Text and Labels

Display formatted text, colored text, and labels in Dear ImGui

Text widgets display information to the user without requiring interaction. Dear ImGui provides several text functions for different formatting needs.

Basic Text Functions

Text()

Display formatted text using printf-style formatting:

IMGUI_API void Text(const char* fmt, ...) IM_FMTARGS(1);

Basic Text

ImGui::Text("Hello, world!");
ImGui::Text("Counter: %d", counter);
ImGui::Text("FPS: %.1f", ImGui::GetIO().Framerate);

TextUnformatted()

Display raw text without formatting (faster for long text):

IMGUI_API void TextUnformatted(const char* text, const char* text_end = NULL);

TextUnformatted() is more efficient than Text() for long text blocks as it doesn’t process format specifiers. It also supports non-null-terminated strings when text_end is provided.

const char* long_text = "This is a very long piece of text...";
ImGui::TextUnformatted(long_text);

// With explicit length
ImGui::TextUnformatted(long_text, long_text + 100);

Colored Text

TextColored()

Display text with a custom color:

IMGUI_API void TextColored(const ImVec4& col, const char* fmt, ...) IM_FMTARGS(2);

ImGui::TextColored(ImVec4(1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f), "Pink");
ImGui::TextColored(ImVec4(1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f), "Yellow");
ImGui::TextColored(ImVec4(1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f), "Error: %s", error_msg);

TextDisabled()

Display text with the disabled color from the current style:

IMGUI_API void TextDisabled(const char* fmt, ...) IM_FMTARGS(1);

ImGui::TextDisabled("(This option is disabled)");
ImGui::TextDisabled("Inactive: %d items", inactive_count);

The disabled color is defined in ImGuiStyle::Colors[ImGuiCol_TextDisabled]. Use this for consistency across your application.

Wrapped Text

TextWrapped()

Display text that automatically wraps at the window edge:

IMGUI_API void TextWrapped(const char* fmt, ...) IM_FMTARGS(1);

ImGui::TextWrapped(
    "This text should automatically wrap on the edge of the window. "
    "The current implementation for text wrapping follows simple rules "
    "suitable for English and possibly other languages."
);

Custom Text Wrapping

For more control over text wrapping, use PushTextWrapPos() / PopTextWrapPos():

IMGUI_API void PushTextWrapPos(float wrap_local_pos_x = 0.0f);
IMGUI_API void PopTextWrapPos();

wrap_local_pos_x · float

• < 0.0f: No wrapping
• = 0.0f: Wrap to end of window (or column)
• > 0.0f: Wrap at specified position in window local space

float wrap_width = 200.0f;
ImGui::PushTextWrapPos(ImGui::GetCursorPos().x + wrap_width);
ImGui::Text("The lazy dog is a good dog. This paragraph should fit within %.0f pixels.", wrap_width);
ImGui::PopTextWrapPos();

Label and Value Pairs

LabelText()

Display a label and value aligned like other widgets:

IMGUI_API void LabelText(const char* label, const char* fmt, ...) IM_FMTARGS(2);

ImGui::LabelText("label", "Value");
ImGui::LabelText("Position", "(%.1f, %.1f)", x, y);
ImGui::LabelText("Status", "%s", status_text);

BulletText()

Display text with a bullet point:

IMGUI_API void BulletText(const char* fmt, ...) IM_FMTARGS(1);

ImGui::BulletText("Important point 1");
ImGui::BulletText("Important point 2");
ImGui::BulletText("Count: %d", count);

You can also use Bullet() separately to just draw the bullet:

ImGui::Bullet();
ImGui::Text("Custom content after bullet");

Separator Text

SeparatorText()

Display a horizontal line with text (added in recent versions):

IMGUI_API void SeparatorText(const char* label);

ImGui::SeparatorText("Section 1");
// ... content ...

ImGui::SeparatorText("Section 2");
// ... content ...

Text Links

TextLink()

Display clickable hyperlink-style text:

IMGUI_API bool TextLink(const char* label);
IMGUI_API bool TextLinkOpenURL(const char* label, const char* url = NULL);

if (ImGui::TextLink("Documentation")) {
    OpenBrowser("https://github.com/ocornut/imgui");
}

// Automatically opens URL when clicked
ImGui::TextLinkOpenURL("GitHub", "https://github.com/ocornut/imgui");

Font Size Control

You can change the font size for text rendering:

IMGUI_API void PushFont(ImFont* font, float font_size_base_unscaled);
IMGUI_API void PopFont();

ImGuiStyle& style = ImGui::GetStyle();

// Double the current font size
ImGui::PushFont(NULL, style.FontSizeBase * 2.0f);
ImGui::Text("Large Text");
ImGui::PopFont();

// Custom size
ImGui::PushFont(NULL, 24.0f);
ImGui::Text("24-point text");
ImGui::PopFont();

Use NULL for the font parameter to keep the current font. The font_size_base_unscaled parameter is the size before global scale factors are applied.

Complete Example

void ShowTextDemo() {
    ImGui::Begin("Text Demo");
    
    // Basic text
    ImGui::Text("Basic text output");
    ImGui::Text("Counter: %d", frame_count);
    
    ImGui::Spacing();
    
    // Colored text
    ImGui::TextColored(ImVec4(1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f), "Error message");
    ImGui::TextColored(ImVec4(0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f), "Success!");
    ImGui::TextDisabled("Disabled information");
    
    ImGui::Spacing();
    
    // Wrapped text
    ImGui::TextWrapped(
        "This is a long piece of text that will automatically wrap "
        "when it reaches the edge of the window."
    );
    
    ImGui::Spacing();
    
    // Bullet points
    ImGui::BulletText("Feature 1");
    ImGui::BulletText("Feature 2");
    ImGui::BulletText("Feature 3");
    
    ImGui::Spacing();
    
    // Label-value pairs
    ImGui::LabelText("Name", "John Doe");
    ImGui::LabelText("Score", "%d", player_score);
    
    ImGui::Spacing();
    
    // Separator with text
    ImGui::SeparatorText("Additional Info");
    
    // Hyperlink
    ImGui::TextLinkOpenURL("Documentation", "https://github.com/ocornut/imgui");
    
    ImGui::End();
}

Best Practices

Avoid calling Text() in tight loops with string concatenation. Pre-format strings or use TextUnformatted() for better performance.

Use ImGui::GetIO().Framerate to display FPS: ImGui::Text("%.1f FPS", ImGui::GetIO().Framerate);