HTML5 canvas ctx.fillText won't do line breaks?

Question

I can\'t seem to be able to add text to a canvas if the text includes \"\\n\". I mean, the line breaks do not show/work.

ctxPaint.fillText(\"s  ome \\n \\\\n         


        

Answer 1

If you just want to take care of the newline chars in the text you could simulate it by splitting the text at the newlines and calling multiple times the fillText()

Something like http://jsfiddle.net/BaG4J/1/

var c = document.getElementById('c').getContext('2d');
c.font = '11px Courier';
    console.log(c);
var txt = 'line 1\nline 2\nthird line..';
var x = 30;
var y = 30;
var lineheight = 15;
var lines = txt.split('\n');

for (var i = 0; i

canvas{background-color:#ccc;}

---

I just made a wrapping proof of concept (absolute wrap at specified width. No handling words breaking, yet)
example at http://jsfiddle.net/BaG4J/2/

var c = document.getElementById('c').getContext('2d');
c.font = '11px Courier';

var txt = 'this is a very long text to print';

printAt(c, txt, 10, 20, 15, 90 );


function printAt( context , text, x, y, lineHeight, fitWidth)
{
    fitWidth = fitWidth || 0;
    
    if (fitWidth <= 0)
    {
         context.fillText( text, x, y );
        return;
    }
    
    for (var idx = 1; idx <= text.length; idx++)
    {
        var str = text.substr(0, idx);
        console.log(str, context.measureText(str).width, fitWidth);
        if (context.measureText(str).width > fitWidth)
        {
            context.fillText( text.substr(0, idx-1), x, y );
            printAt(context, text.substr(idx-1), x, y + lineHeight, lineHeight,  fitWidth);
            return;
        }
    }
    context.fillText( text, x, y );
}

canvas{background-color:#ccc;}

---

And a word-wrapping (breaking at spaces) proof of concept.
example at http://jsfiddle.net/BaG4J/5/

var c = document.getElementById('c').getContext('2d');
c.font = '11px Courier';

var txt = 'this is a very long text. Some more to print!';

printAtWordWrap(c, txt, 10, 20, 15, 90 );


function printAtWordWrap( context , text, x, y, lineHeight, fitWidth)
{
    fitWidth = fitWidth || 0;
    
    if (fitWidth <= 0)
    {
        context.fillText( text, x, y );
        return;
    }
    var words = text.split(' ');
    var currentLine = 0;
    var idx = 1;
    while (words.length > 0 && idx <= words.length)
    {
        var str = words.slice(0,idx).join(' ');
        var w = context.measureText(str).width;
        if ( w > fitWidth )
        {
            if (idx==1)
            {
                idx=2;
            }
            context.fillText( words.slice(0,idx-1).join(' '), x, y + (lineHeight*currentLine) );
            currentLine++;
            words = words.splice(idx-1);
            idx = 1;
        }
        else
        {idx++;}
    }
    if  (idx > 0)
        context.fillText( words.join(' '), x, y + (lineHeight*currentLine) );
}

canvas{background-color:#ccc;}

---

In the second and third examples i am using the measureText() method which shows how long (in pixels) a string will be when printed.