TextMesh Pro Suggestion: Ability to simulate a render to obtain TMP properties

Something we often need to do is get info about how TMP renders text; number of lines, number of characters items per line preferred size, rendered size, etc - but without actually rendering it! A common use case for us is trying different container sizes and seeing which creates the most aesthetic text layout - at Inkle, my previous company, I used this approach to find the best text layouts to fit in comic book style text bubbles.

With the exception of GetPreferredSize (which can take a string and returns the size it WOULD like), TMP doesn't allow us to do this.
Our solution up to now is to just use a TMP object, set our properties, add TextRenderFlags.DontRender and run ForceMeshUpdate. We then read the output we need and undo all those properties; which feels a bit hacky and is cumbersome.

Would love to see a system for this one day!

Ta!

 

I realize this is an old post, but I agree. A method that would tell you the size of a string without having to actually set the text in the TMP component would be very useful.

 

In case anyone needs code for this, here's some that's been battle-tested.
https://gist.github.com/tomkail/277b355cb2115fedb159a2387acdb9b6