Getting text's pixels

[PhQ]

Hi, I am working on a little game, and I was wondering how can I get the pixels of text?
I need them because I want it so if I use a String like this: "@gre@Hello @red@World" it would turn up like this: Hello World. Here is what I have so far:

public void drawText(String text, int x, int y){
		if(text == null)
            return;
		
		int color = 0;
		for(int i = 0; i < text.length(); i++){
			if(text.charAt(i) == '@' && i + 4 < text.length() && text.charAt(i + 4) == '@'){
				color = getColor(text.substring(i + 1, i + 4));
				if(color == -1){
					color = 0xFFF;
				}
				i+=4;
				continue;
			}
			char c = text.charAt(i);
			
		}
	}

private int getColor(String s) {
		switch (s) {
		case "whi":
			return 0xffffff;
		case "red":
			return 0xFF0000;
		case "gre":
			return 0x00FF00;
		case "blu":
			return 0x0000FF;
		default:
			return -1;
		}
	}

I'm not sure where to go from there.
I know that I can just do g.drawString();, but is it possible to get an array of pixels?

[Fubarable]

I would consider using a JEditorPane for this and setting the text color via attributes.

[PhQ]

I would consider using a JEditorPane for this and setting the text color via attributes.

Well, I'm using a Canvas to display text as I am trying to create a game. I am rendering everything using a pixel array and that's why I need the pixels.
Here is my progress at the moment:

public void drawText(String text, int x, int y){
		if(text == null)
            return;
		
		int color = 0;
		int xx = x;
		for(int i = 0; i < text.length(); i++){
			if(text.charAt(i) == '@' && i + 4 < text.length() && text.charAt(i + 4) == '@'){
				color = getColor(text.substring(i + 1, i + 4));
				if(color == -1){
					color = 0xFFF;
				}
				i+=4;
				continue;
			}
			char c = text.charAt(i);
			int r = (color & 0xff0000) >> 16;
			int g = (color & 0xff00) >> 8;
			int b = (color & 0xff);
			screen.g.setColor(new Color(r, g, b));
			screen.g.drawString(c + "", xx, y);
			xx+= font.getSize();
			//System.out.println(Arrays.toString(tl.getBaselineOffsets()));
		}
		
		screen.g.drawString(text, 100, 200);
		
	}

Something like this would work, but it doesn't align the chars properly and this makes me feel like I am cheating because I'm using drawString() as my goal of creating this game is to learn how to play with pixels.

[DarrylBurke]

You might want to take a look at TextLayout.

db

[PhQ]

seems legit

[Fubarable]

Moderation: spam post deleted.

[PhQ]

You might want to take a look at TextLayout.

db

Should I look at this for aligning the chars correctly or to get the pixels? Or both?
I have no idea what to do with it, I have tried aligning the chars with it, but it makes them look weird, I have also tried getting the pixels of the chars but everything that I've tried didn't work :/
If it's really such a fuss getting the pixels of char then, I think I will just use g.drawString(), because all the pixel stuff is too confusing. :(
Would it be more efficient to use g.drawString instead of drawing using pixels to draw text?
But I think it would be better to use pixels as then I could add different effects and stuff.

[DarrylBurke]

... then I could add different effects and stuff.

You can add quite a bit of 'effects and stuff' by leveraging the Font API. More specifically, the Font#deriveFont(Map<? extends AttributedCharacterIterator.Attribute,?> attributes) method. Go to the API for java.awt.font.TextAttribute to see what attributes can be used. Take special note that Background/Foreground can be Paint instances, you're not limited to Colors.

db

[PhQ]

You can add quite a bit of 'effects and stuff' by leveraging the Font API. More specifically, the Font#deriveFont(Map<? extends AttributedCharacterIterator.Attribute,?> attributes) method. Go to the API for java.awt.font.TextAttribute to see what attributes can be used. Take special note that Background/Foreground can be Paint instances, you're not limited to Colors.

db

Woah! Thank you! This works great for me!

[PhQ]

Ok, after an hour of messing with AttributedString I've made this:

class ColorAttribute{
		public final int index;
		public final Color color;
		public ColorAttribute(Color color, int index){
			this.color = color;
			this.index = index;
		}
	}

public void drawText(String text, int x, int y) {
		if (text == null) return;

		int color = 0;
		
		ArrayList<ColorAttribute> attr = new ArrayList<ColorAttribute>();
		StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder();
		for (int i = 0; i < text.length(); i++) {
			if (text.charAt(i) == '@' && i + 4 < text.length() && text.charAt(i + 4) == '@') {
				color = getColor(text.substring(i + 1, i + 4));
				if (color == -1) {
					color = 0xFFF;
				}
				
				i += 4;
				
				int r = (color & 0xff0000) >> 16;
				int g = (color & 0xff00) >> 8;
				int b = (color & 0xff);
				attr.add(new ColorAttribute(new Color(r, g, b), str.length()));
				continue;
			}
			
			str.append(text.charAt(i));
			
		}
		
		AttributedString as1 = new AttributedString(str.toString());
		for(ColorAttribute ca : attr){
			as1.addAttribute(TextAttribute.FOREGROUND, ca.color, ca.index, str.length());
		}
		
	    screen.g2d.drawString(as1.getIterator(), 15, 60);
	}

Would it be possible to improve this code? Or make it faster? Or is it fine?