Text Mesh Pro - The Ultimate Text Solution for Unity - Powerful & Flexible - Advanced Text Rendering

I am currently working on the Text Overflow - Page Mode which should handle what you are looking for automatically. I should have a new beta release within a few days which will include this new feature.

After showing page mode, I was wondering how long it would take before someone requested support for columns

I haven't started looking into implementing such feature. Layout out the text / mesh into columns is certainly possible. The challenge will be more on the UI side to allow users to define the columns. Thinking out loud, the RectTransform / Text Container will define the page and then using a similar widget like the current margins (yellow lines) could be used to define (visualize) the columns within the page.

P.S. Assuming I add that feature, the next logical user request will be text flowing around object or images embedded in the pages. TextMesh Pro started as a simple replacement for Text Mesh. It is slowly evolving into a word processor

Using the TextMeshPro.textInfo.wordInfo[] utility structure, you could implement your own method to track cursor overlapping those words.

When I resume working on the run time Text Input Component, similar functionality will be in there. Until then, should you need any assistance with this, feel free to reach out to me or to post on the TextMesh Pro User Forum to request assistance.

Thanks.

 

It should not be doing this but I'll look into it.

What version of TextMesh Pro are you using?

UPDATE - I loaded a bunch of scenes using the latest beta release and unless I change something creating a New Scene does not ask to save to previous scene. I also tested making code changes and was not asked to re-save the scene.

Having said that, I did run into one type of scene that asks to re-save even though nothing was changed and those are scenes using a Content Size Fitter. Looks like this is a Unity issue with the Content Size Fitter as this occurs when using a button and putting a Content Size Fitter on a UI Text object.

 

Everyone will have to thank @Seith for requesting that page feature

Since this is the first time support for columns is requested, I will have to reflect on this so no ETA yet. There might some short term ways to achieve using the TextMeshPro.textInfo and sub structures but again I'll have to think about it.

I'll get the page mode done and then think about this. In essence this would be flowing the other pages (ie. the stuff that doesn't fit in the current Text Container / RectTransform into another. Once the page feature is released, a new textInfo.pageInfo[] as well as characterInfo[].pageNumber will be available. So you create a separate script similar to the ones I created to modify vertex colors or positions to iterate through the characters of each page and dump the character from subsequent pages into a new mesh.

Since the page mode still lays out the entire block of text including word warping and all, the other would not have to worry about any of that. It would just need to drop those into a new mesh. Again, once this new feature is released, I'll give it further thoughts.

I need to update the Demo & Extra Content package of TextMesh Pro which is available on the TextMesh Pro User forums in the 0.1.46 B2.4 thread. The examples should all still work and help you figure / learn more about this textInfo class. There are also videos on my YouTube channels going over some of this as well.

 

Thank you for reporting the issue and providing the steps to reproduce it. As per my previous reply, I didn't know what version of TextMesh Pro you were running so I tested with the latest beta release while awaiting your reply.

I never doubted your report. My apologies if you got that impression. I simply stated that it should not be doing this but that I would look into it which I did.

I haven't worked with version 0.1.44 for a while now other than for tracking down issues reported by users and this is the first time this issue has been reported. I have been working on the newer releases to add new features and support for Unity 4.6.

I do my best to find and quash all bugs but like Pokemons I can't catch them all I am grateful when users report issues and help with testing the beta releases.

In terms of this particular issue, it is a validation issue. To resolve it, you can make the following changes in the TextMeshPro.cs file line 49 where the check needs to be added. Line 8 in the code below is the changed one.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. /// <summary>
3. /// The TextMeshPro font asset to be assigned to this text object.
4. /// </summary>
5. public TextMeshProFont font
6. {
7.      get { return m_fontAsset; }
8.      set { if (m_fontAsset != value) { m_fontAsset = value; LoadFontAsset(); havePropertiesChanged = true; /* hasFontAssetChanged = true;*/ isAffectingWordWrapping = true; /* ScheduleUpdate(); */} } // Change this line
9. }
10.  

P.S. Thank you for reporting this issue. If you are interested in helping out test the latest beta releases of TextMesh Pro to help make sure they are ready for general release, please head over to the TextMesh Pro User Forum to register if you haven't done so already. Once registered, you will have access to the latest betas.

 

You didn't and I truly appreciate that you took the time to report the issue.

Cool.

 

This type of feature potentially goes beyond columns of text as it leads into having text flow from one container to another which can be implemented in various ways. The trick is to find an efficient and elegant method to implement the column type feature sort of paving the way to enable even more functionality down the road.

Tracking and control over displaying pages is a property. TextMeshPro.pageToDisplay(int page); Tracking how many pages we have is already there in the form of TextMeshPro.textInfo.pageCount;

The biggest challenge here is the limit on the number of vertices that an mesh can have which is 65535 which is a Unity limitation which means we can only have about 16000 characters per object. So the column thing and having text flow from one container to the other comes back in focus. The current page feature for dialogue or a few pages should work fine for more complex needs, maybe each page should be in an array of string for each page. Then to display the new page, we simply change the TextMeshPro.text = book[page54];

As per my comments above, we have a definite limitation on the number of vertices / characters per mesh.

Dealing with a massive string would also not be practical. Maybe the content is stored in a file and instead of submitting the text one page at a time, you supply more to provide padding before and after the current page. In the event the font size is reduced, since the current sub string already includes this extra content, using the current page feature to display it should not be an issue. The challenge is find a nice transition point to update this sub string. Basically, I am think that the text object is always showing the middle of the sub string. Assuming the user is looking at page 10. The sub string would actually include page 9, 10 and 11. If the point size is reduced, the user would see a bit of page 9 and page 10. This is handled by the current page feature. If the user turns to page 11 then we need to update the sub string to include page 10, 11 and 12. The text will need to be synced between those page transitions but I am not sure yet how that is going to play out. We will just need to figure what additional information might be required in the textInfo class to manage this.

Questions are good

I think the content should be stored in a text file and searching through the content should be done via whatever method is most efficient for that. The results which contains the matching query would then be supplied to TextMes

 

I never thought I would be making a word processor / tool like In Design but it is sure kind of heading in the general direction.

The latest beta release is feeling much better with support for all the new UI / Unity 4.6 stuff. These beta releases are available to all registered users of TextMesh Pro via the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

In terms of the AssetStore Package, there are still a few features that I want to add plus I need to wait for Unity to address some of the outstanding issues in Unity 4.6. For instance UI Mask only supports 3 layers right now where it should support 8. So until Unity 4.6 is looking pretty solid with all the features I rely on working, I would rather wait until then before updating the AssetStore Package. I expect that I'll be releasing a few more Beta Releases on the TextMesh Pro User Forum and during that time, I am adding new features

 

This is a good discussion as it helps me get a better understanding of the type of functionality that would be required.

Lets take the conversation to PM or email as I need to get a better understanding of your application and how you envision your end users using your application. With that better understanding, I can then figure out the best way to handle this.

Just a few quick note: We don't really have a choice on storing the text in some file due to its potential size. We also can't feed the entire text to TextMesh Pro due to the vertices limitation on the Unity side plus if we are only displaying one page of 100, processing the whole text for just one page will be very inefficient.

We need to break up / manage the text file into manageable bit size. If tags like <page=10> </page> can be added to the large text file then you could create a script that would return that page of text from the larger file. Then it could be provided to TextMesh Pro. If that page of text turns out to be larger than the reading area then the current page mode would handle that automatically. In this implementation changing the point size would be fine as TextMesh Pro would redo the page mode for the current supplied page from the text file manager. When the user ends up at the end of that page, then you would fetch a new page from the text file manager.

Since I don't have a full understanding of your needs yet, a potential issue with this technique is that it would behave like a book. Pages would always started at the top and the sub page could end up with just one line of text on it before a new page is loaded. Meaning the content of Page 1 would never blend into Page 2.

 

New Rich Text Tag - Monospaced
This new rich text tag will forcing character spacing to be monospaced. The new tag format is <mspace=xx.x> </mspace>.

Here is an example showing this new tag along with a few newly added ones.

 

New! Text Indentation Tag
I just added a new rich text tag which provides control over character indentation within the same block of text.

 

The functionality is the same across both Components with the exception of the support for UI Mask which is specific to the new UI.

The text auto sizing functionality was added back in beta release 0.1.45. The latest beta releases which include many new features are available to all registered user of the product on the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

 

Has the text been imported as a font or as a Graphic?

 

Coming Soon! Rich Text Tag <sprite=xx>
This new rich text tag will enable graphics to be added inline with the text. The sprite xx will reference the # of a sprite contained in a sprite sheet.



Just like any other characters, these graphics will follow word wrapping as well as being affected by character spacing and other text layout controls. This is the first initial implementation so there is still work to be done but this feature now has a pulse

 

Here is a preview of the new Sprite rich text tag which will allow to insert graphic elements inline with the text.

 

There are a few post in either this thread or the WIP about support for Arabic.

I guess there are two issues. The first is I am not certain the Unity Editor (text field) understands Arabic as pasting those characters in the editor yields different characters. In order to draw the correct results, I need to get from the Unity Editor Text Field the correct unicode.

Second, just like cursive, the outline becomes an issue but you can cheat to get around it by using a duplicate object to produce the outline or effect you are seeking.

The Font Asset Creator offers different modes to define which characters to include. One of those modes is Custom Range(s). So you could for instance request characters from "32-126, 1536-1901" which would include Arabic + supplemental characters.

 

The new <sprite> tag is coming along pretty good.

By default the height of the sprite is equal to the font ascender and vertically aligned to the baseline. However both vertical alignment and the scale of the sprite can be controlled individually.



I still need to create a custom inspector for the Sprite Assets to make it easier to edit alignment and scale for each sprite contained in the Sprite Asset.

 

The issue with sharp transitions is due to where the sampling of the distances is taken. Imagine that each letter is contained in a grid of 32 X 32 pixels. As the distance is computed for each of those pixels, some of them will end up exactly on a corner at which point the sharp corner will be preserved but in some other cases, the sampling may end up on either side of those corner at which point that corner will end up rounded.

Here is an example of increasing the Atlas size which increases the sampling which enables us to preserve the shape better (especially where sharp transitions occur).



On a 512 X 512, sharp corners appear rounded. At 1024 X 1024, it is not as apparent and a happy medium between Font Asset size and visual fidelity.

Here is a close up on one of the corners with 4 letters overlapping. White is 512 X 512, Green is 1024 X 1024, Red is 1024 X 1024 (Distance Field 32), and Blue is 2048 X 2048.

 

Ok. I understand what you are looking for now.

The problem is that Dilation, Outline, Underlay Dilation, Glow Offset, etc are all based on the same distance data in the Font Asset. As the effect moves away from the edge, the distances are scaled and thus the corners will get rounder and rounder.

Here is an example of adding a Stroke to a letter in Photoshop. As the stroke moves away from the original shape (sampling point) you get those rounder corners.



I am not too sure how we could dilate the shapes while trying to preserve the sharp corners.

The only thing I can think of is to do what Unity's Outline Component does which is to stamp the Mesh 4 times with an offset as per the image below.



So 5 mesh are used here. The Original White text + 4 offset stamp (-0.1, 0.1), (0.1, 0.1), (0.1, -0.1), (-0.1, -0.1). A script could be created to grab the mesh created by TextMesh Pro and then create a modified mesh which would add the 4 offset stamps and then the original data last to make sure it is drawn on top.

For Square Block letters, this would work but for letters with angles corners or curves, not so good.

 

I would get the latest beta release from the TextMesh Pro User Forum. I am still waiting on a few fixes in Unity 4.6 plus I am pretty far into the sprite tag feature implementation so I may as well hold off on revising the Asset Store package until then unless those Unity fixes show up in the next patch or something.

 

First look at the TextMeshPro SpriteAsset Editor Panel which will be used in conjunction with the new <sprite=xx> tag. Once the SpriteAsset is created, you will be able to adjust the offset values (OX and OY) to position the Sprite relative to the baseline of the text. It will also be possible to adjust scale by changing the SF value.

 

The Text Auto-Sizing feature was first introduced in Beta Release 0.1.45. The latest beta release is 0.1.46 B3.3 which adds several new features and is available to all registered users on the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

 

The latest beta release (0.1.46 B3.3) will work with Unity 4.3 / 4.5. As per my previous post, these releases are available to all registered users of the product. If you haven't done so already, go registered to the TextMesh Pro User Forum to get access to those beta releases.

P.S. There is are 2 prefabs which are referencing one of the Unity 4.6 class in this beta release, so you will need to either delete them or un-select them during the import process.

 

I am still working on it but I do plan to have this work in Unity 4.3 as well.

I added a new item to the Create Context Menu to allow you to create those TextMeshPro Sprite Asset from Unity Textures marked as Sprite (2D and UI) in the importer.

 

When I have a chance, I could look at giving users a way to define default settings.

Until then, in the TMPro_Private.cs file for TextMeshPro Component and TMPro_UGUI_Private.cs file for the new UI TextMeshPro Component around line 100, you could change the default using Center as per the code below.

Code (csharp):

1. private TextAlignmentOptions m_textAlignment = TextAlignmentOptions.Center;

 

Not at this time but I have begun work on the TextMesh Pro Run Time Text Input Component. Release of it is way overdue but the Unity 4.6 stuff has kep me busy but it will be coming.