Unity C# , get text width / font character width

Question

I want to get the width of a text in unity using C# .

Here is what I am trying to do .

int GetWidthOfMessage(string message)
{
    int totalLength = 0;

    Font font = text.font; //text is my UI text
    CharacterInfo characterInfo = new CharacterInfo();

    char[] arr = message.ToCharArray();

    foreach (char c in arr)
    {
        font.GetCharacterInfo(c, out characterInfo, text.fontSize);
        totalLength += characterInfo.advance;
    }

    return totalLength;
}

But font.GetCharacterInfo(...) returns false and characterInfo.advance is 0 for any character .

According to the docs GetCharacterInfo has a FontStyle parameter. — ChrisF
– ChrisF, Commented Nov 10, 2016 at 13:42
A few things aside from the main question, couldn't you just loop through the string? it is loop-able as if it were an array of char - also you could display it and then get the size of the actual message displayed — Alfie Goodacre
– Alfie Goodacre, Commented Nov 10, 2016 at 13:42
Also from the docs - "Note: You should only ever need to use this when you want to implement your own text rendering. If the character ch with the specified size and style is present in the font texture, then this method will return true, [...]. If the character is not present, this method returns false" - so are your characters in the font texture? — ChrisF
– ChrisF, Commented Nov 10, 2016 at 13:44
I tried it with FontStyle.Normal but the result is the same , totalLength is 0 — user3578286
– user3578286, Commented Nov 10, 2016 at 13:44
I have my own text box and I want to expand it related to the width of the text — user3578286
– user3578286, Commented Nov 10, 2016 at 13:46

Umair M · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-10 14:20:19Z

3

Apart from your original question. Following the reason you are doing all this (expanding text box according to text content).

You can use Content Size Fitter component on your text object and set Horizontal Fit property to Preferred Size. And this will solve your problem.

Update:

Add Layout Element component as well and set preferred width value to 500 for example and set Horizontal Overflow property of text to Wrap. This will work fo sure.

edited Nov 10, 2016 at 14:20

answered Nov 10, 2016 at 14:04

Umair M

10.8k6 gold badges45 silver badges76 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

user3578286 Over a year ago

this is good solution if I have only one line text , but I want to get multiple lines , for example I want maxWidth of my textbox to be 500px and after that the text should be 2 lines

user3578286 Over a year ago

1. Content Size Fitter (Horizontal Fit - Preferred Size , Vertical Fit - Unconstrained) 2. LayoutElement ( Preferred width - 500) 3. Horizontal Overflow - wrap is this all I should do?

Umair M Over a year ago

Yes. I tested it with a text component and it works fine.

Dylan Hart · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-09 00:39:04Z

1

Try calling:font.RequestCharactersInTexture(c.ToString(), text.fontSize, text.fontStyle);

Before you call: font.GetCharacterInfo(c, out characterInfo, text.fontSize);

With the exception of '\t', I got every character I needed this way. (Probably better to request all the characters at once, though).

answered Feb 9, 2018 at 0:39

Dylan Hart

191 bronze badge

1 Comment

Adam Over a year ago

Note: this works with current UnityEditor (2020, 2021) even though according to Unity's docs it shouldn't - RequestCharactersInTexture is supposed to run asynchronously, but apparently is broken, and has to be used synchronously like this.

Yoann Haffner · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-23 11:00:21Z

0

Maybe your font is dynamic: this means you have to add characters in your font, and you should use Font.RequestCharactersInTexture! This happened to me with a single UnityEngine.UI.Text component, no matter the font. Reference: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Font.RequestCharactersInTexture.html

answered Nov 23, 2018 at 11:00

Yoann Haffner

531 silver badge7 bronze badges

Comments

BiN · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-28 11:08:08Z

0

try use : font.RequestCharactersInTexture(c.ToString());

fontSize & fontStyle use default value.

and then use : GetCharacterInfo(char ch, out characterInfo info);

Then I got the right value of characterInfo.advance

answered Jan 28, 2019 at 11:08

BiN

211 bronze badge

Comments

zhiwei li · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-06 11:53:39Z

0

I found Font.RequestCharactersInTexture(mStr, fontSize, FontStyle.Normal) is ok, but Font.RequestCharactersInTexture(mStr, fontSize, FontStyle.Bold) will get character.advance = 0

answered Sep 6, 2022 at 11:53

zhiwei li

1

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Unity C# , get text width / font character width

5 Answers 5

3 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

5 Answers 5

3 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related