---
title: "Typography: API"
package: "@phaser-ae/typography"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-7
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-21
description: "Every word a game draws, from score and HUD labels to outlined, gradient titles and rich shaped paragraphs, crisp on WebGPU and WebGL2 in 2D and 3D."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/typography/api
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Typography: API

`@phaser-ae/typography` — Every word a game draws: HUD and score labels, titles with outlines, shadows and gradients, and rich shaped paragraphs, crisp on WebGPU and WebGL2.

## The pack

### `typography`

```ts
function typography(options: TypographyOptions = {}): Pack<{ typography: TypographyApi }>
```

Complex-script text with rich spans, font fallback, paragraph flow and native GPU rendering.

## Types

### `TypographyApi`

```ts
interface TypographyApi
```

Typography services, shared by WebGPU and WebGL2.

- `prepare(fonts?: readonly string[]): Promise<void>` — Load the named shared UI fonts and wait for them: `sans`, `sans-bold`, `serif`, `serif-bold`, `mono`, `mono-bold`, a registered family, or a CSS font such as `'bold 24px serif'`. With nothing named, wait for shaping and for every font already asked for. Counts in the loading screen during the preload.
- `registerFamily(name: string, font: TypographyFonts): void` — Register a loaded font selection under a family name for UI styles.
- `face(options?: { font?: string; size?: number; family?: string }): TypographyFace` — Resolve a family and logical size. A shared UI font loads on first use; text in it appears when it arrives.
- `label(spec: TypographyLabelSpec): TypographyLabel` — Create a mutable HUD label in a supplied face, or sans at 14 units. It shows once the face's font has arrived.
- `snapshot(text: TypographyText, options: { key: string; scale?: number; padding?: number }): TypographySnapshot` — Freeze local paragraph pixels into a reusable atlas frame. Bake each distinct string once.
- `readonly stats: TypographyStats` — Current frame rendering counters; zero before the first native frame.
- `ready(wasm?: BufferSource | WebAssembly.Module): Promise<void>` — Initialize the SIMD shaping engine; a supplied Wasm module supports custom asset pipelines.
- `load( source: string | URL | ArrayBuffer, format?: "msdf" | "bitmap" | "vector" | TypographyFontOptions, ): Promise<TypographyFont>` — Load a baked GLB font. Source-font baking is available in development only.
- `stack(primary: TypographyFont, ...fallback: TypographyFont[]): TypographyFonts` — Construct an ordered, immutable fallback selection from loaded fonts.
- `write(spec: TypographySpec): TypographyText` — Create a retained paragraph after ready() and font loading.
- `projectFlow( options: TypographyProjection, ): import("../../../../vendor/typography/src/text-properties.js").TextFlowExclusion | undefined` — Project a 3D object's bounds or ordered silhouette into a text-flow exclusion. Call after the camera has a rendered view.
- `flush(): void` — Publish pending changes immediately; rendering also does this once per frame.

### `TypographyDetached`

```ts
interface TypographyDetached
```

A fixed snapshot whose roster transform can be animated independently.

- `readonly object: Handle` — Scene-owned roster transform.
- `dispose(): void` — Release the snapshot and its scene object.

### `TypographyFace`

```ts
interface TypographyFace
```

A font selection and logical em size, reusable across labels and measurements.

- `readonly font: TypographyFonts` — Loaded font or ordered fallback stack; while a shared UI font loads, a stand-in that write() accepts.
- `readonly size: number` — Logical em size.
- `readonly lineHeight: number` — Baseline spacing in logical units.
- `readonly loaded: boolean` — True once the font has arrived. Before that, text in this face is drawn when it arrives and measures 0.
- `readonly ready: Promise<void>` — Resolves when the font has arrived.
- `measure(text: string, scale?: number, spacing?: number): number` — Shaped advance width, including optional extra spacing; 0 until the font has arrived.

### `TypographyFont`

```ts
type TypographyFont = Font<RasterFormatMetadata>
```

Loaded face, including its shaping tables and rendering data.

### `TypographyFontOptions`

```ts
type TypographyFontOptions = | { format: "bitmap"; strikes?: readonly [number, ...number[]]; coverage?: import("../../../../vendor/typography/src/raster-coverage.js").RasterCoverage; } | { format: "msdf"; emSize?: number; pixelRange?: number; coverage?: import("../../../../vendor/typography/src/raster-coverage.js").RasterCoverage; } | { format: "vector"; cubicSubdivisions?: number }
```

Rendering data selection and source-font baking quality.

### `TypographyFonts`

```ts
type TypographyFonts = FontSelection<RasterFormatMetadata>
```

An ordered font fallback stack or one loaded font.

### `TypographyGradient`

```ts
interface TypographyGradient
```

A gradient fill for a paragraph's letters: two to four colours across the text at an angle — chrome, gold, neon.
It replaces the fill colour of every glyph; outlines, shadows and decorations keep their own colours, and the
style's `opacity` still applies.

- `colors: readonly string[]` — Two to four CSS colours (`#rgb`, `#rrggbb`, `#rrggbbaa`, `rgb()`, `hsl()` or a named colour), first to last.
- `stops?: readonly number[]` — Where each colour sits along the gradient, 0..1, one per colour, ascending. Default: evenly spaced from 0 to 1.
- `angle?: number` — The direction the colours run, degrees on screen: 90 (the default) top to bottom, 0 left to right, 180 right to left.
- `box?: "ink" | "line"` — What the gradient spans. `'ink'` (the default): the paragraph's ink, the tops of its tallest letters to the bottoms of its lowest, edge to edge. `'line'`: every line from the font's ascent to its descent, so each line of a subtitle, and each word or letter drawn on its own in the same font and size, gets the same colours at the same heights.

### `TypographyLabel`

```ts
interface TypographyLabel
```

Mutable label backed by a single retained Typography paragraph.

- `readonly paragraph: TypographyText` — Underlying retained paragraph for rich layout and detached animation.
- `readonly object: Handle` — Scene-owned roster object.
- `text: string` — Unicode content.
- `x: number` — Horizontal anchor position.
- `y: number` — Vertical anchor position.
- `tint: string` — Text color.
- `color: string` — Text color: the same as `tint`.
- `outline: { color: string; width: number } | null` — The outline, or null for none.
- `shadow: { color: string; x: number; y: number } | null` — The shadow, or null for none.
- `alpha: number` — Opacity.
- `scale: number` — Font-size multiplier.
- `visible: boolean` — Visibility.
- `readonly width: number` — Shaped advance width.
- `readonly height: number` — Paragraph height.
- `readonly alive: boolean` — Whether the scene-owned paragraph is alive.
- `kill(): void` — Dispose the paragraph and roster object.
- `destroy(): void` — The same as `kill()`.

### `TypographyLabelSpec`

```ts
interface TypographyLabelSpec
```

A short, mutable label. Its position anchors the edges `align` and `valign` name: the top-left by default.

- `text: string` — Unicode content; an empty string shows nothing.
- `x: number` — Horizontal anchor position.
- `y: number` — Vertical anchor position: the top edge, or the middle or bottom with `valign`.
- `font?: TypographyFace` — Font selection and base em size; defaults to the sans face at 14 units.
- `scale?: number` — Size multiplier. Default 1.
- `tint?: string` — Text color. Default white.
- `alpha?: number` — Opacity. Default 1.
- `align?: 'left' | 'center' | 'right'` — Horizontal anchor edge. Default left.
- `valign?: 'top' | 'middle' | 'bottom'` — Vertical anchor edge. Default top.
- `outline?: { color: string; width: number }` — An outline around the letters, in font units.
- `shadow?: { color: string; x: number; y: number }` — A hard shadow behind the letters, offset in font units.
- `spacing?: number` — Additional spacing in font units.
- `layer?: string` — Roster layer.
- `z?: number` — Roster depth.

### `TypographyOptions`

```ts
interface TypographyOptions
```

Runtime configuration for development builds. Standalone builds embed the shaper.

- `assets?: string` — Shaping Wasm directory with trailing slash in development; default /typography/.

### `TypographyProjection`

```ts
interface TypographyProjection
```

Project a world object's bounds or silhouette into a paragraph flow exclusion.

- `key: string` — Stable exclusion key.
- `text: TypographyText` — Paragraph whose local plane receives the projection.
- `object: Handle` — Scene object owning the local geometry.
- `flowBounds: readonly [ number, number, number, number, ]` — Paragraph-local clipping rectangle [left, top, right, bottom].
- `bounds?: readonly [ number, number, number, number, number, number, ]` — Object-local bounds [minX,minY,minZ,maxX,maxY,maxZ], default unit cube.
- `silhouette?: readonly (readonly [ number, number, number, ])[]` — Ordered object-local silhouette; replaces bounds when supplied.
- `projectionError?: number` — Conservative inflation in paragraph units.
- `wrapSide?: import("../../../../vendor/typography/src/text-properties.js").TextFlowExclusion["wrapSide"]` — Allowed wrapping side.
- `marginInline?: number` — Horizontal exclusion margin.
- `marginBlock?: number` — Vertical exclusion margin.

### `TypographySnapshot`

```ts
interface TypographySnapshot
```

Local-space bounds and atlas dimensions of a frozen paragraph.

- `frame: number` — Atlas frame containing the rendered paragraph.
- `x: number` — Local top-left including transparent padding.
- `y: number` — Local top-left including transparent padding.
- `width: number` — Logical width.
- `height: number` — Logical height.

### `TypographySpan`

```ts
interface TypographySpan
```

A UTF-16 range with independent font selection and style.

- `start: number` — Inclusive UTF-16 offset.
- `end: number` — Exclusive UTF-16 offset.
- `font?: TypographyFonts` — Optional font or fallback stack for this range.
- `style?: TextStyle` — Style overrides inherited over the paragraph style.

### `TypographySpec`

```ts
interface TypographySpec
```

A text paragraph at a roster position. Sizes and layout use logical units.

- `font: TypographyFonts` — Font or ordered fallback stack. A face's font may still be loading: the text appears when it arrives.
- `text: string` — Unicode paragraph content.
- `spans?: readonly TypographySpan[]` — Styled UTF-16 ranges within the text.
- `clip?: readonly [number, number, number, number] | undefined` — Paragraph-local clip rectangle [left, top, right, bottom].
- `style?: TypographyStyle` — Shaping, size, color, spacing and effects; `gradient` fills the letters with colours at an angle.
- `layout?: ParagraphLayout` — Wrapping, alignment, overflow and column controls.
- `constraints?: Constraints` — Width and height constraints in logical units.
- `flow?: TextFlow` — Ordered regions and polygon exclusions.
- `x?: number` — Horizontal roster position.
- `y?: number` — Vertical roster position; positive up in a 3D world.
- `z?: number` — Depth in a 3D world, sort position in 2D.
- `rot?: number` — Rotation in radians; yaw in a 3D world.
- `layer?: string` — World or screen layer.
- `billboard?: boolean` — In a 3D world, face the camera instead of using object orientation.
- `rasterPixelRatio?: number` — Physical pixels per logical text unit for selecting bitmap strikes; defaults to 1.
- `pixelSnapping?: boolean` — Snap size-specific bitmap strikes to physical pixel boundaries.

### `TypographyStats`

```ts
interface TypographyStats
```

Native typography work submitted in the current rendered frame.

- `readonly drawCalls: number` — Instanced draws after adjacent compatible paragraphs are combined.
- `readonly instances: number` — Rendered characters and decoration rectangles.
- `readonly geometryBytes: number` — Character geometry uploaded this frame; zero for transform-only animation.
- `readonly transformBytes: number` — Compact per-paragraph transform data uploaded this frame.

### `TypographyStyle`

```ts
type TypographyStyle = TextStyle & { /** Fill the letters with 2–4 colours at an angle instead of the solid `color` (chrome, gold, neon); also in `snapshot()`. */ gradient?: TypographyGradient; }
```

A paragraph's style: the shaping and colour `TextStyle`, plus an optional gradient fill for its letters.

### `TypographyText`

```ts
interface TypographyText
```

Retained paragraph: content edits invalidate shaping; transforms remain independent.

- `readonly object: Handle` — Scene-owned roster transform.
- `readonly disposed: boolean` — True after disposal.
- `set(update: Partial<TypographySpec>): void` — Atomically update content, fonts, styles, constraints or flow.
- `measure(): ParagraphLayoutSummary` — Advance, ink, line and baseline metrics for the current layout.
- `glyphs(): TypographyLayoutInspection` — Caller-owned per-character-shape arrays, including clusters and bidi levels.
- `placements(): TypographyPlacements` — Cluster-aware caret, line and word inspection.
- `detach(indices?: readonly number[]): TypographyDetached` — Detached render copies of selected shape indices, or all when omitted.
- `detachDecorations(): TypographyDetached` — Detached copies of the paragraph's decoration rectangles.
- `dispose(): void` — Release layout and remove the roster object.

---

## For AI agents: Phaser AE

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