# Font::getStringWidthFloat() with newLine(s)

**URL:** <https://forum.juce.com/t/font-getstringwidthfloat-with-newline-s/22847>\
**Category:** General JUCE discussion\
**Created:** [June 9, 2017, 7:44am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/font-getstringwidthfloat-with-newline-s/22847 "2017-06-09T07:44:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![railjonrogut](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/railjonrogut/32/505_2.png) [@railjonrogut](https://forum.juce.com/u/railjonrogut)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 7:44am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/font-getstringwidthfloat-with-newline-s/22847/1 "2017-06-09T07:44:12Z")

</div>

Font::getStringWidthFloat() doesn’t account for newLines in the String…

I came up with a quick mod… I’m sure you can improve on it…

```
 float Font::getStringWidthFloat (const String& text) const
 {
     String szLongestString = text;

     if (text.contains (newLine))
         {
         StringArray szArray;
    
         szArray.addLines (text);
    
         szLongestString = String();
    
         for (int i = 0; i < szArray.size(); ++i)
             {
             String szLine = szArray.getReference (i);
        
             if (szLine.length() > szLongestString.length())
                 szLongestString = szLine;
             }
         }

     float w = getTypeface()->getStringWidth (szLongestString);

     if (font->kerning != 0)
         w += font->kerning * szLongestString.length();

     return w * font->height * font->horizontalScale;
 }

```

Rail

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://forum.juce.com/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 11:50am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/font-getstringwidthfloat-with-newline-s/22847/2 "2017-07-17T11:50:27Z")

</div>

I’m not really sure if this is the right thing to do when there’s a newline in the string… What’s the context in which you’re having a problem with it?

Normally for non-trivial strings you’d want to measure it properly with something like GlyphArrangement or TextLayout rather that hitting these low-level functions. If we’ve used getTextWidth() internally in a place where we should have used something else, then we should change the calling code rather than this function.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![railjonrogut](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/railjonrogut/32/505_2.png) [@railjonrogut](https://forum.juce.com/u/railjonrogut)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 9:04am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/font-getstringwidthfloat-with-newline-s/22847/3 "2017-07-20T09:04:36Z")

</div>

My use case is to draw a rounded rectangle background for a Label which is showing info about the loaded sample in my VI when the mouse is over an instrument on The Stage:

```
 void CStageComponent::paint (Graphics& g)
 {
     if (m_bShowingInfo)
         {
         g.setColour (Colours::black);
    
         g.setOpacity (0.75f);
    
         const Font f = m_InfoFont.getFont();
    
         g.fillRoundedRectangle (14.0f, (float) getHeight() - 55.0f, f.getStringWidthFloat (m_InfoDisplay.getText()) + 30.0f, 50.0f, 4.0f);
         }
 }

```

I’d expect getStringWidthFloat() to account for the new lines or change the API docs to let us know that it doesn’t. I can’t think of any use case where the length should not account for the newLine?

Cheers,

Rail