UI Toolkit uses TextCore to render text, a technology based on TextMesh Pro. TextCore allows advanced styling capabilities and can render text clearly at various point sizes and resolutions. It takes advantage of Signed Distance Field (SDF) font rendering, which can generate font assets that look crisp even when transformed and magnified.
This example demonstrates how to style text in UI Builder, create and apply static and dynamic font assets, use rich text tags and custom style sheets to style text, and create a Panel Text Settings asset to manage the text settings for a panel.
Note: For demonstration purposes, this guide uses a runtime UI. The instructions to create font assets and a style sheet also apply to Editor UI. However, you can’t change the default Panel Text Settings for Editor UI in the current release.
This guide is for developers familiar with the Unity Editor, UI Toolkit, and C# scripting. You are recommended to have a basic understanding of the following:
Start with a runtime UI and create a Panel Text Settings asset that manages text settings for the panel. You also create a Resources
folder and sub-folders to store font assets and custom style sheets.
Assets
folder, create a Resources
folder.Assets\UI Toolkit
folder, and select Create > UI Toolkit > Text Settings to create a UITK Text Settings.asset
. The Inspector window for UITK Text Settings.asset
shows the default path names for the font asset, Text Style Sheets asset, Sprite asset, and Color Gradient presets.Resources
folder, create two folders named Fonts & Materials
and Text Style Sheets
.Use UI Builder to style the Toggle text to be bold and italic, and have a font size of 12px
. For more information, see Style text with USS.
SimpleRuntimeUi.uxml
to open it in UI Builder.Create a static font asset and apply it to the Button control. For a static font asset, you don’t need to include the source font file in the build. However, you must generate atlas for all the characters in the Button’s display text. The display text is This is a Button
and you will add a *
in the text, so you generate atlas for TBhinostua*
.
Download the Lato font package from Google Fonts.
Unzip the font package file and place Lato-Regula.ttf
in your project’s Assets
folder.
In the Inspector window for the font file, confirm the following:
In the Project window, right-click Lato-Regula.ttf
and select Create > Text > Font Asset. This creates a dynamic font asset called Lato-Regula SDF.asset
.
In the Inspector window for Lato-Regula SDF.asset
, set the Atlas Population Mode to Static.
Click Update Atlas Texture.
In the Font Asset Creator window, from the Character Set list, choose Custom Characters.
In the Custom Characters List box, enter TBhinostua*
.
Click Generate Font Atlas.
Save your changes.
Place Lato-Regula SDF.asset
in the Assets\Resources\Fonts & Materials
folder.
Double-click SimpleRuntimeUi.uxml
to open it in UI Builder.
In the Inspector window for the Button control, select Text > Font Asset > Lato-Regula SDF.
Create a dynamic font asset and apply it to the TextField control. For a dynamic font asset, you must include the source font file in the build. Import the source font file directly to the path set for font.
Download the Roboto font package from Google Fonts.
Unzip the font package file and place Roboto-Regular.ttf
in your project’s Assets\Resources\Fonts & Materials
folder.
In the Inspector window for the font file, confirm the following:
Right-click Roboto-Regular.ttf
and select Create > Text > Font Asset. This creates a dynamic font asset called Roboto-Regular SDF.asset
.
Double-click SimpleRuntimeUi.uxml
to open it in UI Builder.
In the TextField control’s Inspector window, select Text > Font Asset > Roboto-Regular SDF.
Use rich text tags to style text in the Label control.
Note: In the current release, rich text tags aren’t supported for TextField.
SimpleRuntimeUi.uxml
to open it in UI Builder.This is a <font-weight=700><size=2em><color=#FF0000>*Label*</color></size></font-weight>
. This makes the word Label
big, red, bold, and with an asterisk on either side of it.The label text looks like the following in the Viewport window:
To apply the same style for Label
to Button
, create a custom style sheet, and apply the style to both words.
Right-click in the Assets\Resources\Text Style Sheets
folder and select Create > Text > Text StyleSheet. This creates a Text StyleSheet.asset
in the path you set in the Panel Text Settings asset.
In the Inspector window for Text StyleSheet.asset
, do the following:
ExampleStyle
.<font-weight=700><size=2em><color=#FF0000>*
.*</color></size></font-weight>
.In the Inspector window for UITK Text Settings.asset
, from the Default Style Sheet list, select Text StyleSheet.
Double-click SimpleRuntimeUi.uxml
to open it in UI Builder.
In the Label control’s Inspector window, change Text to <s>This is a <style="ExampleStyle">Label</style>
.
Make sure Enable Rich Text is selected.
In the Button control’s Inspector window, change Text to <s>This is a <style="ExampleStyle">Button</style>
.
Make sure Enable Rich Text is selected.
Enter Play mode and check the text in the runtime UI.
In the text field, enter some random characters. For a dynamic font asset, the font atlas are dynamically generated as you enter text in the text field.
In your project’s Assets\Resources\Fonts & Materials
folder, select Roboto-Regular SDF.asset
.
In the Inspector window for Roboto-Regular SDF.asset
, select Update Atlas Texture to open the Font Asset Creator window. If the atlas window is hidden, expend it. You should see the characters you entered in the atlas window.