User Guide

TextFormat.getTextExtent() 951
TextFormat.getTextExtent()
Availability
Flash Player 6. The optional width parameter is supported in Flash Player 7.
Usage
my_fmt.getTextExtent(text:String, [width:Number]) : Object
Parameters
text
A string.
width An optional number that represents the width, in pixels, at which the specified text
should wrap.
Returns
An object with the properties width, height, ascent, descent, textFieldHeight,
textFieldWidth.
Description
Method; returns text measurement information for the text string text in the format specified by
my_fmt. The text string is treated as plain text (not HTML).
The method returns an object with six properties:
ascent, descent, width, height,
textFieldHeight, and textFieldWidth. All measurements are in pixels.
If a
width parameter is specified, word wrapping is applied to the specified text. This lets you
determine the height at which a text box shows all of the specified text.
The
ascent and descent measurements provide, respectively, the distance above and below the
baseline for a line of text. The baseline for the first line of text is positioned at the text field’s
origin plus its
ascent measurement.
The
width and height measurements provide the width and height of the text string. The
textFieldHeight and textFieldWidth measurements provide the height and width required
for a text field object to display the entire text string. Text fields have a 2-pixel-wide “gutter”
around them, so the value of
textFieldHeight is equal the value of height + 4; likewise, the
value of
textFieldWidth is always equal to the value of width + 4.
If you are creating a text field based on the text metrics, use
textFieldHeight rather than
height and textFieldWidth rather than width.