---
title: "Vector Font"
package: "@phaser-ae/vector-font"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-2
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-19
description: "Text as line art, a stroked display face whose glyphs are polylines, drawn, glowed and shattered like any other shape on a vector screen."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/vector-font
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Vector Font

Text as line art. Every glyph is a set of polylines rather than a bitmap, so a score, a title or a game-over message
is drawn by the same beam as the ship and the rocks, glows the same way and can fall apart the same way.

## What it does

Each glyph is a set of polylines in a square em box from 0 to 1, y down: 0 is the cap line and 1 the baseline. It is
the same kind of geometry as every other shape on a vector screen, and that is the point. It scales to any size with
no resolution and no filtering; it takes the phosphor glow and the beam dwell for free, so text burns at its corners
as a ship's outline does; and it can be shattered, tumbled or deformed, because it is an outline.

For text drawn fresh every frame, `vector-2d`'s `game.vector.text` is built on this face and takes the same options.
This pack is for the text as geometry. `textOutline` lays a string out, aligned left, centre or right and across
several lines, and returns its strokes in world units, ready to become retained shapes that fly, spin and break apart.
`textWidth` measures a string without building it, for right-aligned score columns and centred titles. The pack is
pure data and maths with no imports, so it runs headless.

The built-in face is capitals, digits and the common symbols, from punctuation and brackets to `$`, `%`, `&` and `@`.
Lower case folds to upper case unless you supply lower-case glyphs, and the face is monospaced unless you supply
advance widths.

## Features

- **Glyphs as polylines** — every character is strokes in an em box, so it draws, glows and dwells like any line.
- **Layout to geometry** — `textOutline` returns a string's strokes in world units, anchored on the first line's cap
  line.
- **Alignment and lines** — `align` of `'left'`, `'center'` or `'right'` for each line, and `\n` for a new line spaced
  by `lineGap`.
- **Measuring** — `textWidth` gives the widest line's width without building anything.
- **Extra glyphs per call** — `glyphs` adds characters or replaces built-in ones, an accented letter, a heart, a
  lower-case alphabet, for one call only.
- **Proportional faces** — `advances` sets per-character widths, so two faces can coexist without touching the
  built-in table.
- **The character set** — `VECTOR_CHARSET` lists every character the built-in face draws, and `glyphOutline` gives one
  character's strokes.

## Good for

- **Vector arcade games** — the score, the high-score table and the game-over message drawn in the same beam as the
  playfield.
- **Titles and attract screens** — a logo whose letters fly in, spin and glow.
- **Shattering text** — a title or a word that breaks into fragments like a destroyed ship.
- **HUD labels in line-art games** — readouts and warnings drawn as strokes.
- **Marquees** — text coloured stroke by stroke.

## Make it yours

`textOutline` and `textWidth` take a `size` (the cap height in world units, default 24), `spacing` between glyphs
(0.28 of the size), `lineGap` between lines (1.6 of the size), `align`, and the two per-call tables. A `glyphs` entry
is a list of strokes, each a flat run of `x, y` pairs in the em box, and an accent may reach a little outside it; an
`advances` entry is the pen's movement as a fraction of `size`.

Two different uses: a score drawn every frame with `game.vector.text`, right-aligned by subtracting its `textWidth`;
and a `GAME OVER` built once with `textOutline`, each stroke turned into a retained shape that then tumbles apart. A
third face is just a table: an accented `É`, a `♥` and narrower `I` and `1`, passed as `glyphs` and `advances`, make a
small proportional face for one screen.

## A quick look

Retained text that can fly apart, and a right-aligned score:

```ts
import { textOutline, textWidth } from '@phaser-ae/vector-font';
const runs = textOutline('GAME OVER', game.screen.width / 2, 300, { size: 48, align: 'center' });
const letters = runs.map(points => game.vector.shape(points, { closed: false, color: '#ff4060', glow: 1 }));
const w = textWidth('000000', { size: 20 });
game.vector.text(String(score).padStart(6, '0'), 900 - w, 24, { size: 20 });
```

## Works with

- `vector-2d` — draws the strokes, and its per-frame text call is built on this face.
- `core-vector` — includes this pack, so most vector games have it already.
- `vector-fx` — breaks a word's strokes into drifting fragments.
- `typography` — the alternative for body text, Unicode, real fonts and paragraphs.
- `ui` — captions on buttons and panels.

## Good to know

- It is a display face, deliberately: straight strokes, no kerning pairs, no bidirectional text, no shaping and no
  hinting.
- A character outside `VECTOR_CHARSET` advances the pen and draws nothing, so check player-entered text or supply the
  glyphs.
- Text is laid out from its cap line down, with no vertical alignment option, and a combining accent written as two
  code points takes two slots: supply the accented letter as one glyph.
- `textOutline` builds polylines each time it runs, so build retained text once, not every frame.

---

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