Text

This guide will show you how to draw text with the ShapeBatch.

The ShapeBatch implements the FontStashSharp API. FontStashSharp comes with the library, there is nothing extra to install. The font texture uses a separate texture slot which makes it possible to draw text along with shapes without breaking the batch.

Load a font

Put a ttf font file in your Content folder and make sure it gets copied to the output directory. In your game’s LoadContent(), create a FontSystem and add the font to it:

using FontStashSharp;

protected override void LoadContent() {
    _sb = new ShapeBatch(GraphicsDevice);

    _fontSystem = new FontSystem();
    _fontSystem.AddFont(TitleContainer.OpenStream($"{Content.RootDirectory}/my-font.ttf"));
}

ShapeBatch _sb;
FontSystem _fontSystem;

You can add multiple fonts to the same FontSystem. The extra fonts are used as fallbacks when a character is missing from the first one.

Draw text

In your draw loop, get a font at the size that you want and draw it between Begin and End:

protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) {
    GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Black);

    var font = _fontSystem.GetFont(24);

    _sb.Begin();
    _sb.FillCircle(new Vector2(120, 120), 75, new Color(96, 165, 250));
    _sb.DrawString(font, "Hello!", new Vector2(100, 100), Color.White);
    _sb.End();

    base.Draw(gameTime);
}

Shapes and text are drawn in the order that you call them. DrawString also takes optional parameters for rotation, origin, scale, character spacing, line spacing, text styles, and effects.

Follow up

Textures, a guide that shows how to draw textures with the ShapeBatch.