VGlyph

Note: VGlyph is in active development (v0.1.0). The API is stabilizing but may change.

A high-performance text rendering engine for the V programming language, built on Pango, HarfBuzz, FreeType, and Sokol.

VGlyph provides production-grade text layout—including bidirectional text, complex scripts, and rich text markup—while remaining easy to use.

📚 Documentation

• API Reference: Detailed API documentation for TextSystem, TextConfig, etc.
• Guides: Rich Text Markup, Font Loading, and Performance tips.
• Accessibility: Comprehensive guide to using vglyph with screen readers.
• Architecture: High-level design and data flow.

✨ Features

• Complex Layout: Proper support for Arabic, Hebrew, and advanced typography via Pango.
• Advanced Typography: Support for OpenType features (small caps, old-style nums) and custom tab stops.
• Rich Text: Use <span> tags for colors, fonts, and styles within a single string.
• High Performance: Automatic layout caching (10,000+ entry LRU cache), batched GPU rendering, and dynamic glyph atlas resizing.
• Local Fonts: Load .ttf / .otf files directly from your assets folder.
• Hit Testing: Efficiently retrieve character indices or bounding boxes from mouse coordinates.
• Font Fallback: Automatic multilingual support with robust font fallback for emojis and complex scripts.
• Text Decorations: Built-in underline and strikethrough support via TextConfig.
• High-DPI Support: Automatic DPI scaling for crisp rendering on all displays.
• LCD Subpixel Antialiasing: Exploits LCD subpixel structure for sharper text rendering, combined with Subpixel Positioning for smooth animations.
• Variable Fonts: Support for variable axes like weight (wght) and width (wdth) for fluid typography animations.
• Text Measurement: Query text dimensions (text_width, text_height, font_height) for precise layout calculations.
• Lists: Built-in support for hanging indents to easily create unordered and ordered lists with custom markers.
• Accessibility: Automatic integration with macOS VoiceOver (and future screen readers) via a simple API switch.

📦 Prerequisites

You must have Pango and FreeType installed.

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install pango freetype pkg-config

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install libpango1.0-dev libfreetype6-dev pkg-config
# For comprehensive emoji and multilingual support
sudo apt-get install fonts-noto fonts-noto-color-emoji

Windows (vcpkg or MSYS2)

# vcpkg
vcpkg install pango freetype

# Or MSYS2
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-pango mingw-w64-x86_64-freetype

🚀 Quickstart

Use the TextSystem for the easiest integration. It handles initialization, caching, and rendering.

import vglyph
import gg

struct App {
mut:
	gg &gg.Context        = unsafe { nil }
	ts &vglyph.TextSystem = unsafe { nil }
}

fn main() {
	mut app := &App{}
	app.gg = gg.new_context(
		bg_color:     gg.white
		width:        800
		height:       600
		window_title: 'VGlyph Demo'
		init_fn:      init
		frame_fn:     frame
		user_data:    app
	)
	app.gg.run()
}

fn init(mut app App) {
	// 1. Initialize TextSystem
	app.ts = vglyph.new_text_system(mut app.gg) or { panic(err) }
}

fn frame(mut app App) {
	app.gg.begin()

	// 2. Draw Text
	// Coordinates are (x, y)
	app.ts.draw_text(100, 100, 'Hello VGlyph!', vglyph.TextConfig{
		style: vglyph.TextStyle{
			font_name: 'Sans Bold 30'
			color:     gg.black
		}
	}) or { println(err) }

	app.gg.end()

	// 3. Commit Texture Uploads (Important!)
	app.ts.commit()
}

📖 Examples

The examples/ directory contains several demonstrations:

• demo.v - Multilingual text, wrapping, and rich text markup
• emoji_demo.v - Emoji and color bitmap rendering
• editor_demo.v - Interactive text editing with cursor placement
• typography_demo.v - OpenType features and custom tab stops
• variable_font_demo.v - Variable font animation (weight/width axes)
• list_demo.v - Unordered and ordered lists with hanging indents
• stress_demo.v - Performance testing with thousands of glyphs

Run any example with:

v run examples/demo.v

🔧 Common Operations

Measuring Text

width := app.ts.text_width('Hello', cfg)!
height := app.ts.text_height('Hello', cfg)!
font_h := app.ts.font_height(cfg)

Font Introspection

// Check which font Pango actually resolved
actual_font := app.ts.resolve_font_name('Sans Bold 30')
println('Using font: ${actual_font}')

Advanced Layout Access

// Get layout for hit testing or custom rendering
layout := app.ts.layout_text('Click me', cfg)!
char_idx := layout.hit_test(mouse_x, mouse_y)
rects := layout.get_selection_rects(0, 5)

Rich Text API

// Import vglyph
rt := vglyph.RichText{
    runs: [
        vglyph.StyleRun{ text: 'Hello ' },
        vglyph.StyleRun{
            text: 'World', 
            style: vglyph.TextStyle{
                color: gg.red, 
                underline: true
            } 
        }
    ]
}

layout := app.ts.layout_rich_text(rt, cfg)!
app.ts.draw_layout(layout, x, y)

🔧 Troubleshooting

Text appears blurry or incorrectly sized

Ensure you're calling commit() at the end of each frame. Without it, new glyphs won't upload to the GPU.

Missing characters (tofu/boxes)

Install comprehensive fallback fonts:

• macOS: System fonts should cover most cases
• Linux: sudo apt-get install fonts-noto fonts-noto-color-emoji
• Windows: Install Noto fonts from Google Fonts

Font not loading from file

Use the font's family name, not the filename. Check with:

println(app.ts.resolve_font_name('YourFont'))

Performance issues with dynamic text

TextSystem automatically caches layouts. If text changes every frame (e.g., FPS counter), consider using a monospace font and fixed-width formatting to minimize layout variations.

License

MIT