Draw Blurred Text

Some to be found here: http://www.fontspace.com/category/blurred

http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_2205.asp?SK=
http://www.esanu.name/delphi/Multimedia/Graphics/Gaussian%20Blur%20in%20Delphi.html

SteveBay,

I am sorry that I am not looking for fonts.

ThievingSix,

Yes, I looked into that code but that is not what I am looking for, because it does not apply specifically on text drawing.

kapot,

I don't think you can do this directly. You probably want to draw the text on a seperate layer (using GR32: http://graphics32.org/wiki/), blur that, and then merge that layer with the image layer you want the text to be on.

Another approach would be to use windows paths.  You can start a path, then stroke text in an existing font to that path.  Once you close the path you have the ability to do many unique things with it.  You can do outline letters simply by telling it to stroke the path.  For your purposes you would need to walk the path, and at each point do  blur effect.  this could involve simply setting pixels around the point, or other shading techniques.  That portion would be up to your own experimentation.  This MSDN article shows the StrokePath function and it is easy to see all of the path functions from there.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms535180(VS.85).aspx

There is also no commercial VCL that can do this?

Not that I have seen.

Can you use grey font color, rather than the default black?

One way to accomplish this is to mimic the shaded effect.  Since you want to blur this text, you will need at least 8 additional text-to-canvas operations.  What you do is to output your main text and then ouput the same text in a light grey font color in the -1 and +1 pixel positions in both the X and Y coordinates.

Check this too if you want :
http://www.clootie.ru/delphi/DirectXExamples/Custom/BitmapFont.zip

CodedK, thats not what I want. Bitmap font is limited, you cant choose fonts that are available in the system.

It seems there is no solution provided after quite sometimes.

So, I am giving up.

This question should be closed.

Did you ever try my suggestion?

Did you try my suggestion?

I object to the close request.

I would like to work with kapot to help him get a solution to his problem.  It had been quite a while since I thought about this that I considered it abandoned.  
_______________________________
@kapot
If you still need a solution, then start by trying the suggestions of both MerijnB and me.

aikimark,

MerijnB said that this could not be done directly and indeed. I dont like his solution because it involves drawing in other layer then merge it, which is beyond the scope of this task. Why I dont want layer, because I must take care of other drawing functions in my application.

I simply need a text drawing function that could draw blurred text, thats it.

For example, you got an image or a canvas ... then draw blurred text on top of it with a simple function call.

And I cant figure out your suggestion with grey color satisfy my requirement.

Why I want this blurred text? Because I will use it as "realistic" drop shadow.

This are my reasoning that none of the suggested solutions give answer to  this questions.

And I am giving up.

@kapot

"And I cant figure out your suggestion with grey color satisfy my requirement"

Did you try my suggestion?

The offset double-printing of characters is EXACTLY how drop shadow is done.  The grey shadow is first printed one l pixel to the right and 1 pixel below the 'real' character's position.  Then the real character is printed in black in the correct position.

==========================
However, you asked for 'blurred text', which is VERY different than drop shadow.  You are at the point of quitting while MerijnB and I are just now discovering your true requirements.  That is why I objected to closing this question.

aikimark,

Please ... read my original question.

I asked about how to draw BLURRED TEXT.

Dont you understand what I am asking here?

BLURRED TEXT drawing method.

That's all I am asking.

And none of you provided any solution.

Or am I missing something here?

It does not matter for what purpose I will use that blurred text LATER, that is not what I am asking here.

Speaking about drop shadow. YES, I do understand your info about first printed one pixel down and right. Even though, thats not realistic drop shadow like I want to achieve LATER with this blurred text.

If you dont know what is realistic drop shadow, please see the attached image. That drop shadow could NOT be achieved with your grey text and offset double-printing.

Stick to what the question is ...

@kapot

What we (experts) are missing is an example of what you MEAN by blurred text.  Please post an example like you did of the drop shadow letter above.

If you consider just the shadow part of the above combination to be a blurred text (which it is), then you can most certainly use the technique I originally described to achieve it.  Consider the central character to be a dark grey.  There are printings of the same (dark grey) charater to the left, right, above and below with lighter shades of grey.

Since you indicated you are an advanced Delphi developer, I assume you understand the purpose of the first two parameters of the TextOut method.  

I've made a demo which does drop down shadows, take a look and let me know if you're interested. I'll post a line to EE-stuff after this post.

For some reason ee-stuff doesn't update the Q, so you can find the file here http://www.ee-stuff.com/Expert/Upload/getFile.php?fid=7546

@MerijnB

What a neat little demo applet.  Is there a way to omit the main text and just draw the shadow?  This might help kapot clarify his requirements.

@aikimark

Don't know yet, let's wait what kapot says at first, maybe the total is enough already.

@MerijnB

What method(s) did you use to blur the text?

Wonderful!

MerijnB, that's exactly what I am looking for.

What I am referring as blurred text is the shadow part.

By the way, take a look into the "p" part ... you should see that the bottom of the leg is not blurred :)

So, will you share the code? :)

I used an addon from G32.

> So, will you share the code? :)

Sure, but is this as a whole good, or do you still want _only_ the blurred text part?

MerijnB,

The whole good.

I have G32 installed, but not sure with the add-on you mentioned.

I increased the point for this question.

I need to learn more about G32.  I thought it was mostly for fast graphics and tricks.  I didn't realize it could do tricks with text as well.  Thanks.

Your solution is probably simpler and almost certainly faster and offers kapot more options.

Hi MerijnB,

It works :) It took me sometimes to figure out how to install that GR32ex, but it works fine.

To others, here is the home of GR32ex:

http://code.google.com/p/gr32ex/

Oh yeah, I did not think that general Blurred Text could cause confusion :)

Very good solution. Example project is provided and easy to understand.

Please be aware that for the code I sent you do not have to install either GR32 or GR32ex.

MerijnB,

Yes, I noticed that. I dont use GR32 nor GR32ex from your code zip file.

I use the official one (GR32 and GR32ex).

Patched the GR32.

Do not install using GR32ex packages, just setup the Library Path.

Rebuild all projects.

Done.