Textdarstellung in Web-Spielen

Text ist in Spielen überall: Punktestände, Dialoge, Menüs, Schadenszahlen. Dieses Tutorial zeigt verschiedene Ansätze und wann welcher passt.

1) Grundlagen von Canvas-Text

Der einfachste Weg:

ctx.font = '24px Arial'
ctx.fillStyle = '#ffffff'
ctx.textAlign = 'center'
ctx.textBaseline = 'middle'
ctx.fillText('Score: 1000', canvas.width / 2, 50)

Brauchst du für Überschriften und HUD-Beschriftungen engere oder weitere Abstände, unterstützt der Canvas-Kontext inzwischen letterSpacing und wordSpacing direkt. Beide nehmen CSS-Längenangaben und haben 2025 browserübergreifend Baseline erreicht, du musst Glyphen also nicht mehr einzeln zeichnen, um Kerning nachzubauen:

ctx.font = '24px sans-serif'
ctx.letterSpacing = '2px'
ctx.wordSpacing = '6px'
ctx.fillText('GAME OVER', 100, 100)

Setz sie danach auf '0px' zurück, denn sie bleiben am Kontext hängen wie font und fillStyle.

2) Text mit Umriss

function drawTextWithOutline(ctx, text, x, y, fillColor, outlineColor, outlineWidth = 2) {
  ctx.font = '24px Arial'
  ctx.textAlign = 'center'
  ctx.textBaseline = 'middle'
  
  ctx.strokeStyle = outlineColor
  ctx.lineWidth = outlineWidth
  ctx.strokeText(text, x, y)
  
  ctx.fillStyle = fillColor
  ctx.fillText(text, x, y)
}

drawTextWithOutline(ctx, 'GAME OVER', 400, 300, '#fff', '#000', 3)

3) Text mit Schatten

function drawTextWithShadow(ctx, text, x, y, color, shadowOffset = 2) {
  ctx.font = '32px sans-serif'
  ctx.textAlign = 'left'
  ctx.textBaseline = 'top'
  
  // Shadow
  ctx.fillStyle = 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5)'
  ctx.fillText(text, x + shadowOffset, y + shadowOffset)
  
  // Main text
  ctx.fillStyle = color
  ctx.fillText(text, x, y)
}

4) Bitmap-Fonts rendern

Für Pixel-Art-Spiele oder ein plattformübergreifend gleiches Aussehen:

class BitmapFont {
  constructor(image, charWidth, charHeight, chars) {
    this.image = image
    this.charWidth = charWidth
    this.charHeight = charHeight
    this.chars = chars
  }
  
  draw(ctx, text, x, y, scale = 1) {
    const w = this.charWidth * scale
    const h = this.charHeight * scale
    
    for (let i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
      const charIndex = this.chars.indexOf(text[i].toUpperCase())
      if (charIndex === -1) continue
      
      const sx = (charIndex % 16) * this.charWidth
      const sy = Math.floor(charIndex / 16) * this.charHeight
      
      ctx.drawImage(
        this.image,
        sx, sy, this.charWidth, this.charHeight,
        Math.round(x + i * w), Math.round(y), w, h
      )
    }
  }
  
  measureText(text, scale = 1) {
    return text.length * this.charWidth * scale
  }
}

// Usage
const font = new BitmapFont(fontImage, 8, 8, 
  'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789.,!?-+:; '
)
font.draw(ctx, 'SCORE: 1000', 10, 10, 2)

5) Vorgerenderter Text für Performance

Bei statischem Text einmal rendern und wiederverwenden:

function createTextImage(text, font, color) {
  const tempCanvas = document.createElement('canvas')
  const tempCtx = tempCanvas.getContext('2d')
  
  tempCtx.font = font
  const metrics = tempCtx.measureText(text)
  
  tempCanvas.width = Math.ceil(metrics.width)
  tempCanvas.height = parseInt(font) * 1.5
  
  tempCtx.font = font
  tempCtx.fillStyle = color
  tempCtx.textBaseline = 'top'
  tempCtx.fillText(text, 0, 0)
  
  return tempCanvas
}

// Create once
const titleImage = createTextImage('MY GAME', '48px Impact', '#fff')

// Draw many times (fast)
ctx.drawImage(titleImage, x, y)

6) Schreibmaschineneffekt

class TypewriterText {
  constructor(text, x, y, charsPerSecond = 20) {
    this.fullText = text
    this.x = x
    this.y = y
    this.speed = 1 / charsPerSecond
    this.timer = 0
    this.charIndex = 0
  }
  
  update(dt) {
    this.timer += dt
    while (this.timer >= this.speed && this.charIndex < this.fullText.length) {
      this.charIndex++
      this.timer -= this.speed
    }
  }
  
  draw(ctx) {
    ctx.font = '18px monospace'
    ctx.fillStyle = '#fff'
    ctx.fillText(this.fullText.slice(0, this.charIndex), this.x, this.y)
  }
  
  isComplete() {
    return this.charIndex >= this.fullText.length
  }
  
  skip() {
    this.charIndex = this.fullText.length
  }
}

7) Text mit Zeilenumbruch

function wrapText(ctx, text, maxWidth) {
  const words = text.split(' ')
  const lines = []
  let currentLine = ''
  
  for (const word of words) {
    const testLine = currentLine ? currentLine + ' ' + word : word
    const metrics = ctx.measureText(testLine)
    
    if (metrics.width > maxWidth && currentLine) {
      lines.push(currentLine)
      currentLine = word
    } else {
      currentLine = testLine
    }
  }
  
  if (currentLine) lines.push(currentLine)
  return lines
}

function drawWrappedText(ctx, text, x, y, maxWidth, lineHeight) {
  const lines = wrapText(ctx, text, maxWidth)
  for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
    ctx.fillText(lines[i], x, y + i * lineHeight)
  }
}

8) Ein Dialogbox-System

class DialogueBox {
  constructor(x, y, width, height) {
    this.x = x
    this.y = y
    this.width = width
    this.height = height
    this.padding = 16
    this.lineHeight = 24
    this.text = ''
    this.displayedChars = 0
    this.charsPerSecond = 30
    this.timer = 0
  }
  
  show(text) {
    this.text = text
    this.displayedChars = 0
    this.timer = 0
  }
  
  update(dt) {
    if (this.displayedChars < this.text.length) {
      this.timer += dt
      const charsToAdd = Math.floor(this.timer * this.charsPerSecond)
      this.displayedChars = Math.min(this.displayedChars + charsToAdd, this.text.length)
      this.timer = this.timer % (1 / this.charsPerSecond)
    }
  }
  
  skip() {
    this.displayedChars = this.text.length
  }
  
  isComplete() {
    return this.displayedChars >= this.text.length
  }
  
  draw(ctx) {
    // Box background
    ctx.fillStyle = 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)'
    ctx.fillRect(this.x, this.y, this.width, this.height)
    
    // Border
    ctx.strokeStyle = '#fff'
    ctx.lineWidth = 2
    ctx.strokeRect(this.x, this.y, this.width, this.height)
    
    // Text
    ctx.font = '18px sans-serif'
    ctx.fillStyle = '#fff'
    ctx.textBaseline = 'top'
    
    const displayText = this.text.slice(0, this.displayedChars)
    const maxWidth = this.width - this.padding * 2
    const lines = wrapText(ctx, displayText, maxWidth)
    
    for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
      ctx.fillText(
        lines[i],
        this.x + this.padding,
        this.y + this.padding + i * this.lineHeight
      )
    }
    
    // Continue indicator
    if (this.isComplete()) {
      ctx.fillText('▼', this.x + this.width - 24, this.y + this.height - 24)
    }
  }
}

9) Aufsteigende Schadenszahlen

class FloatingText {
  constructor(text, x, y, color = '#fff') {
    this.text = text
    this.x = x
    this.y = y
    this.color = color
    this.vy = -60
    this.lifetime = 1
    this.age = 0
  }
  
  update(dt) {
    this.y += this.vy * dt
    this.vy *= 0.95
    this.age += dt
  }
  
  draw(ctx) {
    const alpha = 1 - (this.age / this.lifetime)
    ctx.font = 'bold 20px sans-serif'
    ctx.textAlign = 'center'
    ctx.fillStyle = this.color
    ctx.globalAlpha = alpha
    ctx.fillText(this.text, Math.round(this.x), Math.round(this.y))
    ctx.globalAlpha = 1
  }
  
  isExpired() {
    return this.age >= this.lifetime
  }
}

// Manager
const floatingTexts = []

function spawnDamageNumber(damage, x, y) {
  const color = damage > 50 ? '#ff4444' : '#ffff44'
  floatingTexts.push(new FloatingText(damage.toString(), x, y, color))
}

function updateFloatingTexts(dt) {
  for (let i = floatingTexts.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    floatingTexts[i].update(dt)
    if (floatingTexts[i].isExpired()) {
      floatingTexts.splice(i, 1)
    }
  }
}

10) Text in WebGL (SDF-Fonts)

Für WebGL-Spiele skalieren Signed-Distance-Field-Fonts sauber:

// SDF shader fragment
const sdfFragmentShader = `
  precision mediump float;
  
  uniform sampler2D u_texture;
  uniform vec4 u_color;
  varying vec2 v_texCoord;
  
  void main() {
    float distance = texture2D(u_texture, v_texCoord).a;
    float alpha = smoothstep(0.4, 0.6, distance);
    gl_FragColor = vec4(u_color.rgb, u_color.a * alpha);
  }
`

// Libraries like msdf-bmfont-xml can generate SDF font atlases

Speziell für three.js-Szenen ist troika-three-text eine gute Option. Statt einen Atlas vorzubacken, parst es .ttf-, .otf- und .woff-Dateien und erzeugt die SDF-Glyphen im laufenden Betrieb in einem Web Worker, und es kümmert sich um Kerning, Ligaturen und rechtsläufige Schriften.

Für die meisten 2D-Canvas-Spiele funktionieren Bitmap-Fonts oder vorgerenderter Canvas-Text gut.

Verwandt

• Canvas-2D-Spielschleife
• Pixel-Art-Rendering
• WebGL-Grundlagen
• Responsives Spiel-Canvas — Text mit Canvas-Auflösung und DPI skalieren
• Wo du kostenlose Game-Assets findest — Quellen für Schriften und UI-Assets