too long

Question

I need to store in a database pieces of text and the size of the layer that will wrap the text in the browser screen (I cannot build the layer in the client side - it is a requirement of the project). The whole piece of text must fit into the square layer properly. Users will be able to use different font size and font families from a small group of options and we'll know the selection at the time of computation.

Right now, I compute the layer volume based in the theory that every character size is its font-size pixels height and 50% of the font-size width. With the 50% value, I got the best approximation for the average cases, but it is still not a good solution because it cuts pieces of text or leaves too much blank space at the end. And it's even worst with some wider font-types.

Any idea on how to approach this problem?

Answer 1

Given how easy it is for users to override font choices in the browser, at best this would only be a "best guess" attempt, but you could use GD to draw the text and then compute a bounding box for it using imagettfbbox().

But this only supports simple text, so if you're doing "complicated" stuff with boldface/italics, variable sizes, etc.. then you're SOL for the most part.