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QFontMetrics

Synopsis

Functions

Detailed Description

The PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics class provides font metrics information.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics functions calculate the size of characters and strings for a given font. There are three ways you can create a PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics object:

Once created, the object provides functions to access the individual metrics of the font, its characters, and for strings rendered in the font.

There are several functions that operate on the font: PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.ascent() , PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.descent() , PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.height() , PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.leading() and PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.lineSpacing() return the basic size properties of the font. The PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.underlinePos() , PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.overlinePos() , PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.strikeOutPos() and PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.lineWidth() functions, return the properties of the line that underlines, overlines or strikes out the characters. These functions are all fast.

There are also some functions that operate on the set of glyphs in the font: PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.minLeftBearing() , PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.minRightBearing() and PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.maxWidth() . These are by necessity slow, and we recommend avoiding them if possible.

For each character, you can get its PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() , PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.leftBearing() and PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.rightBearing() and find out whether it is in the font using PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.inFont() . You can also treat the character as a string, and use the string functions on it.

The string functions include PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() , to return the width of a string in pixels (or points, for a printer), PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.boundingRect() , to return a rectangle large enough to contain the rendered string, and PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.size() , to return the size of that rectangle.

Example:

font = QFont("times", 24)
fm = QFontMetrics(font)
pixelsWide = fm.width("What's the width of this text?")
pixelsHigh = fm.height()
class PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics(arg__1)
class PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics(arg__1, pd)
class PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics(arg__1)
Parameters:

Constructs a font metrics object for font .

The font metrics will be compatible with the paintdevice used to create font .

The font metrics object holds the information for the font that is passed in the constructor at the time it is created, and is not updated if the font’s attributes are changed later.

Use PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics (const PySide.QtGui.QFont &, PySide.QtGui.QPaintDevice *) to get the font metrics that are compatible with a certain paint device.

Constructs a font metrics object for font and paintdevice .

The font metrics will be compatible with the paintdevice passed. If the paintdevice is 0, the metrics will be screen-compatible, ie. the metrics you get if you use the font for drawing text on a widgets or pixmaps , not on a PySide.QtGui.QPicture or PySide.QtGui.QPrinter .

The font metrics object holds the information for the font that is passed in the constructor at the time it is created, and is not updated if the font’s attributes are changed later.

Constructs a copy of fm .

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.ascent()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the ascent of the font.

The ascent of a font is the distance from the baseline to the highest position characters extend to. In practice, some font designers break this rule, e.g. when they put more than one accent on top of a character, or to accommodate an unusual character in an exotic language, so it is possible (though rare) that this value will be too small.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.averageCharWidth()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the average width of glyphs in the font.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.boundingRect(r, flags, text[, tabstops=0[, tabarray=0]])
Parameters:
  • rPySide.QtCore.QRect
  • flagsPySide.QtCore.int
  • text – unicode
  • tabstopsPySide.QtCore.int
  • tabarrayPySide.QtCore.int
Return type:

PySide.QtCore.QRect

This is an overloaded function.

Returns the bounding rectangle of the characters in the string specified by text , which is the set of pixels the text would cover if drawn at (0, 0). The drawing, and hence the bounding rectangle, is constrained to the rectangle rect .

The flags argument is the bitwise OR of the following flags:

  • Qt.AlignLeft aligns to the left border, except for Arabic and Hebrew where it aligns to the right.
  • Qt.AlignRight aligns to the right border, except for Arabic and Hebrew where it aligns to the left.
  • Qt.AlignJustify produces justified text.
  • Qt.AlignHCenter aligns horizontally centered.
  • Qt.AlignTop aligns to the top border.
  • Qt.AlignBottom aligns to the bottom border.
  • Qt.AlignVCenter aligns vertically centered
  • Qt.AlignCenter (== Qt::AlignHCenter | Qt::AlignVCenter)
  • Qt.TextSingleLine ignores newline characters in the text.
  • Qt.TextExpandTabs expands tabs (see below)
  • Qt.TextShowMnemonic interprets “&x” as x; i.e., underlined.
  • Qt.TextWordWrap breaks the text to fit the rectangle.

Qt.Horizontal alignment defaults to Qt.AlignLeft and vertical alignment defaults to Qt.AlignTop .

If several of the horizontal or several of the vertical alignment flags are set, the resulting alignment is undefined.

If Qt.TextExpandTabs is set in flags , then: if tabArray is non-null, it specifies a 0-terminated sequence of pixel-positions for tabs; otherwise if tabStops is non-zero, it is used as the tab spacing (in pixels).

Note that the bounding rectangle may extend to the left of (0, 0), e.g. for italicized fonts, and that the text output may cover all pixels in the bounding rectangle.

Newline characters are processed as linebreaks.

Despite the different actual character heights, the heights of the bounding rectangles of “Yes” and “yes” are the same.

The bounding rectangle returned by this function is somewhat larger than that calculated by the simpler PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.boundingRect() function. This function uses the maximum left and right font bearings as is necessary for multi-line text to align correctly. Also, fontHeight() and PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.lineSpacing() are used to calculate the height, rather than individual character heights.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.boundingRect(text)
Parameters:text – unicode
Return type:PySide.QtCore.QRect

Returns the bounding rectangle of the characters in the string specified by text . The bounding rectangle always covers at least the set of pixels the text would cover if drawn at (0, 0).

Note that the bounding rectangle may extend to the left of (0, 0), e.g. for italicized fonts, and that the width of the returned rectangle might be different than what the PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() method returns.

If you want to know the advance width of the string (to layout a set of strings next to each other), use PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() instead.

Newline characters are processed as normal characters, not as linebreaks.

The height of the bounding rectangle is at least as large as the value returned by PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.height() .

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.boundingRect(x, y, w, h, flags, text[, tabstops=0[, tabarray=0]])
Parameters:
  • xPySide.QtCore.int
  • yPySide.QtCore.int
  • wPySide.QtCore.int
  • hPySide.QtCore.int
  • flagsPySide.QtCore.int
  • text – unicode
  • tabstopsPySide.QtCore.int
  • tabarrayPySide.QtCore.int
Return type:

PySide.QtCore.QRect

This is an overloaded function.

Returns the bounding rectangle for the given text within the rectangle specified by the x and y coordinates, width , and height .

If Qt.TextExpandTabs is set in flags and tabArray is non-null, it specifies a 0-terminated sequence of pixel-positions for tabs; otherwise, if tabStops is non-zero, it is used as the tab spacing (in pixels).

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.boundingRectChar(arg__1)
Parameters:arg__1PySide.QtCore.QChar
Return type:PySide.QtCore.QRect

Returns the rectangle that is covered by ink if character ch were to be drawn at the origin of the coordinate system.

Note that the bounding rectangle may extend to the left of (0, 0) (e.g., for italicized fonts), and that the text output may cover all pixels in the bounding rectangle. For a space character the rectangle will usually be empty.

Note that the rectangle usually extends both above and below the base line.

Warning

The width of the returned rectangle is not the advance width of the character. Use boundingRect(const PySide.QtCore.QString &) or PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() instead.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.charWidth(str, pos)
Parameters:
  • str – unicode
  • posPySide.QtCore.int
Return type:

PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the width of the character at position pos in the string text .

The whole string is needed, as the glyph drawn may change depending on the context (the letter before and after the current one) for some languages (e.g. Arabic).

This function also takes non spacing marks and ligatures into account.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.descent()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the descent of the font.

The descent is the distance from the base line to the lowest point characters extend to. In practice, some font designers break this rule, e.g. to accommodate an unusual character in an exotic language, so it is possible (though rare) that this value will be too small.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.elidedText(text, mode, width[, flags=0])
Parameters:
  • text – unicode
  • modePySide.QtCore.Qt.TextElideMode
  • widthPySide.QtCore.int
  • flagsPySide.QtCore.int
Return type:

unicode

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.height()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the height of the font.

This is always equal to PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.ascent() + PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.descent() +1 (the 1 is for the base line).

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.inFont(arg__1)
Parameters:arg__1PySide.QtCore.QChar
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

Returns true if character ch is a valid character in the font; otherwise returns false.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.inFontUcs4(ucs4)
Parameters:ucs4PySide.QtCore.uint
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

Returns true if the given character encoded in UCS-4/UTF-32 is a valid character in the font; otherwise returns false.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.leading()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the leading of the font.

This is the natural inter-line spacing.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.leftBearing(arg__1)
Parameters:arg__1PySide.QtCore.QChar
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the left bearing of character ch in the font.

The left bearing is the right-ward distance of the left-most pixel of the character from the logical origin of the character. This value is negative if the pixels of the character extend to the left of the logical origin.

See width( PySide.QtCore.QChar ) for a graphical description of this metric.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.lineSpacing()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the distance from one base line to the next.

This value is always equal to PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.leading() + PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.height() .

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.lineWidth()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the width of the underline and strikeout lines, adjusted for the point size of the font.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.maxWidth()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the width of the widest character in the font.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.minLeftBearing()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the minimum left bearing of the font.

This is the smallest leftBearing(char) of all characters in the font.

Note that this function can be very slow if the font is large.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.minRightBearing()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the minimum right bearing of the font.

This is the smallest rightBearing(char) of all characters in the font.

Note that this function can be very slow if the font is large.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.__ne__(other)
Parameters:otherPySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

Returns true if other is not equal to this object; otherwise returns false.

Two font metrics are considered equal if they were constructed from the same PySide.QtGui.QFont and the paint devices they were constructed for are considered compatible.

See also

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.operator==()

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.__eq__(other)
Parameters:otherPySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics
Return type:PySide.QtCore.bool

This is an overloaded function.

Returns true if other is equal to this object; otherwise returns false.

Two font metrics are considered equal if they were constructed from the same PySide.QtGui.QFont and the paint devices they were constructed for are considered compatible.

See also

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.operator!=()

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.overlinePos()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the distance from the base line to where an overline should be drawn.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.rightBearing(arg__1)
Parameters:arg__1PySide.QtCore.QChar
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the right bearing of character ch in the font.

The right bearing is the left-ward distance of the right-most pixel of the character from the logical origin of a subsequent character. This value is negative if the pixels of the character extend to the right of the PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() of the character.

See PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() for a graphical description of this metric.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.size(flags, str[, tabstops=0[, tabarray=0]])
Parameters:
  • flagsPySide.QtCore.int
  • str – unicode
  • tabstopsPySide.QtCore.int
  • tabarrayPySide.QtCore.int
Return type:

PySide.QtCore.QSize

Returns the size in pixels of text .

The flags argument is the bitwise OR of the following flags:

  • Qt.TextSingleLine ignores newline characters.
  • Qt.TextExpandTabs expands tabs (see below)
  • Qt.TextShowMnemonic interprets “&x” as x; i.e., underlined.
  • Qt::TextWordBreak breaks the text to fit the rectangle.

If Qt.TextExpandTabs is set in flags , then: if tabArray is non-null, it specifies a 0-terminated sequence of pixel-positions for tabs; otherwise if tabStops is non-zero, it is used as the tab spacing (in pixels).

Newline characters are processed as linebreaks.

Despite the different actual character heights, the heights of the bounding rectangles of “Yes” and “yes” are the same.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.strikeOutPos()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the distance from the base line to where the strikeout line should be drawn.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.tightBoundingRect(text)
Parameters:text – unicode
Return type:PySide.QtCore.QRect

Returns a tight bounding rectangle around the characters in the string specified by text . The bounding rectangle always covers at least the set of pixels the text would cover if drawn at (0, 0).

Note that the bounding rectangle may extend to the left of (0, 0), e.g. for italicized fonts, and that the width of the returned rectangle might be different than what the PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() method returns.

If you want to know the advance width of the string (to layout a set of strings next to each other), use PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() instead.

Newline characters are processed as normal characters, not as linebreaks.

Warning

Calling this method is very slow on Windows.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.underlinePos()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the distance from the base line to where an underscore should be drawn.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width(arg__1, len, flags)
Parameters:
  • arg__1 – unicode
  • lenPySide.QtCore.int
  • flagsPySide.QtCore.int
Return type:

PySide.QtCore.int

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width(arg__1[, len=-1])
Parameters:
  • arg__1 – unicode
  • lenPySide.QtCore.int
Return type:

PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the width in pixels of the first len characters of text . If len is negative (the default), the entire string is used.

Note that this value is not equal to PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.boundingRect() . PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() ; PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.boundingRect() returns a rectangle describing the pixels this string will cover whereas PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() returns the distance to where the next string should be drawn.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.widthChar(arg__1)
Parameters:arg__1PySide.QtCore.QChar
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

This is an overloaded function.

../../_images/bearings.png

Returns the logical width of character ch in pixels. This is a distance appropriate for drawing a subsequent character after ch .

Some of the metrics are described in the image to the right. The central dark rectangles cover the logical PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.width() of each character. The outer pale rectangles cover the PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.leftBearing() and PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.rightBearing() of each character. Notice that the bearings of “f” in this particular font are both negative, while the bearings of “o” are both positive.

Warning

This function will produce incorrect results for Arabic characters or non-spacing marks in the middle of a string, as the glyph shaping and positioning of marks that happens when processing strings cannot be taken into account. When implementing an interactive text control, use PySide.QtGui.QTextLayout instead.

PySide.QtGui.QFontMetrics.xHeight()
Return type:PySide.QtCore.int

Returns the ‘x’ height of the font. This is often but not always the same as the height of the character ‘x’.