How can I render curved text into a Bitmap?

Question

I am currently dynamically creating a bitmap and using the graphics object from the bitmap to draw a string on it like so:

System.Drawing.Graphics graph = System.Drawing.Graphics.FromImage(bmp);
graph.DrawString(text, font, brush, new System.Drawing.Point(0, 0));

This returns a rectangular bitmap with the string written straight across from left to right. I would like to also be able to draw the string in the shape of a rainbow. How can I do this?

Answer 1

I recently had this problem (I was rendering text for printing onto CDs), so here's my solution:

private void DrawCurvedText(Graphics graphics, string text, Point centre, float distanceFromCentreToBaseOfText, float radiansToTextCentre, Font font, Brush brush)
{
    // Circumference for use later
    var circleCircumference = (float)(Math.PI * 2 * distanceFromCentreToBaseOfText);

    // Get the width of each character
    var characterWidths = GetCharacterWidths(graphics, text, font).ToArray();

    // The overall height of the string
    var characterHeight = graphics.MeasureString(text, font).Height;

    var textLength = characterWidths.Sum();

    // The string length above is the arc length we'll use for rendering the string. Work out the starting angle required to 
    // centre the text across the radiansToTextCentre.
    float fractionOfCircumference = textLength / circleCircumference;

    float currentCharacterRadians = radiansToTextCentre + (float)(Math.PI * fractionOfCircumference);

    for (int characterIndex = 0; characterIndex < text.Length; characterIndex++)
    {
        char @char = text[characterIndex];

        // Polar to cartesian
        float x = (float)(distanceFromCentreToBaseOfText * Math.Sin(currentCharacterRadians));
        float y = -(float)(distanceFromCentreToBaseOfText * Math.Cos(currentCharacterRadians));

        using (GraphicsPath characterPath = new GraphicsPath())
        {
            characterPath.AddString(@char.ToString(), font.FontFamily, (int)font.Style, font.Size, Point.Empty,
                                    StringFormat.GenericTypographic);

            var pathBounds = characterPath.GetBounds();

            // Transformation matrix to move the character to the correct location. 
            // Note that all actions on the Matrix class are prepended, so we apply them in reverse.
            var transform = new Matrix();

            // Translate to the final position
            transform.Translate(centre.X + x, centre.Y + y);

            // Rotate the character
            var rotationAngleDegrees = currentCharacterRadians * 180F / (float)Math.PI - 180F;
            transform.Rotate(rotationAngleDegrees);

            // Translate the character so the centre of its base is over the origin
            transform.Translate(-pathBounds.Width / 2F, -characterHeight);

            characterPath.Transform(transform);

            // Draw the character
            graphics.FillPath(brush, characterPath);
        }

        if (characterIndex != text.Length - 1)
        {
            // Move "currentCharacterRadians" on to the next character
            var distanceToNextChar = (characterWidths[characterIndex] + characterWidths[characterIndex + 1]) / 2F;
            float charFractionOfCircumference = distanceToNextChar / circleCircumference;
            currentCharacterRadians -= charFractionOfCircumference * (float)(2F * Math.PI);
        }
    }
}

private IEnumerable<float> GetCharacterWidths(Graphics graphics, string text, Font font)
{
    // The length of a space. Necessary because a space measured using StringFormat.GenericTypographic has no width.
    // We can't use StringFormat.GenericDefault for the characters themselves, as it adds unwanted spacing.
    var spaceLength = graphics.MeasureString(" ", font, Point.Empty, StringFormat.GenericDefault).Width;

    return text.Select(c => c == ' ' ? spaceLength : graphics.MeasureString(c.ToString(), font, Point.Empty, StringFormat.GenericTypographic).Width);
}