Pygame Text Input Module
This module provides two utility classes that simplify entering text using pygame. The classes are:
TextInputVisualizerwhich can be used to both manage and draw text input. Simply pass all events returned bypygame.event.get()to it every frame, and blit itssurfaceattribute on the screen.TextInputManagerthat can be used to just manage inputted text, with no visual aspect. Used byTextInputVisualizerbehind the scenes.
Installation
Simplest way is using pypi:
python3 -m pip install pygame-textinput
Usage
TextInputVisualizer
Example
All arguments to the constructor are optional. Once constructed, call update every frame with all pygame events as an argument, then blit it's surface field to the screen, like so:
import pygame_textinput
import pygame
pygame.init()
# Create TextInput-object
textinput = pygame_textinput.TextInputVisualizer()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((1000, 200))
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
while True:
screen.fill((225, 225, 225))
events = pygame.event.get()
# Feed it with events every frame
textinput.update(events)
# Blit its surface onto the screen
screen.blit(textinput.surface, (10, 10))
for event in events:
if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
exit()
pygame.display.update()
clock.tick(30)Arguments:
All arguments are optional.
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| manager | The TextInputManager used to manage the input |
| font_object | The pygame.font.Font object used for rendering |
| antialias | whether to render the font antialiased or not |
| font_color | color of font rendered |
| cursor_blink_interval | The interval of the cursor blinking, in ms |
| cursor_width | The width of the cursor, in pixels |
| cursor_color | The color of the cursor |
Fields
All arguments above are also fields that can be accessed and modified on the fly, e.g. like this:
textinput.cursor_width = 12
textinput.value = "Hello, World!"
print(textinput.font_color)| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| value | (string) The text entered so far |
| surface | The pygame.Surface object with entered text & cursor on it and a transparent background. Cannot be set. |
| cursor_visible | (bool) wether the cursor is currently visible or not. Flips every cursor_interval ms as long as update is called continuously. |
Methods
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| update(events) | Call this method every frame for as long as input should be processed and cursor_visible should be updated. |
Notes on the newer version:
- You have to watch for "return" presses by the user yourself, e.g. like this:
for event in events:
...
if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.key == pygame.K_RETURN:
print("Oooweee")- Contrary to the old version, key-stroke repeats are not manually introduced anymore, since they can now be enabled within
pygamedirectly:
pygame.key.set_repeat(200, 25) # press every 50 ms after waiting 200 msThis new version has also been optimized such that you can modify any fields on the fly and the actual surface will only re-render if you access it using textinput.surface - and only if you actually modified any values.
TextInputManager
If you prefer to draw the text on the screen yourself, you can use TextInputManager to only manage the string that has been typed so far.
Like TextInputVisualizer, you feed its update method all events received by pygame.event.get() which you want it to process. TextInputVisualizer does this for you inside its update method if you pass it a TextInputManager.
Arguments:
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| initial | The initial value (text) |
| validator | A function taking a string and returning a bool. Every time an input modifies the value, this function is called with the modified value as an argument; if the function returns True, the input is accepted, otherwise the input is ignored. |
So say you want to only allow input to up to 5 letters, you could do that with
manager = TextInputManager(validator=lambda input: len(input) <= 5)Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| value | The inserted value so far. When change, cursor_pos is kept as far as possible. |
| cursor_pos | The position of the cursor. 0 is before the first character, len(manager.value) the position after the last. Values outside this range are clamped. |
More Examples
Most features
import pygame
import pygame.locals as pl
pygame.init()
# No arguments needed to get started
textinput = TextInputVisualizer()
# But more customization possible: Pass your own font object
font = pygame.font.SysFont("Consolas", 55)
# Create own manager with custom input validator
manager = TextInputManager(validator = lambda input: len(input) <= 5)
# Pass these to constructor
textinput_custom = TextInputVisualizer(manager=manager, font_object=font)
# Customize much more
textinput_custom.cursor_width = 4
textinput_custom.cursor_blink_interval = 400 # blinking interval in ms
textinput_custom.antialias = False
textinput_custom.font_color = (0, 85, 170)
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((1000, 200))
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
# Pygame now allows natively to enable key repeat:
pygame.key.set_repeat(200, 25)
while True:
screen.fill((225, 225, 225))
events = pygame.event.get()
# Feed it with events every frame
textinput.update(events)
textinput_custom.update(events)
# Get its surface to blit onto the screen
screen.blit(textinput.surface, (10, 10))
screen.blit(textinput_custom.surface, (10, 50))
# Modify attributes on the fly - the surface is only rerendered when .surface is accessed & if values changed
textinput_custom.font_color = [(c+10)%255 for c in textinput_custom.font_color]
# Check if user is exiting or pressed return
for event in events:
if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
exit()
if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.key == pygame.K_RETURN:
print(f"User pressed enter! Input so far: {textinput.value}")
pygame.display.update()
clock.tick(30)