For Qt 4.6.x, how to auto-size text to fit in a specified width?

Question

Inside of my QGraphicsRectItem::paint(), I am trying to draw the name of the item within its rect(). However, for each of the different items, they can be of variable width and similarly names can be of variable length.

Currently I am starting with a maximum font size, checking if it fits and decrementing it until I find a font size that fits. So far, I haven't been able to find a quick and easy way to do this. Is there a better, or more efficient way to do this?

Thanks!

void checkFontSize(QPainter *painter, const QString& name) {
 // check the font size - need a better algorithm... this could take awhile
 while (painter->fontMetrics().width(name) > rect().width()) {
  int newsize = painter->font().pointSize() - 1;
  painter->setFont(QFont(painter->font().family(), newsize));
 }
}

Answer 1

Johannes from qtcentre.org offered the following solution:

float factor = rect().width() / painter->fontMetrics().width(name);
 if ((factor < 1) || (factor > 1.25))
 {
  QFont f = painter->font();
  f.setPointSizeF(f.pointSizeF()*factor);
  painter->setFont(f);
 }

I gave it a try in my program and so far, it seems to work quite well. I like it because it produces results in one pass, but it assumes that font width scales like its height.

http://www.qtcentre.org/threads/27839-For-Qt-4-6-x-how-to-auto-size-text-to-fit-in-a-specified-width

Answer 2

You could have a QGraphicsTextItem as a child of the rect item, measure the text item's width and then scale the text item (setTransform()) to fit into the rect item's width (and height).