About HQText
Introduction
HQText is an open-source 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
- Arabic, Persian/Farsi, Hebrew, Urdu and more
- Correct rendering of diacritics and ligatures
- Markup (Rich text) support
- Supports TTF and OTF fonts
- 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
- The best customer support!
Let us know what you need - we can work with you to make it happen - Contact Chocolate Dinosaur
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)
Download from GitHub 🚀
Download the HQText project from the GitHub repository.
Compatibility
| Render Pipeline | Built-in | URP | HDRP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supported | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 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 |
License
HQText is built on top of various open-source libraries, including GNU GPL (GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE) 2.0.
Attribution
Authors / Maintainers
- Shane Marks
- Chocolate Dinosaur Ltd
Contributors
- Kelly McCarter, Denzil Büchner, Ruan Moolman & Calvin Lichungu
Special Thanks
- 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.