I had some ideas about text and fonts blocks because as of now the default fonts in the sprite selection are quite bad and some projects have inconsistent font sizes. A different way would be to make the text in a different program then import the .png file but that is very time consuming. I made these blocks here and i will explain what they each do.

The blocks:

print [] size () at x:() y:() for () secs

^^^ Pretty self-explanatory, prints out a string of text at a certain size at the location (x) and (y) and will display for n seconds.

print [] size () at x:() y:()

^^^ Same as above but stays forever.

font ()

^^^ This defines the font that the text will be printed out. Fonts can be created in a scratch font editor or you can import a .ttf file with your font. you could also choose what characters you want to have, eg: Capital letters only, Lowercase, Numbers, Special characters etc.

change text opacity by ()

^^^ Fairly simple, changes text opacity.

change text color by ()

^^^ Also simple, changes text color.

change text brightness by ()

^^^ Straight-forward, 100 is white, 0 is black.

clear text effects

^^^ Resets text effects.

delete all text

^^^ Deletes all text on screen

delete all text by this sprite

^^^ Deletes all text on screen which was displayed by a single sprite.


I hope the scratch team consider this as it will be a good addition and speed up production of projects, specifically text based stories and we would no longer have to deal with the standard speech bubbles which might ruin the theme for some projects.
Thank you!

No support. There are workarounds.

Littledoggygirl45 wrote:

No support. There are workarounds.

Hi! Great to see you showing your opinion, but when posting, please remember to add something to the discussion. You could, for example, explain the workarounds, and then say whether you think that the workarounds are easy or difficult, and then state an opinion on whether the blcoks (maybe in a new, separate, category) should be added to Scratch.

Not liking a suggestion because there are workarounds is like disliking the

<[ v] contains [thing] ?>

block because it has a workaround: it is just less efficient when Scratch does it vs when Scratch's Interpreter does it. My point is that loads of blocks in Scratch are workaroundable, so that isn't really a reason to “No Support”.

I support this! Can I also add:-

Delete all text by Stage // Just incase people didn't realise that this would be there as well.

and

Delete all text by [Sprite1 v] // To delete text made by one sprite (Sprite1) in a script on another sprite (Sprite2)

Do you like these?

ZZ9PluralZAlpha wrote:

I support this! Can I also add:-

Delete all text by Stage // Just incase people didn't realise that this would be there as well.

and

Delete all text by [Sprite1 v] // To delete text made by one sprite (Sprite1) in a script on another sprite (Sprite2)

Do you like these?

Thanks for supporting!
Your two blocks would also fit in there with the other ones i mentioned above.

I semi-support. This is a good idea, but, as stated above,

Littledoggygirl45 wrote:

No support. There are workarounds.

Some of these workarounds include making your own fonts (in the vector editor), downloading fonts, or using fonts downloaded by other scratchers (Ex: @FontGod, @-Fontify-).

However, like you said, this is time consuming, so it would be nice if this were a thing.

Thanks for reading,
~lnvokey

I changed your blocks to a different colour as I feel as though they would be added as it's own section. Hope this helps you in some way or another…?

print [] size () at x:() y:() for () secs :: #888888

print [] size () at x:() y:() :: #888888

font () :: #888888

change text opacity by () :: #888888

change text color by () :: #888888

change text brightness by () :: #888888

clear text effects :: #888888

delete all text :: #888888

delete all text by this sprite :: #888888

I don't see how this can't just be put in the editors?

I support this idea because it is much easier to use these blocks. The workarounds are mostly based on making a new sprite or costume. I think those workarounds don't really take much programming skill; they just take a lot of work. Also, other languages have text blocks.

shd02 wrote:

I support this idea because it is much easier to use these blocks. The workarounds are mostly based on making a new sprite or costume. I think those workarounds don't really take much programming skill; they just take a lot of work. Also, other languages have text blocks.

Also it would lower project loading and upload times and the editor will be more organised because you wouldnt need to make new sprites for text.

WolfCat67 wrote:

I changed your blocks to a different colour as I feel as though they would be added as it's own section. Hope this helps you in some way or another…?

print [] size () at x:() y:() for () secs :: #888888

print [] size () at x:() y:() :: #888888

font () :: #888888

change text opacity by () :: #888888

change text color by () :: #888888

change text brightness by () :: #888888

clear text effects :: #888888

delete all text :: #888888

delete all text by this sprite :: #888888

I didnt know how to change the color of blocks until i saw this post, thank you!
Also i would change the font block to this:

font (comic sans v) :: #888888

I think

print [] size () at x:() y:() for () secs :: #888888 

is a very long block. I think there should be a block like this:

set size to () pts. :: #888888

This would make the text block similar to pen blocks with separate blocks to adjust size.

shd02 wrote:

-PoisonIvy- wrote:

WolfCat67 wrote:

I changed your blocks to a different colour as I feel as though they would be added as it's own section. Hope this helps you in some way or another…?

print [] size () at x:() y:() for () secs :: #888888

print [] size () at x:() y:() :: #888888

font () :: #888888

change text opacity by () :: #888888

change text color by () :: #888888

change text brightness by () :: #888888

clear text effects :: #888888

delete all text :: #888888

delete all text by this sprite :: #888888

I didnt know how to change the color of blocks until i saw this post, thank you!
Also i would change the font block to this:

font (comic sans v) :: #888888

print [] size () at x:() y:() for () secs :: #888888 

is a very long block. I think there should be a block like this:

set size to () pts. :: #888888

This would make the text block similar to pen blocks with separate blocks to adjust size.

That would work but that would change the size for all text. I would keep the long block in case they want to make a specific piece of text different to other ones as opposed to making all of them the same size. Good suggestion though and i would definately add it!

Actually, it wouldn't be a problem:

set size ()
CODE
set size()
UNIQUE TEXT

So if this is going to be implemented, the blocks can and should be concise.

-PoisonIvy- wrote:

shd02 wrote:

I think

print [] size () at x:() y:() for () secs :: #888888 

is a very long block. I think there should be a block like this:

set size to () pts. :: #888888

This would make the text block similar to pen blocks with separate blocks to adjust size.

That would work but that would change the size for all text. I would keep the long block in case they want to make a specific piece of text different to other ones as opposed to making all of them the same size. Good suggestion though and i would definately add it!

I think the text should be similar to the pen. If you change the size for the pen, it only changes size for lines that will be drawn. I don't think size should be able to be adjusted. If size could be adjusted, text would be similar to clones. There is a limit of 301 clones. Text will slow down the computer if there is a lot of it.
Sorry if that is not what you meant, but this is how to use my block:

print [abc] size (11) at x:(0) y:(0) for (5) secs :: #888888 

can turn to

set size to (11) pts. :: #888888
print [abc] at x:(0) y:(0) for (5) secs :: #888888 

shd02 wrote:

-PoisonIvy- wrote:

shd02 wrote:

I think

print [] size () at x:() y:() for () secs :: #888888 

is a very long block. I think there should be a block like this:

set size to () pts. :: #888888

This would make the text block similar to pen blocks with separate blocks to adjust size.

That would work but that would change the size for all text. I would keep the long block in case they want to make a specific piece of text different to other ones as opposed to making all of them the same size. Good suggestion though and i would definately add it!

I think the text should be similar to the pen. If you change the size for the pen, it only changes size for lines that will be drawn. I don't think size should be able to be adjusted. If size could be adjusted, text would be similar to clones. There is a limit of 301 clones. Text will slow down the computer if there is a lot of it.
Sorry if that is not what you meant, but this is how to use my block:

print [abc] size (11) at x:(0) y:(0) for (5) secs :: #888888 

can turn to

set size to (11) pts. :: #888888
print [abc] at x:(0) y:(0) for (5) secs :: #888888 

Oh that makes more sense now! I agree with your idea now

Oh, also, support! I would love this. You don't know how often I want to add text generators but don't want to use
a) Custom Blocks
b) Variables
c) Millions of Costumes on one Sprite
to do it. This would help a LOT!

Bump!

You could just… you know, make each letter of the alphabet into a costume, clone each costume for the words you want to make…

That takes so long… Because of that, I support.

Solmux wrote:

You could just… you know, make each letter of the alphabet into a costume, clone each costume for the words you want to make…

That takes so long… Because of that, I support.

Solmux, ever heard someone say that just because something may take long or be hard doesn't mean it should be made simple?

Also, to the idea of these text blocks, I say no support. There are numerous text generators out there, and if you don't like those, try to make one.