Installation

Install the package that matches the layer you need.

Core engine

dotnet add package Pretext

Then import the core namespace:

using Pretext;

The core package is enough when you want to:

prepare text once and reuse it across many width probes
compute line counts or line strings in a custom control
drive your own SkiaSharp drawing code
use the engine outside Uno entirely

The core Pretext package targets:

netstandard2.0
net461
net6.0
net8.0
net10.0

Uno companion

dotnet add package Pretext.Uno

Pretext.Uno depends on Pretext, so the core engine is brought in transitively. The companion package itself remains net10.0-desktop. Import the core namespace and whichever companion namespaces you want:

using Pretext;
using Pretext.Uno.Controls;
using Pretext.Uno.Layout;

Use the companion package when you want the reusable Uno-side helpers from this repository:

StretchScrollHost
UiRenderScheduler
PreparedTextMetrics
ColumnFlowLayout
ObstacleLayoutHelper

Font string format

Every preparation entry point accepts a font string. Pretext parses a CSS-like subset:

a size in px, for example 16px
an optional weight, for example 700 16px Inter
optional italic or oblique
a family list, where only the first family is used

Examples:

"16px Inter"
"italic 16px Georgia"
"700 18px \"IBM Plex Sans\""
"600 15px system-ui"

Line height is not read from the font string. Pass it separately to Layout or LayoutWithLines.

Build the repo

dotnet build PretextSamples.slnx
dotnet test tests/Pretext.Uno.Tests/Pretext.Uno.Tests.csproj
dotnet pack src/Pretext/Pretext.csproj -c Release
dotnet pack src/Pretext.Uno/Pretext.Uno.csproj -c Release

Sample app

The interactive demos live in samples/PretextSamples. Use that app when you want to see how the library behaves in real layouts before integrating it into your own UI.