About HQText
Introduction
HQText is a Unity plugin developed in response to the growing need for accurate and comprehensive language support, including precise placement of diacritics, ligatures, and the proper handling of mixed bi-directional text elements. Although our primary focus has been on providing correct support for Arabic text within Unity, HQText is designed to accommodate most other languages just as effectively.
To achieve this, HQText employs a user-friendly and intuitive wrapper for Pango, an open-source library for laying out and rendering text. By default, HQText utilizes FreeType for font rendering, but it can also be configured to work with the native Windows (win32) backend.
While TextMeshPro is another option for supporting Arabic, it often experiences issues with diacritic placement, which can vary between fonts, and transparency artifacts arising from overlapping character ligatures. For those who find these problems unacceptable, HQText serves as an ideal alternative.
HQText is optimised for rendering quality and language accuracy over speed.
Getting Started
Just add the HQText UGUI component to your UI hierarchy. That's it!
Features
- Accurate rendering of complex text
- Supports TTF and OTF fonts
- Arabic, Persian/Farsi, Hebrew, Urdu and more
- Correct rendering of diacritics and ligatures
- Markup (Rich text) support
- Supports ALL the render-pipelines: Built-in/URP/HDRP
- Also works in editor (no need to enter play mode)
- Supports visual effects via UIFX
- Includes full C# and C++ source code
Requirements
- Supports all Unity versions from 2019.4.0 up to Unity 6.x
- Supports all render pipelines: Built-in, URP and HDRP
- 64-Bit Windows only (Windows 10 & 11)
Compatibility
| Unity Version | 6.x | 2023.x | 2022.x | 2021.x | 2020.x | 2019.x | 2018.x | 2017.x |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supported | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Platform | Windows 64-Bit | macOS | Linux | Android | iOS / tvOS | WebGL | PS4 / PS5 | XBox One |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supported | ✓ | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Render Pipeline | Built-in | URP | HDRP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supported | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Trial Version 🚀
The trial version has all the features of the full version and runs without limits, except for a watermark rendered to the text.
Download the FREE TRIAL VERSION
License
HQText is built on top of various open-source libraries, including GNU GPL (GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE) 2.0.
Attribution
HQText was contributed to by: Shane Marks, Kelly McCarter, Denzil Büchner, Ruan Moolman, Calvin Lichungu.
Special thanks to Dr. Mustapha Saidi, for creating the Arabic text references.
This work is made possible by Pango, licensed under LGPL-2.1-or-later. Authors: Owen Taylor, Behdad Esfahbod.