Text rendering in web games

Text is everywhere in games—scores, dialogue, menus, damage numbers. This tutorial covers different approaches and when to use each.

1) Canvas text basics

The simplest approach:

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

2) Text with outline

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 with shadow

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 font rendering

For pixel art games or consistent cross-platform look:

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) Pre-rendered text for performance

For static text, render once and reuse:

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) Typewriter effect

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) Word-wrapped text

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) Dialogue box 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) Floating damage numbers

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) WebGL text (SDF fonts)

For WebGL games, Signed Distance Field fonts scale cleanly:

// 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

For most 2D Canvas games, bitmap fonts or pre-rendered Canvas text work well.

Related

• Canvas 2D game loop
• Pixel art rendering
• WebGL fundamentals