NAME

Imager::Font - Font handling for Imager.

SYNOPSIS

  $t1font = Imager::Font->new(file => 'pathtofont.pfb');
  $ttfont = Imager::Font->new(file => 'pathtofont.ttf');

  $blue = Imager::Color->new("#0000FF");
  $font = Imager::Font->new(file  => 'pathtofont.ttf',
                            color => $blue,
                            size  => 30);

  ($neg_width,
   $global_descent,
   $pos_width,
   $global_ascent,
   $descent,
   $ascent) = $font->bounding_box(string=>"Foo");

  $logo = $font->logo(text   => "Slartibartfast Enterprises",
                      size   => 40,
                      border => 5,
                      color  => $green);
  # logo is proposed - doesn't exist yet


  $img->string(font  => $font,
             text  => "Model-XYZ",
             x     => 15,
             y     => 40,
             size  => 40,
             color => $red
             aa    => 1);

  # Documentation in Imager.pm

DESCRIPTION

This module handles creating Font objects used by imager. The module also handles querying fonts for sizes and such. If both T1lib and freetype were avaliable at the time of compilation then Imager should be able to work with both truetype fonts and t1 postscript fonts. To check if Imager is t1 or truetype capable you can use something like this:

  use Imager;
  print "Has truetype"      if $Imager::formats{tt};
  print "Has t1 postscript" if $Imager::formats{t1};

new

This creates a font object to pass to functions that take a font argument.

  $font = Imager::Font->new(file  => 'denmark.ttf',
                            color => $blue,
                            size  => 30,
                            aa    => 1);

This creates a font which is the truetype font denmark.ttf. It's default color is $blue, default size is 30 pixels and it's rendered antialised by default. Imager can see which type of font a file is by looking at the suffix of the filename for the font. A suffix of 'ttf' is taken to mean a truetype font while a suffix of 'pfb' is taken to mean a t1 postscript font. If Imager cannot tell which type a font is you can tell it explicitly by using the type parameter:

  $t1font = Imager::Font->new(file => 'fruitcase', type => 't1');
  $ttfont = Imager::Font->new(file => 'arglebarf', type => 'tt');

If any of the color, size or aa parameters are omitted when calling Imager::Font-new()> the they take the following values:

  color => Imager::Color->new(255, 0, 0, 0);  # this default should be changed
  size  => 15
  aa    => 0

bounding_box Returns the bounding box for the specified string. Example:

  ($neg_width,
   $global_descent,
   $pos_width,
   $global_ascent,
   $descent,
   $ascent) = $font->bounding_box(string => "A Fool");

The $neg_width is the relative start of a the string. In some cases this can be a negative number, in that case the first letter stretches to the left of the starting position that is specified in the string method of the Imager class. <$global_descent> is the how far down the lowest letter of the entire font reaches below the baseline (this is often j). $pos_width is how wide the string from from the starting position is. The total width of the string is $pos_width-$neg_width. $descent and $ascent are the as <$global_descent> and <$global_ascent> except that they are only for the characters that appear in the string. Obviously we can stuff all the results into an array just as well:

  @metrics = $font->bounding_box(string => "testing 123");

Note that extra values may be added, so $metrics[-1] isn't supported. It's possible to translate the output by a passing coordinate to the bounding box method:

  @metrics = $font->bounding_box(string => "testing 123", x=>45, y=>34);

This gives the bounding box as if the string had been put down at (x,y) By giving bounding_box 'canon' as a true value it's possible to measure the space needed for the string:

  @metrics = $font->bounding_box(string=>"testing",size=>15,canon=>1);

This returns tha same values in $metrics[0] and $metrics[1], but:

 $bbox[2] - horizontal space taken by glyphs
 $bbox[3] - vertical space taken by glyphs

string

This is a method of the Imager class but because it's described in here since it belongs to the font routines. Example:

  $img=Imager->new();
  $img=read(file=>"test.jpg");
  $img->string(font=>$t1font,
               text=>"Model-XYZ",
               x=>0,
               y=>40,
               size=>40,
               color=>$red);
  $img->write(file=>"testout.jpg");

This would put a 40 pixel high text in the top left corner of an image. If you measure the actuall pixels it varies since the fonts usually do not use their full height. It seems that the color and size can be specified twice. When a font is created only the actual font specified matters. It his however convenient to store default values in a font, such as color and size. If parameters are passed to the string function they are used instead of the defaults stored in the font.

If string() is called with the channel parameter then the color isn't used and the font is drawn in only one channel of the image. This can be quite handy to create overlays. See the examples for tips about this.

Sometimes it is necessary to know how much space a string takes before rendering it. The bounding_box() method described earlier can be used for that.

logo

This method doesn't exist yet but is under consideration. It would mostly be helpful for generating small tests and such. Its proposed interface is:

  $img = $font->logo(string=>"Plan XYZ", color=>$blue, border=>7);

This would be nice for writing (admittedly multiline) one liners like:

Imager::Font->new(file=>"arial.ttf", color=>$blue, aa=>1) ->string(text=>"Plan XYZ", border=>5) ->write(file=>"xyz.png");

AUTHOR

Arnar M. Hrafnkelsson, addi@umich.edu And a great deal of help from others - see the README for a complete list.

SEE ALSO

Imager(3) http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~addi/perl/Imager/