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Overview

Text functions provide capabilities for rendering text, loading custom fonts, and measuring text dimensions.

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Basic Text Drawing

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drawText

Draws text using the default font.
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text
String
required
Text to draw
​
posX
Number
required
X position
​
posY
Number
required
Y position
​
fontSize
Number
required
Font size
​
color
Color
required
Text color
import "raylib" for Raylib, Color

Raylib.initWindow(800, 450, "Text Example")
Raylib.setTargetFPS(60)

var title = "Hello Talon!"
var color = Color.Purple

while (!Raylib.windowShouldClose()) {
  Raylib.beginDrawing()
  Raylib.clearBackground(Color.RayWhite)
  
  Raylib.drawText(title, 20, 20, 60, color)
  Raylib.drawText("FPS: %(Raylib.getFPS())", 10, 100, 20, Color.Green)
  
  Raylib.endDrawing()
}

Raylib.closeWindow()

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drawFPS

Draws current FPS at specified position.
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posX
Number
required
X position
​
posY
Number
required
Y position
Raylib.drawFPS(10, 10)

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Custom Font Drawing

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drawTextEx

Draws text using a custom font with spacing.
​
font
Font
required
Font to use
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text
String
required
Text to draw
​
position
Vector2
required
Position to draw at
​
fontSize
Number
required
Font size
​
spacing
Number
required
Character spacing
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tint
Color
required
Text color
var font = Raylib.loadFont("resources/font.ttf")
var position = Vector2.new(100, 100)
var fontSize = 32
var spacing = 2

Raylib.drawTextEx(font, "Custom Font Text", position, fontSize, spacing, Color.Black)

Raylib.unloadFont(font)

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drawTextPro

Draws text using font with pro parameters (rotation, origin).
​
font
Font
required
Font to use
​
text
String
required
Text to draw
​
position
Vector2
required
Position
​
origin
Vector2
required
Rotation origin
​
rotation
Number
required
Rotation in degrees
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fontSize
Number
required
Font size
​
spacing
Number
required
Character spacing
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tint
Color
required
Text color
var rotation = 45.0
var origin = Vector2.new(0, 0)
Raylib.drawTextPro(font, "Rotated Text", Vector2.new(400, 300), origin, rotation, 32, 2, Color.Red)

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Font Loading

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loadFont

Loads font from file into GPU memory (TTF, OTF).
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fileName
String
required
Path to font file
Returns: Font - Loaded font 
var customFont = Raylib.loadFont("resources/pixelfont.ttf")

// Use the font
Raylib.drawTextEx(customFont, "Pixel Text", Vector2.new(10, 10), 20, 1, Color.Black)

// Don't forget to unload
Raylib.unloadFont(customFont)

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loadFontEx

Loads font from file with extended parameters.
​
fileName
String
required
Path to font file
​
fontSize
Number
required
Base font size
​
codepoints
Array
required
Array of codepoints to load (null for default)
​
codepointCount
Number
required
Number of codepoints
Returns: Font - Loaded font

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getFontDefault

Returns the default font. Returns: Font - Default font 
var defaultFont = Raylib.getFontDefault()

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isFontValid

Checks if a font is valid.
​
font
Font
required
Font to check
Returns: Boolean - True if valid

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unloadFont

Unloads font from GPU memory.
​
font
Font
required
Font to unload
Raylib.unloadFont(customFont)

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Text Measurement

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measureText

Measures string width for default font.
​
text
String
required
Text to measure
​
fontSize
Number
required
Font size
Returns: Number - Text width in pixels 
var text = "Hello World"
var fontSize = 20
var textWidth = Raylib.measureText(text, fontSize)

var screenWidth = Raylib.getScreenWidth()
var centerX = (screenWidth - textWidth) / 2

Raylib.drawText(text, centerX, 200, fontSize, Color.Black)

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measureTextEx

Measures string size for Font.
​
font
Font
required
Font to use for measurement
​
text
String
required
Text to measure
​
fontSize
Number
required
Font size
​
spacing
Number
required
Character spacing
Returns: Vector2 - Text dimensions (width, height) 
var textSize = Raylib.measureTextEx(customFont, "Test", 32, 2)
var width = textSize.x
var height = textSize.y

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Text Configuration

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setTextLineSpacing

Sets vertical line spacing when drawing text.
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spacing
Number
required
Line spacing in pixels
Raylib.setTextLineSpacing(20)

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Text Manipulation

These functions operate on strings at the Wren level:

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textLength

Returns text length (including null terminator).
​
text
String
required
Text to measure
Returns: Number - Text length

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textCopy

Copies text to another string.
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dst
String
required
Destination string
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src
String
required
Source string

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textIsEqual

Checks if two text strings are equal.
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text1
String
required
First text
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text2
String
required
Second text
Returns: Boolean - True if equal

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textSubtext

Returns a substring from text.
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text
String
required
Source text
​
position
Number
required
Start position
​
length
Number
required
Substring length
Returns: String - Substring

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textToUpper

Converts string to uppercase.
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text
String
required
Text to convert
Returns: String - Uppercase text

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textToLower

Converts string to lowercase.
​
text
String
required
Text to convert
Returns: String - Lowercase text

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textToInteger

Converts text to integer.
​
text
String
required
Text to convert
Returns: Number - Integer value 
var scoreText = "1234"
var score = Raylib.textToInteger(scoreText)

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textToFloat

Converts text to float.
​
text
String
required
Text to convert
Returns: Number - Float value

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Complete Example

import "raylib" for Raylib, Color, Vector2

var screenWidth = 800
var screenHeight = 450

Raylib.initWindow(screenWidth, screenHeight, "Text Example")
Raylib.setTargetFPS(60)

var customFont = Raylib.loadFont("resources/myfont.ttf")

var title = "Talon Game Engine"
var subtitle = "Powered by Raylib"

while (!Raylib.windowShouldClose()) {
  Raylib.beginDrawing()
  Raylib.clearBackground(Color.RayWhite)
  
  // Center title
  var titleWidth = Raylib.measureText(title, 60)
  var titleX = (screenWidth - titleWidth) / 2
  Raylib.drawText(title, titleX, 100, 60, Color.Purple)
  
  // Draw subtitle with custom font
  var subtitleSize = Raylib.measureTextEx(customFont, subtitle, 30, 2)
  var subtitleX = (screenWidth - subtitleSize.x) / 2
  Raylib.drawTextEx(customFont, subtitle, Vector2.new(subtitleX, 200), 30, 2, Color.DarkGray)
  
  // Show FPS
  Raylib.drawFPS(10, 10)
  
  Raylib.endDrawing()
}

Raylib.unloadFont(customFont)
Raylib.closeWindow()

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Best Practices

Load fonts once during initialization for better performance.
Use measureText() or measureTextEx() to center text or calculate layout dimensions.
Always unload custom fonts when done:
Raylib.unloadFont(customFont)

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