FontBuddy

Simple, flexible text rendering for MonoGame with built-in effects and easy justification.

FontBuddy makes it easy to draw text in MonoGame without wrestling with positioning and effects. It provides simple text rendering with justification options and several built-in visual effects.

Installation

Install via NuGet:

dotnet add package FontBuddy

Or in your .csproj:

<PackageReference Include="FontBuddy" Version="5.*" />

Quick Start

Basic Text Rendering

using FontBuddyLib; using GameTimer; // In your Game class IFontBuddy _fontBuddy; GameClock _gameClock; protected override void LoadContent() { _fontBuddy = new FontBuddy(); _fontBuddy.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); // Your SpriteFont asset _gameClock = new GameClock(); } protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { _gameClock.Update(gameTime); } protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { spriteBatch.Begin(); // Draw text with center justification _fontBuddy.Write( "Hello World!", new Vector2(400, 300), Justify.Center, 1.0f, // scale Color.White, spriteBatch, _gameClock // GameClock for animations ); spriteBatch.End(); }

Text Justification

FontBuddy supports multiple justification modes to make alignment easy:

// Left-aligned text _fontBuddy.Write("Left", position, Justify.Left, 1.0f, Color.White, spriteBatch, _gameClock); // Center-aligned text _fontBuddy.Write("Center", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.White, spriteBatch, _gameClock); // Right-aligned text _fontBuddy.Write("Right", position, Justify.Right, 1.0f, Color.White, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

Available Font Effects

FontBuddy includes several pre-built text effects:

ShadowTextBuddy

Renders text with a drop shadow:

var shadowFont = new ShadowTextBuddy(); shadowFont.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); // Customize shadow appearance shadowFont.ShadowOffset = new Vector2(0f, 3f); // Default offset shadowFont.ShadowColor = Color.Black; // Shadow color shadowFont.ShadowSize = 1.05f; // Size multiplier (default 1.05) shadowFont.Write("Shadowed Text", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.White, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

PulsateBuddy

Animated pulsating text effect:

var pulsateFont = new PulsateBuddy(); pulsateFont.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); // Customize pulsation pulsateFont.PulsateSize = 1.0f; // Pulsation amplitude (default 1.0) pulsateFont.PulsateSpeed = 4.0f; // Speed of animation (default 4.0) pulsateFont.StraightPulsate = true; // Pulsate straight out (default true) // Also has shadow properties (inherits from ShadowTextBuddy) pulsateFont.ShadowColor = Color.Black; pulsateFont.ShadowSize = 1.05f; pulsateFont.Write("Pulsating!", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.Yellow, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

ShakyTextBuddy

Randomly jittering text for a shaky effect:

var shakyFont = new ShakyTextBuddy(); shakyFont.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); shakyFont.ShakeAmount = 10.0f; // Amount of shake (default 10.0) shakyFont.ShakeSpeed = 10.0f; // Speed of shake (default 10.0) shakyFont.Write("Shaky Text", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.Red, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

RainbowTextBuddy

Text that cycles through rainbow colors character by character:

var rainbowFont = new RainbowTextBuddy(); rainbowFont.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); rainbowFont.RainbowSpeed = 2.0f; // Speed of color cycling (default 2.0) // You can customize the color list rainbowFont.Colors.Clear(); rainbowFont.Colors.Add(Color.Red); rainbowFont.Colors.Add(Color.Orange); rainbowFont.Colors.Add(Color.Yellow); // ... add more colors // Also has shadow properties rainbowFont.ShadowColor = Color.Black; rainbowFont.ShadowOffset = new Vector2(0f, 3f); rainbowFont.Write("Rainbow!", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.White, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

OppositeTextBuddy

Text where colors swap/transition between foreground and shadow over time:

var oppositeFont = new OppositeTextBuddy(); oppositeFont.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); oppositeFont.SwapSpeed = 2.0f; // Speed of color swap (default 2.0) oppositeFont.SwapSweep = 0.1f; // Time offset per character (default 0.1) // Shadow properties oppositeFont.ShadowColor = Color.Black; oppositeFont.ShadowOffset = new Vector2(0f, 3f); oppositeFont.ShadowSize = 1.05f; oppositeFont.Write("Opposite", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.Blue, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

OutlineTextBuddy

Text with an outline/stroke effect:

var outlineFont = new OutlineTextBuddy(); outlineFont.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); outlineFont.OutlineColor = Color.Black; // Outline color outlineFont.OutlineSize = 5; // Outline thickness in pixels (default 5) outlineFont.ShadowOffset = new Vector2(0f, 3f); outlineFont.Write("Outlined", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.White, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

NumberBuddy

Animated number counter that smoothly transitions when the value changes:

var numberFont = new NumberBuddy(0); // Start at 0 numberFont.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); // Set outline properties (uses OutlineTextBuddy internally) numberFont.OutlineColor = Color.Black; // Add to the number (animates the change) numberFont.Add(100); // Counts from current value to current+100 // Or set directly numberFont.Number = 500; // Counts to 500 numberFont.Write("Score: ", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.White, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

BouncyNumbers

Specialized number display that counts up and then bounces/scales at the end:

var bouncyFont = new BouncyNumbers(); bouncyFont.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/Arial"); bouncyFont.ScaleAtEnd = 2.5f; // How big to scale at end (default 2.5) bouncyFont.ScaleTime = 1.0f; // How long to scale (default 1.0) bouncyFont.Rescale = 1.2f; // Final scale after bounce (default 1.2) bouncyFont.ScalePause = 1.0f; // Pause before scaling (default 1.0) // Start counting from startNum to targetNum bouncyFont.Start(0, 100); // Check if animation is done if (bouncyFont.IsDead) { // Animation finished } bouncyFont.Write("Bonus: ", position, Justify.Center, 1.0f, Color.Yellow, spriteBatch, _gameClock);

Core API Reference

All FontBuddy classes implement the IFontBuddy interface and share this common API:

LoadContent

void LoadContent(ContentManager content, string resourceName, bool useFontBuddyPlus = false, int fontSize = 24)

Loads a SpriteFont for rendering.

• content - ContentManager to load from
• resourceName - Path to the font asset (e.g., "Fonts/Arial")
• useFontBuddyPlus - Use FontBuddyPlus (FontStashSharp) instead of SpriteFont (optional, experimental)
• fontSize - Font size for FontBuddyPlus (optional, default 24)

Write

float Write( string text, Vector2 position, Justify justify, float scale, Color color, SpriteBatch spriteBatch, GameClock time )

Parameters:

• text - The string to render
• position - Screen position to draw at (alignment depends on justification)
• justify - Text alignment: Justify.Left, Justify.Center, or Justify.Right
• scale - Size multiplier (1.0 = normal size, 2.0 = double size, etc.)
• color - Text color (may be modified by effects)
• spriteBatch - MonoGame SpriteBatch to render with
• time - GameClock for animations (from GameTimer library)

Returns: The X position at the end of the drawn text

MeasureString

Vector2 MeasureString(string text)

Returns the size in pixels of the given text.

Helper Methods

// Break text into multiple lines that fit within a width List<string> BreakTextIntoList(string text, int rowWidth) // Calculate scale needed to fit text exactly within width float ScaleToFit(string text, int rowWidth) // Calculate scale to shrink text to fit (returns 1.0 if already fits) float ShrinkToFit(string text, int rowWidth) // Check if text needs to shrink to fit at current scale bool NeedsToShrink(string text, float scale, int rowWidth) // Draw text directly without justification handling void DrawString(string text, Vector2 position, float scale, Color color, SpriteBatch spriteBatch)

Properties

SpriteEffects SpriteEffects { get; set; } // Flip text horizontally/vertically float Rotation { get; set; } // Rotation angle in radians float Spacing { get; } // Character spacing from the font

Examples

See the /FontBuddySample folder in this repository for a complete working example showing all the different text effects.

Requirements

• MonoGame 3.8+
• .NET Standard 2.0+

Platforms

FontBuddy works on all platforms supported by MonoGame:

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux
• iOS
• Android
• Xbox
• PlayStation

License

MIT License - see LICENSE.txt

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome! This is a hobby project but I maintain it for my game development.

---

For LLM/AI Agents

Quick Integration Guide:

1. Add the package: <PackageReference Include="FontBuddy" Version="5.*" />

2. Add GameTimer dependency: FontBuddy requires the GameTimer library for the GameClock parameter

   <PackageReference Include="GameTimer" Version="*" />

3. Common pattern:

   using FontBuddyLib; using GameTimer; IFontBuddy font = new FontBuddy(); // or ShadowTextBuddy, PulsateBuddy, etc. GameClock clock = new GameClock(); font.LoadContent(Content, "Fonts/YourFont"); // In Update: clock.Update(gameTime); // In Draw: font.Write(text, position, Justify.Center, scale, color, spriteBatch, clock);

4. All available classes:

   • FontBuddy - Base text rendering
   • ShadowTextBuddy - Drop shadow effect
   • PulsateBuddy - Size animation (inherits shadow)
   • ShakyTextBuddy - Random jitter
   • RainbowTextBuddy - Character-by-character color cycling (has shadow)
   • OppositeTextBuddy - Foreground/shadow color swapping (has shadow)
   • OutlineTextBuddy - Stroke/outline effect
   • NumberBuddy - Animated number counter (uses outline)
   • BouncyNumbers - Counting number with bounce effect (uses outline)

5. Key enum: Justify with values: Left, Center, Right

6. Important interfaces:

   • IFontBuddy - Main interface all font buddies implement
   • IShadowTextBuddy - Interface for shadow properties (ShadowColor, ShadowOffset, ShadowSize)

7. Namespace: FontBuddyLib

8. Key pattern - GameClock is required: The Write method signature is:

   float Write(string text, Vector2 position, Justify justify, float scale, Color color, SpriteBatch spriteBatch, GameClock time)

   Note: It's GameClock time, NOT GameTime time. You must use the GameTimer library's GameClock class.