font

font text, x, y, colorkey, char width, char height, fixed, scale -> width

Parameters:

text : any string to be printed to the screen
x : x coordinate where to print the text
y : y coordinate where to print the text
colorkey : the colorkey to use as transparency.
char width : Width of characters to use for spacing, in pixels
char height : Height of characters to use for multiple line spacing, in pixels.
fixed : a flag indicating whether to fix the width of the characters, by default is not fixed
scale : font scaling

Output:

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

Description:

This function will draw text to the screen using sprites from the foreground sprite-sheet for the font. More specifically, sprite ID#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 ID#321 (256+65). See the example below or check out the In-Browser Demo

To simply print text to the screen using the default font, see print.
To print to the console, refer to trace

Example:

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