Beautiful Text Outline for Unity UI

Unity UIのTextに綺麗な輪郭線を付ける

This repository contains improved versions of the Outline effect. They can render thick text outline beautifully. They can be also used as soft (blurred) shadow effects.

Keywords

Unity uGUI Text Outline Shadow 文字 縁取り 輪郭 影

Comparison

CAUTION: Parenthesized numbers are rendering costs relative to text without outline. Take care where to use!

Outline

The builtin outline effect. It cannot render thick outlines correctly. It renders colored text meshes at 4 slightly shfted positions (up-left, up-right, down-left and down-right) from the main text mesh.

Outline8

A slightly improved version of Outline. It renders text meshes at 8 positions (up, down, left, right, up-left, up-right, and so on). It is equivalent to BoxOutline of (X,Y)=(1,1).

BoxOutline

Generalized version of Outline8. It renders text meshes at (2X+1)*(2Y+1)-1 positions on a grid whose center is same as the main text mesh.

CircleOutline

This can express outline thickness correctly. It renders text meshes at (N+K)+(N+2K)+... positions. Each N+iK positions are on a circle whose radius is i and center is same as the main text mesh.

Drop shadow

When the alpha of the outline color is small, the outlines look like soft shadow:

Performance

Not good, as you can imagine. I recommend the following assets and techniques.

• Text Mesh Pro
• Improved Alpha-Tested Magnification for Vector Textures
• Resolution Independent Curve Rendering using Programmable Graphics Hardware

Unity versions

The APIs for modifying UI meshes are different among versions:

• 5.5-5.1: IVertexModifier.ModifyVertices(List<UIVertex>)
• 5.2-5.2.1: IMeshModifier.ModifyMesh(Mesh)
• 5.2.1p1-: IMeshModifier.ModifyMesh(VertexHelper)

In this project, ModifiedShadow absorbs these differences. When you use our scripts in Unity 5.2.1pX, please define UNITY_5_2_1pX at Scripting Define Symbols in Player Settings.