font

font text, x, y, [transcolor], [char width], [char height], [fixed=false], [scale=1] -> text width

Parameters

text : the string to be printed
x : x coordinate of print position
y : y coordinate of print position
transcolor : the palette index to use for transparency
char width : distance between characters, in pixels
char height : vertical distance between characters, in pixels, when printing multi-line text.
fixed : indicates whether the font is fixed width (defaults to false ie variable width)
scale : font scaling (defaults to 1)

Returns

text width : returns the width of the rendered text in pixels

Description

This function will draw text to the screen using the foreground spritesheet as the font. Sprite #256 is used for ASCII code 0, #257 for code 1 and so on. The character 'A' has the ASCII code 65 so will be drawn using the sprite with sprite #321 (256+65). See the example below or check out the In-Browser Demo

To simply print text to the screen using the system font, please see print
To print to the console, please see trace

Example

-- title:  Font Demo
-- author: PaulR
-- desc:   Shows the working of font()
-- script: lua


function TIC()
	cls()
	-- The # character is ascii code 35
	-- so the sprite with ID 256+35 (#291)
	-- will be used to draw that character
	
	-- A and B have ascii codes 65 and 66.
	-- Sprites 256+65 (#321) and 256+66
	-- (#322) will be used to draw those
	-- letters
	
	font('#AB',20,20,2,9,9,true,3)
	
	-- The above prints '#AB' at position
	-- 20,20. The sprites use color 2 as
	-- transparency colorkey, are drawn 9
	-- pixels apart with fixed width and 
	-- scaled up by a factor of 3
end