Text and fonts

raylib bundles a default bitmap font that is available as soon as the window is open. Custom fonts are loaded via RaylibHandle::load_font (from a file) or RaylibHandle::load_font_ex (with an explicit codepoint set for preloaded glyph atlases). Both return a RAII Font that is automatically unloaded on drop. Text drawing — including measuring — hangs off RaylibHandle for the default font and off the Font struct or RaylibDraw trait for custom fonts.

API surface

• RaylibHandle::load_font — load a font from a file; returns Result<Font, …>.
• RaylibHandle::load_font_ex — load a font with explicit font size and a codepoint array; useful for preloading a specific non-ASCII character set.
• RaylibHandle::measure_text — measure the pixel width of a string at a given size using the default font.
• Font::measure_text — measure a string with a custom font, returning a Vector2 (width × height).
• RaylibDraw::draw_text — draw a &str using the default font.
• RaylibDraw::draw_text_ex — draw a &str using a custom Font, with position, size, spacing, and tint.

Example

Drawing text requires an open window. The example below opens a 640×480 window, draws a greeting with the default font each frame, and measures its width for centering.

extern crate raylib;
use raylib::prelude::*;

fn main() {
    let (mut rl, thread) = raylib::init()
        .size(640, 480)
        .title("Text demo")
        .vsync()
        .build();

    let message = "Hello, raylib-rs!";
    let font_size = 24;

    while !rl.window_should_close() {
        // Measure text width for the default font.
        let width = rl.measure_text(message, font_size);

        let mut d = rl.begin_drawing(&thread);
        d.clear_background(Color::RAYWHITE);

        // Centered draw using the default font.
        d.draw_text(
            message,
            (640 - width) / 2,
            (480 - font_size) / 2,
            font_size,
            Color::DARKGRAY,
        );
    }
}

Gotchas

• Custom fonts need a window. load_font and load_font_ex call into raylib’s GPU atlas-building path, so they must be called after raylib::init().build(). Font data files (.ttf, .otf, .fnt, .bdf) must be on disk at the given path.
• Codepoint preloading. load_font_ex takes an optional &[i32] codepoint list. If None, raylib loads the default Latin set (32–127). Pass an explicit list if your application draws CJK, emoji, or other extended Unicode ranges.
• raylib 6.0 new text symbols. The 6.0 release added more than 30 new text utility functions in the C library. The Rust parity checklist (docs/superpowers/plans/) tracks which are exposed; check the text module rustdoc for the current set.

See also

• Window and drawing — the draw handle that text methods live on.
• Font docs.rs — full rustdoc for custom font operations.

Showcase examples

Showcase examples that exercise this module:

• text_font_loading
• text_font_sdf
• text_format_text
• text_input_box
• text_rectangle_bounds
• text_unicode_emojis