Text::Wrap(3pm) 					User Contributed Perl Documentation					   Text::Wrap(3pm)

NAME

       GD::Text::Wrap - Wrap strings in boxes

SYNOPSIS

	 use GD;
	 use GD::Text::Wrap;

	 my $gd = GD::Image->new(800,600);
	 # allocate colours, do other things.

	 my $text = <<EOSTR;
	 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit,
	 sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore
	 magna aliquam erat volutpat.
	 EOSTR

	 my $wrapbox = GDTextWrap->new( $gd,
	     line_space  => 4,
	     color	 => $black,
	     text	 => $text,
	 );
	 $wrapbox->set_font(gdMediumBoldFont);
	 $wrapbox->set_font('arial', 12);
	 $wrapbox->set(align => 'left', width => 120);
	 $wrapbox->draw(10,140);

	 $gd->rectangle($wrap_box->get_bounds(10,140), $color);

DESCRIPTION

       GD::Text::Wrap provides an object that draws a formatted paragraph of text in a box on a GD::Image canvas, using either a builtin GD font
       or a TrueType font.

METHODS

       This class doesn't inherit from GD::Text directly, but delegates most of its work to it (in fact to a GD::Text::Align object. That means
       that most of the GD::Text::Align methods are available for this class, specifically "set_font" and "font_path". Other methods and methods
       with a different interface are described here:

   GD::Text::Wrap->new( $gd_object, attribute => value, ... )
       Create a new object. The first argument to new has to be a valid GD::Image object. The other arguments will be passed to the set() method
       for initialisation of the attributes.

   $wrapbox->set( attribute => value, ... )
       set the value for an attribute. Valid attributes are:

       width
	   The width of the box to draw the text in. If unspecified, they will default to the width of the GD::Image object.

       line_space
	   The number of pixels between lines. Defaults to 2.

       para_space, paragraph_space
	   The number of extra pixels between paragraphs, above line_space.  Defaults to 0.

       color, colour
	   Synonyms. The colour to use when drawing the font. Will be initialised to the last colour in the GD object's palette.

       align, alignment
	   Synonyms. One of 'justified' (the default), 'left', 'right' or 'center'.

       text
	   The text to draw. This is the only attribute that you absolutely have to set.

       preserve_nl
	   If set to a true value, newlines in the text will cause a line break.  Note that lines will still be justified. If only one word
	   appears on the line, it could get ugly.  Defaults to 0.

       As with the methods, attributes unknown to this class get delegated to the GD::Text::Align class.

   $wrapbox->get( attribute );
       Get the current value of an attribute. All attributes mentioned under the "set()" method can be retrieved

   $wrapbox->get_bounds()
       Returns the bounding box of the box that will be drawn with the current attribute settings as a list. The values returned are the
       coordinates of the upper left and lower right corner.

	       ($left, $top, $right, $bottom) = $wrapbox->get_bounds();

       Returns an empty list on error.

       NOTE: The return list of this method may change in a future implementation that allows angled boxes.

   $wrapbox->draw(x, y)
       Draw the box, with (x,y) as the top right corner.  Returns the same values as the "getbounds()" method.

       NOTE: The return list of this method may change in a future implementation that allows angled boxes.

NOTES

       As with all Modules for Perl: Please stick to using the interface. If you try to fiddle too much with knowledge of the internals of this
       module, you may get burned. I may change them at any time.

       You can only use TrueType fonts with version of GD > 1.20, and then only if compiled with support for this. If you attempt to do it anyway,
       you will get errors.

       Even though this module lives in the GD::Text namespace, it is not a GD::Text. It does however delegate a lot of its functionality to a
       contained object that is one (GD::Text::Align).

BUGS

       None that I know of, but that doesn't mean much. There may be some problems with exotic fonts, or locales and character encodings that I am
       not used to.

TODO

       Angled boxes.

       At the moment, the only bit of the box that is allowed to be unspecified and in fact must be unspecified, is the bottom. If there is enough
       need for it, I might implement more flexibility, in that that you need to only specify three of the four sides of the box, and the fourth
       will be calculated.

       Automatic resizing of a TrueType font to fit inside a box when four sides are specified, or maybe some other nifty things.

       More flexibility in the interface. Especially draw needs some thought.

       More and better error handling.

       Warnings for lines that are too long and stick out of the box.  Warning for emptyish lines?

COPYRIGHT

       copyright 1999 Martien Verbruggen (mgjv@comdyn.com.au)

SEE ALSO

       GD, GD::Text, GD::Text::Align

perl v5.12.3							    2003-02-24							   Text::Wrap(3pm)