Houdini 20.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Font geometry node

Creates 3D text from Type 1, TrueType and OpenType fonts.

On this page

Houdini automatically scans the system and user font directories for compatible fonts and shows them in the font menu.

The Font SOP is Unicode compatible, and can draw any glyph from a Unicode font.

Placing a Font object in the viewer

To...Do this

Place the font object anywhere in the scene

  1. Click the Font tool on the Create tab.

  2. Move the cursor into the scene view.

    Note

    You can hold Alt to detach the font object from the construction plane.

  3. Click LMB to place the font object anywhere in the scene view.

    If you press Enter without clicking, Houdini places the font object at the origin.

Place the font object at the origin

Press ⌃ Ctrl + LMB on the Font tool on the shelf.

Note

Text can be moved once it is placed by either dragging it in the scene view or changing the values in the parameter editor.

You can choose different font types from the Font drop-down menu, change text in the Text menu, and change the size of text in the Font Size menu on the operation controls toolbar.

Font Handles

There are special handles available at the geometry level for the font object that allow you to stretch and squash it.

  1. Move to the geometry level by double clicking LMB the font node in the network editor or by clicking the Jump to Operator button on the operation controls toolbar.

  2. Drag the handles to squash or stretch the text.

To...Do this

Stretch or squash the font along the x-axis

Drag the red handle.

Stretch or squash the font along the y-axis

Drag the green handle.

Parameters

Primitive Type

Type of geometry to create.

Font

The font to use for drawing the text.

By default the menu lists all known system fonts. You can browse for a specific font file, if it is not listed.

Text

Text to be generated.

Horizontal Alignment

Specifies how the text is aligned horizontally around the origin.

Vertical Alignment

Specifies how the text is aligned vertically around the origin.

First Line

The origin is the baseline of the first line of text.

Top

The origin is the top of the first line of text.

Middle

The origin is the half way between the top of the first line and the baseline of the last line.

Bottom

The origin is the baseline of the last line.

Include Descender in Vertical Alignment

If enabled, then the alignment baseline is set to the descender of the font, rather than the font’s baseline. A descender is the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline of the font - for example the stem of a lower case letter p.

Origin

Sets the text’s origin along the XYZ axes.

Rotate

#id rx /ry /rz

Rotates the text about its origin.

Scale XY

Scale factors along x and y axes.

Font Size

Single control for controlling the size. The scale is applied on top of this.

Tracking XY

Tracking in x-direction. Leading in y-direction.

Oblique Angle

Amount of slant to apply to the text, in degrees.

Level of Detail

Controls the number of points in polygonal fonts.

Automatic Kerning

Automatically apply kerning pairs from the font to adjust spacing between letters for a more visually pleasing results.

Hole Faces

Generates holes in polygons and Bezier faces.

Add Attributes

Create textsymbol and textindex primitive attributes. textsymbol contains the code point of the glyph the primitive belongs to. textindex contains the offset (counted in code points) into the string.

This is the string after any back-tick or variable expansion.

Examples

BubblyFont Example for Font geometry node

The Font SOP is used to create 3D text geometry in the scene.

The geometry may be set to Polygon, Bezier, or a combination of the two.

With the combination, Bezier will be used for letters containing curves, and Polygon will be used for those with only straight edges.

Fonts other than those loaded by default may be loaded in the Font parameter.

FontBasic Example for Font geometry node

This example demonstrates some of the parameters available for formatting text using the Font SOP.

See also

Geometry nodes