Draw multi-line text to Canvas

Question

A hopefully quick question, but I can't seem to find any examples... I'd like to write multi-line text to a custom View via a Canvas, and in onDraw() I have:

...
String text = "This is\nmulti-line\ntext";
canvas.drawText(text, 100, 100, mTextPaint);
...

I was hoping this would result in line breaks, but instead I am seeing cryptic characters where the \n would be.

Any pointers appreciated.

Paul

Answer 1

I have written complete example

colors.xml

  <color name="transparentBlack">#64000000</color>

java class

 public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        Bitmap bm = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.amit);
        ImageView imageView = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.imageView);
        imageView.setImageBitmap(drawTextToBitmap(this, bm, "Name: Kolala\nDate: Dec 23 2016 12:47 PM, \nLocation: 440 Banquets & Restaurents"));

    }

  public Bitmap drawTextToBitmap(Context gContext,
                                   Bitmap bitmap,
                                   String gText) {
        Resources resources = gContext.getResources();
        float scale = resources.getDisplayMetrics().density;

        android.graphics.Bitmap.Config bitmapConfig =
                bitmap.getConfig();
        // set default bitmap config if none
        if(bitmapConfig == null) {
            bitmapConfig = android.graphics.Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;
        }
        // resource bitmaps are imutable,
        // so we need to convert it to mutable one
        bitmap = bitmap.copy(bitmapConfig, true);

        Canvas canvas = new Canvas(bitmap);
        // new antialised Paint
        Paint paint = new Paint(Paint.ANTI_ALIAS_FLAG);

        // text color - #3D3D3D
        paint.setColor(Color.WHITE);
        // text size in pixels
        paint.setTextSize((int) (25 * scale));
        // text shadow
        paint.setShadowLayer(1f, 0f, 1f, Color.WHITE);

        // draw text to the Canvas center
        Rect bounds = new Rect();

        int noOfLines = 0;
        for (String line: gText.split("\n")) {
           noOfLines++;
        }

        paint.getTextBounds(gText, 0, gText.length(), bounds);
        int x = 20;
        int y = (bitmap.getHeight() - bounds.height()*noOfLines);

        Paint mPaint = new Paint();
        mPaint.setColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.transparentBlack));
        int left = 0;
        int top = (bitmap.getHeight() - bounds.height()*(noOfLines+1));
        int right = bitmap.getWidth();
        int bottom = bitmap.getHeight();
        canvas.drawRect(left, top, right, bottom, mPaint);

        for (String line: gText.split("\n")) {
            canvas.drawText(line, x, y, paint);
            y += paint.descent() - paint.ascent();
        }

        return bitmap;
    }
}

Answer 2

try this

Paint paint1 = new Paint();
paint1.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
paint1.setAntiAlias(true);
paint1.setColor(Color.BLACK);
paint1.setTextSize(15);


TextView tv = new TextView(context);
tv.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
LinearLayout.LayoutParams llp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);
llp.setMargins(5, 2, 0, 0); // llp.setMargins(left, top, right, bottom);
tv.setLayoutParams(llp);
tv.setTextSize(10);
String text="this is good to see you , i am the king of the team";

tv.setText(text);
tv.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true);
tv.measure(MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(canvas.getWidth(), MeasureSpec.EXACTLY), MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(canvas.getHeight(), MeasureSpec.EXACTLY));
tv.layout(0, 0, tv.getMeasuredWidth(), tv.getMeasuredHeight());
canvas.drawBitmap(tv.getDrawingCache(), 5, 10, paint1);
tv.setDrawingCacheEnabled(false);

Answer 3

I have to add here my version which considers STROKE WIDTH as well.

void drawMultiLineText(String str, float x, float y, Paint paint, Canvas canvas) {
   String[] lines = str.split("\n");
   float txtSize = -paint.ascent() + paint.descent();       

   if (paint.getStyle() == Style.FILL_AND_STROKE || paint.getStyle() == Style.STROKE){
      txtSize += paint.getStrokeWidth(); //add stroke width to the text size
   }
   float lineSpace = txtSize * 0.2f;  //default line spacing

   for (int i = 0; i < lines.length; ++i) {
      canvas.drawText(lines[i], x, y + (txtSize + lineSpace) * i, paint);
   }
}

Answer 4

it will work. i tested

 public Bitmap drawMultilineTextToBitmap(Context gContext,
                                       int gResId,
                                       String gText) {    
      // prepare canvas
      Resources resources = gContext.getResources();
      float scale = resources.getDisplayMetrics().density;
      Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(resources, gResId);

      android.graphics.Bitmap.Config bitmapConfig = bitmap.getConfig();
      // set default bitmap config if none
      if(bitmapConfig == null) {
        bitmapConfig = android.graphics.Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;
      }
      // resource bitmaps are imutable,
      // so we need to convert it to mutable one
      bitmap = bitmap.copy(bitmapConfig, true);

      Canvas canvas = new Canvas(bitmap);

      // new antialiased Paint
      TextPaint paint=new TextPaint(Paint.ANTI_ALIAS_FLAG);
      // text color - #3D3D3D
      paint.setColor(Color.rgb(61, 61, 61));
      // text size in pixels
      paint.setTextSize((int) (14 * scale));
      // text shadow
      paint.setShadowLayer(1f, 0f, 1f, Color.WHITE);

      // set text width to canvas width minus 16dp padding
      int textWidth = canvas.getWidth() - (int) (16 * scale);

      // init StaticLayout for text
      StaticLayout textLayout = new StaticLayout(
        gText, paint, textWidth, Layout.Alignment.ALIGN_CENTER, 1.0f, 0.0f, false);

      // get height of multiline text
      int textHeight = textLayout.getHeight();

      // get position of text's top left corner
      float x = (bitmap.getWidth() - textWidth)/2;
      float y = (bitmap.getHeight() - textHeight)/2;

      // draw text to the Canvas center
      canvas.save();
      canvas.translate(x, y);
      textLayout.draw(canvas);
      canvas.restore();

      return bitmap;
    }

Source : http://www.skoumal.net/en/android-drawing-multiline-text-on-bitmap/

Answer 5

I worked with what I had, which already converted single lines to canvases, and I worked off Lumis's answer, and I ended up with this. The 1.3 and 1.3f are meant as padding between lines, relative to the size of the font.

public static Bitmap getBitmapFromString(final String text, final String font, int textSize, final int textColor)
{
    String lines[] = text.split("\n");
    textSize = getRelX(textSize);  //a method in my app that adjusts the font size relative to the screen size
    Paint paint = new Paint(Paint.ANTI_ALIAS_FLAG);
    paint.setTextSize(textSize);
    paint.setColor(textColor);
    paint.setTextAlign(Paint.Align.LEFT);
    Typeface face = Typeface.createFromAsset(GameActivity.getContext().getAssets(),GameActivity.getContext().getString(R.string.font) + font + GameActivity.getContext().getString(R.string.font_ttf));
    paint.setTypeface(face);
    float baseline = -paint.ascent(); // ascent() is negative
    int width = (int) (paint.measureText(text) + 0.5f); // round
    int height = (int) (baseline + paint.descent() + 0.5f);
    Bitmap image = Bitmap.createBitmap(width, (int)(height * 1.3 * lines.length), Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);
    Canvas canvas = new Canvas(image);
    for (int i = 0; i < lines.length; ++i)
    {
        canvas.drawText(lines[i], 0, baseline + textSize * 1.3f * i, paint);
    }
    return image;
}

Answer 6

This is my solution that is based on @Dave's answer (thanks btw ;-) )

import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Paint;

public class mdCanvas
{
    private Canvas m_canvas;

    public mdCanvas(Canvas canvas)
    {
        m_canvas = canvas;
    }

    public void drawMultiline(String str, int x, int y, Paint paint)
    {
        for (String line: str.split("\n"))
        {
              m_canvas.drawText(line, x, y, paint);
              y += -paint.ascent() + paint.descent();
        }
    }
}

I tried to inherit Canvas, but it doesn't really let you. So this is an in-between class!