no-reply@allegro.cc (Eric Johnson) — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 22:42:33 +0000

Something I observed today: al_draw_text does not draw text where I expected it to. I wanted to draw text snug to the top left corner of the display, but the y axis is not touching the top as I thought it would.

#SelectExpand
  1#include 
  2#include 
  3#include 
  4
  5int main(void) {
  6
  7  al_init();
  8
  9  al_init_font_addon();
 10  al_init_ttf_addon();
 11
 12  ALLEGRO_DISPLAY *display = al_create_display(768, 448);
 13
 14  ALLEGRO_FONT *font = al_load_ttf_font("arial_black.ttf", 80, 0);
 15
 16  al_clear_to_color(al_map_rgb(255, 255, 255));
 17
 18  al_draw_text(font, al_map_rgb(0, 0, 0), 0, 0, 0, "This is a test!");
 19
 20  al_flip_display();
 21
 22  al_rest(5);
 23
 24  al_destroy_font(font);
 25
 26  al_destroy_display(display);
 27
 28  return 0;
 29}

See the attached file for a screenshot of what happened and then what I expected to happen (edited in GIMP).

Is this the result of extra space in the font itself? Thanks.

no-reply@allegro.cc (Todd Cope) — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 02:24:05 +0000

You should use al_get_text_dimensions() if you need exact text placement. You just subtract the x and y values returned by al_get_text_dimensions() from your target coordinates.

no-reply@allegro.cc (Eric Johnson) — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 03:45:06 +0000

Fantastic. Thanks, Todd.

A question regarding how Allegro draws text