Text
Renders text to an image with full font, color, alignment, and layout control. Supports system fonts or custom .ttf/.otf files.
Text renders multiple lines in any installed font family and weight, or from a custom .ttf, .otf, or .ttc file, which overrides the family when set. A custom file that holds several faces, such as a .ttc collection or a variable font, lists its faces in Weight, and the one you pick is the one drawn. The Text field also takes tokens and variables: wire a Palette Remap batch of hero.png into Background and {name|upper} captions each frame HERO_RED, HERO_TEAL, HERO_GOLD; {this.label} draws this node’s own label and redraws as soon as you rename it. Tokens that exist only when a file is written, such as {date} or {index}, are drawn as typed. See the captions recipe and the Token Reference.
Placement works as an anchor:
- Position X/Y (50%/50%, the canvas center, by default) sets the point.
- Alignment and Vertical Align decide which part of the text block sits on it.
Rotation turns the text around that same anchor.
Font Size goes up to 4096 px for big display type on large canvases. The slider covers 1 to 1024; type a value to go higher, and the slider handle rests at its end.
With nothing wired to Background, the node renders onto a new canvas of the Width and Height you set. Wire an image in and the text composites straight onto it with a blend mode and opacity, or set Output Mode to Text Only to get the text layer alone at the background’s size.
The Background also takes a texture set or a library. A Map row then heads the Output section and the text draws into that one map: Base Color for a painted label, or Height for lettering embossed into the surface (white text raises it, black sinks it, and a colored label lands at its brightness). The text adds its own coverage, as Shape does, so the set’s Opacity is untouched, and every other map passes through. See Drawing into one map.
Previewing Fonts
Section titled “Previewing Fonts”Open the Font Family list and move down it: the canvas shows your text in the highlighted family, so you compare fonts on your own words. The Weight list does the same for the family’s weights and styles. Nothing changes until you pick:
- Click an entry, or press Enter, to keep it: one undo step, however many fonts you looked at.
- Press Escape, or click outside the list, to close it without a choice. The original font returns and the document is not marked as changed.
- Up and Down move through the list, previewing each entry; the highlight follows whichever you used last, mouse or keys. Type in the Font Family search field to narrow the list, then Down jumps to the first match and Up to the last.
- With the list closed, Ctrl+scroll (Cmd+scroll on macOS) over either box steps to the next or previous entry and keeps it.
Keeping a Font with the Document
Section titled “Keeping a Font with the Document”A document that uses an installed font opens with a different font on a computer that lacks it. Two ways keep the font with the document; both copy the font file into the document’s _data folder (for example Poster.arcb_data) and point the node’s Custom Font at the copy, keeping the weight.
- File > Collect Files lists, under Fonts, every installed font your Text nodes use that is not yet in the
_datafolder, with its style and how many nodes use it. The fonts start checked; uncheck one to leave it out. The checked ones are copied with the other files and their nodes point at the copies, in the same undo step. - For one node, right-click the Font Family field and choose Copy Font into Document Folder. It is one undo step; save to keep the result. Collect Files and Package as .zip then carry the font with the document.
Font licenses often forbid sharing the file, so nothing is copied without your say. A font its maker marks Restricted License starts unchecked in Collect Files, and the menu item asks first. An identical file already in the folder is reused, and two nodes on the same font share one copy. The menu item is unavailable until the document is saved, when the node already uses a font file, and when the family is not installed.
Letters That Reach Past Their Box
Section titled “Letters That Reach Past Their Box”Italic, script, and decorative fonts often draw beyond the space the font reserves for a letter: a swash under its neighbor, a slanted stroke past the end of the line. The dashed box in the Preview is that reserved space, and alignment and the Position handle work from it, but the ink is never cut to the box, whether the text stands alone, is composited over a background, rotated, or moved.
Parameters
Section titled “Parameters”Pins
Text
The string to render. Multi-line input is supported
Text size in pixels. The slider covers 1 to 1024; type a value to go up to 4096
Text color
Text gray level in Grayscale mode, from black to white; it also sets the text's opacity, so black is transparent. In a 32-bit document it runs from 0 to 1
Font
System font family (dynamic list from installed fonts)
The face to draw: from the Font Family, or from the Custom Font file when it holds several
Path to a .ttf, .otf or .ttc font file. Overrides family selection when set
Font hinting mode
Layout
Horizontal alignment of the text block relative to the Position X anchor, not the canvas edges. Left: the anchor is the block's left edge. Center: the anchor is its center. Right: the anchor is its right edge
Vertical alignment of the text block relative to the Position Y anchor, not the canvas edges. Top: the anchor is the block's top edge. Middle: the anchor is its center. Bottom: the anchor is its bottom edge
Horizontal anchor the text block is placed against. Defaults to percent mode at 50% (canvas center); 0% is the left edge, 100% the right. Alignment decides which part of the block sits on this anchor
Vertical anchor the text block is placed against. Defaults to percent mode at 50% (canvas middle); 0% is the top edge, 100% the bottom (so bottom-of-canvas text uses 100 in percent mode). Vertical Align decides which part of the block sits on this anchor
Rotate text around the anchor point. Values are in degrees (-360 to 360)
Multiplier for vertical line spacing
Extra horizontal spacing between characters
Output
In Composite mode with a background connected, the output follows the background instead. A grayscale output may be re-promoted to color by a downstream color node
Output width in pixels
Output height in pixels
Which map of the texture set this node edits. Every other map passes through unchanged. Shown while a texture set or a library is wired
Blend mode when compositing over background
Composite opacity
Usage Tips
Section titled “Usage Tips”- Use a custom font file, or copy the installed font into the document folder, for consistent results across machines, since installed system fonts differ.
- For a watermark, composite onto the background with Blend Mode set to Multiply and lower the Opacity.
- Hinting None keeps large display text smooth; Full gives the crispest small text.
- Set Color Mode to Grayscale to output the text’s coverage as a single-channel image, useful as a text mask. With a background wired in Composite mode, the output follows the background’s channels instead, so Color Mode shows as disabled. The Gray Level also sets the text’s opacity, so black is transparent and it stays between 0 and 1; see Gray levels keep full precision.
- To set text on a curve or around a badge, feed the Text output into Path Warp.