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:mod:`pygame.font` define the enviroment variable PYGAME_FREETYPE before the
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first import of :mod:`pygame`. Module ``pygame.ftfont`` is a :mod:`pygame.font`
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compatible module that passes all but one of the font module unit tests:
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it does not have the UCS-2 limitation of the SDL_ttf based font module, so
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fails to raise an exception for a code point greater than '\uFFFF'. If
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:mod:`pygame.freetype` is unavailable then the SDL_ttf font module will be
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| :sl:`initialize the font module`
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| :sg:`init() -> None`
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This method is called automatically by ``pygame.init()``. It initializes the
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font module. The module must be initialized before any other functions will
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It is safe to call this function more than once.
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.. ## pygame.font.init ##
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| :sl:`uninitialize the font module`
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| :sg:`quit() -> None`
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Manually uninitialize SDL_ttf's font system. This is called automatically by
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It is safe to call this function even if font is currently not initialized.
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.. ## pygame.font.quit ##
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.. function:: get_init
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| :sl:`true if the font module is initialized`
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| :sg:`get_init() -> bool`
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Test if the font module is initialized or not.
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.. ## pygame.font.get_init ##
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.. function:: get_default_font
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| :sl:`get the filename of the default font`
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| :sg:`get_default_font() -> string`
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Return the filename of the system font. This is not the full path to the
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file. This file can usually be found in the same directory as the font
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module, but it can also be bundled in separate archives.
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.. ## pygame.font.get_default_font ##
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.. function:: get_fonts
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| :sl:`get all available fonts`
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| :sg:`get_fonts() -> list of strings`
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Returns a list of all the fonts available on the system. The names of the
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fonts will be set to lowercase with all spaces and punctuation removed. This
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works on most systems, but some will return an empty list if they cannot
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.. ## pygame.font.get_fonts ##
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.. function:: match_font
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| :sl:`find a specific font on the system`
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| :sg:`match_font(name, bold=False, italic=False) -> path`
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Returns the full path to a font file on the system. If bold or italic are
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set to true, this will attempt to find the correct family of font.
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The font name can actually be a comma separated list of font names to try.
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If none of the given names are found, None is returned.
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print pygame.font.match_font('bitstreamverasans')
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# output is: /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
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# (but only if you have Vera on your system)
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.. ## pygame.font.match_font ##
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.. function:: SysFont
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| :sl:`create a Font object from the system fonts`
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| :sg:`SysFont(name, size, bold=False, italic=False) -> Font`
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Return a new Font object that is loaded from the system fonts. The font will
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match the requested bold and italic flags. If a suitable system font is not
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found this will fallback on loading the default pygame font. The font name
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can be a comma separated list of font names to look for.
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.. ## pygame.font.SysFont ##
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| :sl:`create a new Font object from a file`
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| :sg:`Font(filename, size) -> Font`
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| :sg:`Font(object, size) -> Font`
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Load a new font from a given filename or a python file object. The size is
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the height of the font in pixels. If the filename is None the Pygame default
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font will be loaded. If a font cannot be loaded from the arguments given an
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exception will be raised. Once the font is created the size cannot be
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Font objects are mainly used to render text into new Surface objects. The
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render can emulate bold or italic features, but it is better to load from a
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font with actual italic or bold glyphs. The rendered text can be regular
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| :sl:`draw text on a new Surface`
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| :sg:`render(text, antialias, color, background=None) -> Surface`
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This creates a new Surface with the specified text rendered on it. Pygame
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provides no way to directly draw text on an existing Surface: instead you
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must use ``Font.render()`` to create an image (Surface) of the text, then
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blit this image onto another Surface.
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The text can only be a single line: newline characters are not rendered.
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Null characters ('\x00') raise a TypeError. Both Unicode and char (byte)
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strings are accepted. For Unicode strings only UCS-2 characters ('\u0001'
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to '\uFFFF') are recognized. Anything greater raises a UnicodeError. For
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char strings a ``LATIN1`` encoding is assumed. The antialias argument is
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a boolean: if true the characters will have smooth edges. The color
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argument is the color of the text [e.g.: (0,0,255) for blue]. The
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optional background argument is a color to use for the text background.
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If no background is passed the area outside the text will be transparent.
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The Surface returned will be of the dimensions required to hold the text.
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(the same as those returned by Font.size()). If an empty string is passed
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for the text, a blank surface will be returned that is one pixel wide and
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the height of the font.
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Depending on the type of background and antialiasing used, this returns
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different types of Surfaces. For performance reasons, it is good to know
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what type of image will be used. If antialiasing is not used, the return
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image will always be an 8bit image with a two color palette. If the
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background is transparent a colorkey will be set. Antialiased images are
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rendered to 24-bit ``RGB`` images. If the background is transparent a
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pixel alpha will be included.
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Optimization: if you know that the final destination for the text (on the
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screen) will always have a solid background, and the text is antialiased,
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you can improve performance by specifying the background color. This will
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cause the resulting image to maintain transparency information by
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colorkey rather than (much less efficient) alpha values.
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If you render '\n' a unknown char will be rendered. Usually a rectangle.
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Instead you need to handle new lines yourself.
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Font rendering is not thread safe: only a single thread can render text
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| :sl:`determine the amount of space needed to render text`
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| :sg:`size(text) -> (width, height)`
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Returns the dimensions needed to render the text. This can be used to
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help determine the positioning needed for text before it is rendered. It
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can also be used for wordwrapping and other layout effects.
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Be aware that most fonts use kerning which adjusts the widths for
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specific letter pairs. For example, the width for "ae" will not always
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match the width for "a" + "e".
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.. method:: set_underline
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| :sl:`control if text is rendered with an underline`
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| :sg:`set_underline(bool) -> None`
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When enabled, all rendered fonts will include an underline. The underline
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is always one pixel thick, regardless of font size. This can be mixed
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with the bold and italic modes.
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.. ## Font.set_underline ##
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.. method:: get_underline
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| :sl:`check if text will be rendered with an underline`
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| :sg:`get_underline() -> bool`
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Return True when the font underline is enabled.
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.. ## Font.get_underline ##
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| :sl:`enable fake rendering of bold text`
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| :sg:`set_bold(bool) -> None`
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Enables the bold rendering of text. This is a fake stretching of the font
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that doesn't look good on many font types. If possible load the font from
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a real bold font file. While bold, the font will have a different width
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than when normal. This can be mixed with the italic and underline modes.
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.. ## Font.set_bold ##
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| :sl:`check if text will be rendered bold`
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| :sg:`get_bold() -> bool`
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Return True when the font bold rendering mode is enabled.
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.. ## Font.get_bold ##
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.. method:: set_italic
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| :sl:`enable fake rendering of italic text`
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| :sg:`set_italic(bool) -> None`
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Enables fake rendering of italic text. This is a fake skewing of the font
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that doesn't look good on many font types. If possible load the font from
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a real italic font file. While italic the font will have a different
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width than when normal. This can be mixed with the bold and underline
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.. ## Font.set_italic ##
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| :sl:`Gets the metrics for each character in the pased string.`
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| :sg:`metrics(text) -> list`
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The list contains tuples for each character, which contain the minimum
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``X`` offset, the maximum ``X`` offset, the minimum ``Y`` offset, the
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maximum ``Y`` offset and the advance offset (bearing plus width) of the
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character. [(minx, maxx, miny, maxy, advance), (minx, maxx, miny, maxy,
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advance), ...]. None is entered in the list for each unrecognized
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.. ## Font.metrics ##
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.. method:: get_italic
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| :sl:`check if the text will be rendered italic`
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| :sg:`get_italic() -> bool`
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Return True when the font italic rendering mode is enabled.
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.. ## Font.get_italic ##
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.. method:: get_linesize
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| :sl:`get the line space of the font text`
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| :sg:`get_linesize() -> int`
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Return the height in pixels for a line of text with the font. When
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rendering multiple lines of text this is the recommended amount of space
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.. ## Font.get_linesize ##
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.. method:: get_height
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| :sl:`get the height of the font`
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| :sg:`get_height() -> int`
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Return the height in pixels of the actual rendered text. This is the
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average size for each glyph in the font.
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.. ## Font.get_height ##
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.. method:: get_ascent
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| :sl:`get the ascent of the font`
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| :sg:`get_ascent() -> int`
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Return the height in pixels for the font ascent. The ascent is the number
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of pixels from the font baseline to the top of the font.
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.. ## Font.get_ascent ##
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.. method:: get_descent
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| :sl:`get the descent of the font`
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| :sg:`get_descent() -> int`
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Return the height in pixels for the font descent. The descent is the
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number of pixels from the font baseline to the bottom of the font.
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.. ## Font.get_descent ##
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.. ## pygame.font.Font ##
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docs/reST/ref/font.rst
