# TextSource

VTKExamples/Cxx/Visualization/TextSource

### Description

This example displays a 3D polygonal text saying "Hello", using the 9x15 font from X Windows. That is a raster (pixelized) font, so characters are formed by converting the pixels on each character into quadrilaterals. vtkVectorText generates higher quality polygonal representations of text, so it is recommended instead -- see VectorText for an example of this.

### Code

TextSource.cxx

    #include <vtkTextSource.h>
    #include <vtkPolyData.h>
    #include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
    #include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
    #include <vtkActor.h>
    #include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
    #include <vtkRenderer.h>
    #include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>

    int main(int, char *[])
    {
      // Create text
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkTextSource> textSource =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkTextSource>::New();
      textSource->SetText("Hello");
      textSource->SetForegroundColor(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
      textSource->BackingOff();
      textSource->Update();

      // Create a mapper and actor
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
      mapper->SetInputConnection(textSource->GetOutputPort());

      vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
      actor->SetMapper(mapper);

      // Create a renderer, render window, and interactor
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
      renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
      renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

      // Add the actor to the scene
      renderer->AddActor(actor);
      renderer->SetBackground(1,1,1); // Background color white

      // Render and interact
      renderWindow->Render();
      renderWindowInteractor->Start();

      return EXIT_SUCCESS;
    }

### CMakeLists.txt

    cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

    PROJECT(TextSource)

    find_package(VTK REQUIRED)
    include(${VTK_USE_FILE})

    add_executable(TextSource MACOSX_BUNDLE TextSource.cxx)

    target_link_libraries(TextSource ${VTK_LIBRARIES})

### Download and Build TextSource

Danger

The generation of tar files has not been ported to the new VTKExamples. Some tarballs may be missing or out-of-date.

Click here to download TextSource and its CMakeLists.txt file. Once the tarball TextSource.tar has been downloaded and extracted,

    cd TextSource/build

If VTK is installed:

    cmake ..

If VTK is not installed but compiled on your system, you will need to specify the path to your VTK build:

    cmake -DVTK_DIR:PATH=/home/me/vtk_build ..

Build the project:

    make

and run it:

    ./TextSource

WINDOWS USERS PLEASE NOTE: Be sure to add the VTK bin directory to your path. This will resolve the VTK dll's at run time.