Label

The #GtkLabel widget displays a small amount of text. As the name implies, most labels are used to label another widget such as a #GtkButton, a #GtkMenuItem, or a #GtkComboBox.

CSS nodes

|[<!-- language="plain" --> label ├── selection ├── link ┊ ╰── link ]|

GtkLabel has a single CSS node with the name label. A wide variety of style classes may be applied to labels, such as .title, .subtitle, .dim-label, etc. In the #GtkShortcutsWindow, labels are used wth the .keycap style class.

If the label has a selection, it gets a subnode with name selection.

If the label has links, there is one subnode per link. These subnodes carry the link or visited state depending on whether they have been visited.

GtkLabel as GtkBuildable

The GtkLabel implementation of the GtkBuildable interface supports a custom <attributes> element, which supports any number of <attribute> elements. The <attribute> element has attributes named “name“, “value“, “start“ and “end“ and allows you to specify #PangoAttribute values for this label.

An example of a UI definition fragment specifying Pango attributes: |[ <object class="GtkLabel"> <attributes> <attribute name="weight" value="PANGO_WEIGHT_BOLD"/> <attribute name="background" value="red" start="5" end="10"/> </attributes> </object> ]|

The start and end attributes specify the range of characters to which the Pango attribute applies. If start and end are not specified, the attribute is applied to the whole text. Note that specifying ranges does not make much sense with translatable attributes. Use markup embedded in the translatable content instead.

Mnemonics

Labels may contain “mnemonics”. Mnemonics are underlined characters in the label, used for keyboard navigation. Mnemonics are created by providing a string with an underscore before the mnemonic character, such as "_File", to the functions gtk_label_new_with_mnemonic() or gtk_label_set_text_with_mnemonic().

Mnemonics automatically activate any activatable widget the label is inside, such as a #GtkButton; if the label is not inside the mnemonic’s target widget, you have to tell the label about the target using gtk_label_set_mnemonic_widget(). Here’s a simple example where the label is inside a button:

|[<!-- language="C" --> // Pressing Alt+H will activate this button GtkWidget *button = gtk_button_new (); GtkWidget *label = gtk_label_new_with_mnemonic ("_Hello"); gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER (button), label); ]|

There’s a convenience function to create buttons with a mnemonic label already inside:

|[<!-- language="C" --> // Pressing Alt+H will activate this button GtkWidget *button = gtk_button_new_with_mnemonic ("_Hello"); ]|

To create a mnemonic for a widget alongside the label, such as a #GtkEntry, you have to point the label at the entry with gtk_label_set_mnemonic_widget():

|[<!-- language="C" --> // Pressing Alt+H will focus the entry GtkWidget *entry = gtk_entry_new (); GtkWidget *label = gtk_label_new_with_mnemonic ("_Hello"); gtk_label_set_mnemonic_widget (GTK_LABEL (label), entry); ]|

Markup (styled text)

To make it easy to format text in a label (changing colors, fonts, etc.), label text can be provided in a simple [markup format]PangoMarkupFormat.

Here’s how to create a label with a small font: |[<!-- language="C" --> GtkWidget *label = gtk_label_new (NULL); gtk_label_set_markup (GTK_LABEL (label), "<small>Small text</small>"); ]|

(See [complete documentation]PangoMarkupFormat of available tags in the Pango manual.)

The markup passed to gtk_label_set_markup() must be valid; for example, literal <, > and & characters must be escaped as &lt;, &gt;, and &amp;. If you pass text obtained from the user, file, or a network to gtk_label_set_markup(), you’ll want to escape it with g_markup_escape_text() or g_markup_printf_escaped().

Markup strings are just a convenient way to set the #PangoAttrList on a label; gtk_label_set_attributes() may be a simpler way to set attributes in some cases. Be careful though; #PangoAttrList tends to cause internationalization problems, unless you’re applying attributes to the entire string (i.e. unless you set the range of each attribute to [0, %G_MAXINT)). The reason is that specifying the start_index and end_index for a #PangoAttribute requires knowledge of the exact string being displayed, so translations will cause problems.

Selectable labels

Labels can be made selectable with gtk_label_set_selectable(). Selectable labels allow the user to copy the label contents to the clipboard. Only labels that contain useful-to-copy information — such as error messages — should be made selectable.

Text layout # {#label-text-layout}

A label can contain any number of paragraphs, but will have performance problems if it contains more than a small number. Paragraphs are separated by newlines or other paragraph separators understood by Pango.

Labels can automatically wrap text if you call gtk_label_set_line_wrap().

gtk_label_set_justify() sets how the lines in a label align with one another. If you want to set how the label as a whole aligns in its available space, see the #GtkWidget:halign and #GtkWidget:valign properties.

The #GtkLabel:width-chars and #GtkLabel:max-width-chars properties can be used to control the size allocation of ellipsized or wrapped labels. For ellipsizing labels, if either is specified (and less than the actual text size), it is used as the minimum width, and the actual text size is used as the natural width of the label. For wrapping labels, width-chars is used as the minimum width, if specified, and max-width-chars is used as the natural width. Even if max-width-chars specified, wrapping labels will be rewrapped to use all of the available width.

Note that the interpretation of #GtkLabel:width-chars and #GtkLabel:max-width-chars has changed a bit with the introduction of [width-for-height geometry management.][geometry-management]

Links

Since 2.18, GTK+ supports markup for clickable hyperlinks in addition to regular Pango markup. The markup for links is borrowed from HTML, using the <a> with “href“ and “title“ attributes. GTK+ renders links similar to the way they appear in web browsers, with colored, underlined text. The “title“ attribute is displayed as a tooltip on the link.

An example looks like this:

|[<!-- language="C" --> const gchar *text = "Go to the" "<a href=\"http://www.gtk.org title=\"&lt;i&gt;Our&lt;/i&gt; website\">" "GTK+ website</a> for more..."; GtkWidget *label = gtk_label_new (NULL); gtk_label_set_markup (GTK_LABEL (label), text); ]|

It is possible to implement custom handling for links and their tooltips with the #GtkLabel::activate-link signal and the gtk_label_get_current_uri() function.

class Label : Misc {}

Constructors

this
this(GtkLabel* gtkLabel, bool ownedRef)

Sets our main struct and passes it to the parent class.

this
this(string str, bool mnemonic)

Creates a new GtkLabel, containing the text in str. If characters in str are preceded by an underscore, they are underlined. If you need a literal underscore character in a label, use '__' (two underscores). The first underlined character represents a keyboard accelerator called a mnemonic. The mnemonic key can be used to activate another widget, chosen automatically, or explicitly using setMnemonicWidget().

Members

Functions

addOnActivateCurrentLink
gulong addOnActivateCurrentLink(void delegate(Label) dlg, ConnectFlags connectFlags)

A [keybinding signal]GtkBindingSignal which gets emitted when the user activates a link in the label.

addOnActivateLink
gulong addOnActivateLink(bool delegate(string, Label) dlg, ConnectFlags connectFlags)

The signal which gets emitted to activate a URI. Applications may connect to it to override the default behaviour, which is to call gtk_show_uri_on_window().

addOnCopyClipboard
gulong addOnCopyClipboard(void delegate(Label) dlg, ConnectFlags connectFlags)

The ::copy-clipboard signal is a [keybinding signal]GtkBindingSignal which gets emitted to copy the selection to the clipboard.

addOnMoveCursor
gulong addOnMoveCursor(void delegate(GtkMovementStep, int, bool, Label) dlg, ConnectFlags connectFlags)

The ::move-cursor signal is a [keybinding signal]GtkBindingSignal which gets emitted when the user initiates a cursor movement. If the cursor is not visible in @entry, this signal causes the viewport to be moved instead.

addOnPopulatePopup
gulong addOnPopulatePopup(void delegate(Menu, Label) dlg, ConnectFlags connectFlags)

The ::populate-popup signal gets emitted before showing the context menu of the label. Note that only selectable labels have context menus.

getAngle
double getAngle()

Gets the angle of rotation for the label. See gtk_label_set_angle().

getAttributes
PgAttributeList getAttributes()

Gets the attribute list that was set on the label using gtk_label_set_attributes(), if any. This function does not reflect attributes that come from the labels markup (see gtk_label_set_markup()). If you want to get the effective attributes for the label, use pango_layout_get_attribute (gtk_label_get_layout (label)).

getCurrentUri
string getCurrentUri()

Returns the URI for the currently active link in the label. The active link is the one under the mouse pointer or, in a selectable label, the link in which the text cursor is currently positioned.

getEllipsize
PangoEllipsizeMode getEllipsize()

Returns the ellipsizing position of the label. See gtk_label_set_ellipsize().

getJustify
GtkJustification getJustify()

Returns the justification of the label. See gtk_label_set_justify().

getLabel
string getLabel()

Fetches the text from a label widget including any embedded underlines indicating mnemonics and Pango markup. (See gtk_label_get_text()).

getLabelStruct
GtkLabel* getLabelStruct(bool transferOwnership)

Get the main Gtk struct

getLayout
PgLayout getLayout()

Gets the #PangoLayout used to display the label. The layout is useful to e.g. convert text positions to pixel positions, in combination with gtk_label_get_layout_offsets(). The returned layout is owned by the @label so need not be freed by the caller. The @label is free to recreate its layout at any time, so it should be considered read-only.

getLayoutOffsets
void getLayoutOffsets(int x, int y)

Obtains the coordinates where the label will draw the #PangoLayout representing the text in the label; useful to convert mouse events into coordinates inside the #PangoLayout, e.g. to take some action if some part of the label is clicked. Of course you will need to create a #GtkEventBox to receive the events, and pack the label inside it, since labels are windowless (they return %FALSE from gtk_widget_get_has_window()). Remember when using the #PangoLayout functions you need to convert to and from pixels using PANGO_PIXELS() or #PANGO_SCALE.

getLineWrap
bool getLineWrap()

Returns whether lines in the label are automatically wrapped. See gtk_label_set_line_wrap().

getLineWrapMode
PangoWrapMode getLineWrapMode()

Returns line wrap mode used by the label. See gtk_label_set_line_wrap_mode().

getLines
int getLines()

Gets the number of lines to which an ellipsized, wrapping label should be limited. See gtk_label_set_lines().

getMaxWidthChars
int getMaxWidthChars()

Retrieves the desired maximum width of @label, in characters. See gtk_label_set_width_chars().

getMnemonicKeyval
uint getMnemonicKeyval()

If the label has been set so that it has an mnemonic key this function returns the keyval used for the mnemonic accelerator. If there is no mnemonic set up it returns #GDK_KEY_VoidSymbol.

getMnemonicWidget
Widget getMnemonicWidget()

Retrieves the target of the mnemonic (keyboard shortcut) of this label. See gtk_label_set_mnemonic_widget().

getSelectable
bool getSelectable()

Gets the value set by gtk_label_set_selectable().

getSelectionBounds
bool getSelectionBounds(int start, int end)

Gets the selected range of characters in the label, returning %TRUE if there’s a selection.

getSingleLineMode
bool getSingleLineMode()

Returns whether the label is in single line mode.

getStruct
void* getStruct()

the main Gtk struct as a void*

getText
string getText()

Fetches the text from a label widget, as displayed on the screen. This does not include any embedded underlines indicating mnemonics or Pango markup. (See gtk_label_get_label())

getTrackVisitedLinks
bool getTrackVisitedLinks()

Returns whether the label is currently keeping track of clicked links.

getUseMarkup
bool getUseMarkup()

Returns whether the label’s text is interpreted as marked up with the [Pango text markup language]PangoMarkupFormat. See gtk_label_set_use_markup ().

getUseUnderline
bool getUseUnderline()

Returns whether an embedded underline in the label indicates a mnemonic. See gtk_label_set_use_underline().

getWidthChars
int getWidthChars()

Retrieves the desired width of @label, in characters. See gtk_label_set_width_chars().

getXalign
float getXalign()

Gets the #GtkLabel:xalign property for @label.

getYalign
float getYalign()

Gets the #GtkLabel:yalign property for @label.

selectRegion
void selectRegion(int startOffset, int endOffset)

Selects a range of characters in the label, if the label is selectable. See gtk_label_set_selectable(). If the label is not selectable, this function has no effect. If @start_offset or @end_offset are -1, then the end of the label will be substituted.

setAngle
void setAngle(double angle)

Sets the angle of rotation for the label. An angle of 90 reads from from bottom to top, an angle of 270, from top to bottom. The angle setting for the label is ignored if the label is selectable, wrapped, or ellipsized.

setAttributes
void setAttributes(PgAttributeList attrs)

Sets a #PangoAttrList; the attributes in the list are applied to the label text.

setEllipsize
void setEllipsize(PangoEllipsizeMode mode)

Sets the mode used to ellipsize (add an ellipsis: "...") to the text if there is not enough space to render the entire string.

setJustify
void setJustify(GtkJustification jtype)

Sets the alignment of the lines in the text of the label relative to each other. %GTK_JUSTIFY_LEFT is the default value when the widget is first created with gtk_label_new(). If you instead want to set the alignment of the label as a whole, use gtk_widget_set_halign() instead. gtk_label_set_justify() has no effect on labels containing only a single line.

setLabel
void setLabel(string str)

Sets the text of the label. The label is interpreted as including embedded underlines and/or Pango markup depending on the values of the #GtkLabel:use-underline and #GtkLabel:use-markup properties.

setLineWrap
void setLineWrap(bool wrap)

Toggles line wrapping within the #GtkLabel widget. %TRUE makes it break lines if text exceeds the widget’s size. %FALSE lets the text get cut off by the edge of the widget if it exceeds the widget size.

setLineWrapMode
void setLineWrapMode(PangoWrapMode wrapMode)

If line wrapping is on (see gtk_label_set_line_wrap()) this controls how the line wrapping is done. The default is %PANGO_WRAP_WORD which means wrap on word boundaries.

setLines
void setLines(int lines)

Sets the number of lines to which an ellipsized, wrapping label should be limited. This has no effect if the label is not wrapping or ellipsized. Set this to -1 if you don’t want to limit the number of lines.

setMarkup
void setMarkup(string str)

Parses @str which is marked up with the [Pango text markup language]PangoMarkupFormat, setting the label’s text and attribute list based on the parse results.

setMarkupWithMnemonic
void setMarkupWithMnemonic(string str)

Parses @str which is marked up with the [Pango text markup language]PangoMarkupFormat, setting the label’s text and attribute list based on the parse results. If characters in @str are preceded by an underscore, they are underlined indicating that they represent a keyboard accelerator called a mnemonic.

setMaxWidthChars
void setMaxWidthChars(int nChars)

Sets the desired maximum width in characters of @label to @n_chars.

setMnemonicWidget
void setMnemonicWidget(Widget widget)

If the label has been set so that it has an mnemonic key (using i.e. gtk_label_set_markup_with_mnemonic(), gtk_label_set_text_with_mnemonic(), gtk_label_new_with_mnemonic() or the “use_underline” property) the label can be associated with a widget that is the target of the mnemonic. When the label is inside a widget (like a #GtkButton or a #GtkNotebook tab) it is automatically associated with the correct widget, but sometimes (i.e. when the target is a #GtkEntry next to the label) you need to set it explicitly using this function.

setPattern
void setPattern(string pattern)

The pattern of underlines you want under the existing text within the #GtkLabel widget. For example if the current text of the label says “FooBarBaz” passing a pattern of “___ ___” will underline “Foo” and “Baz” but not “Bar”.

setSelectable
void setSelectable(bool setting)

Selectable labels allow the user to select text from the label, for copy-and-paste.

setSingleLineMode
void setSingleLineMode(bool singleLineMode)

Sets whether the label is in single line mode.

setText
void setText(string str)

Sets the text within the #GtkLabel widget. It overwrites any text that was there before.

setTextWithMnemonic
void setTextWithMnemonic(string str)

Sets the label’s text from the string @str. If characters in @str are preceded by an underscore, they are underlined indicating that they represent a keyboard accelerator called a mnemonic. The mnemonic key can be used to activate another widget, chosen automatically, or explicitly using gtk_label_set_mnemonic_widget().

setTrackVisitedLinks
void setTrackVisitedLinks(bool trackLinks)

Sets whether the label should keep track of clicked links (and use a different color for them).

setUseMarkup
void setUseMarkup(bool setting)

Sets whether the text of the label contains markup in [Pango’s text markup language]PangoMarkupFormat. See gtk_label_set_markup().

setUseUnderline
void setUseUnderline(bool setting)

If true, an underline in the text indicates the next character should be used for the mnemonic accelerator key.

setWidthChars
void setWidthChars(int nChars)

Sets the desired width in characters of @label to @n_chars.

setXalign
void setXalign(float xalign)

Sets the #GtkLabel:xalign property for @label.

setYalign
void setYalign(float yalign)

Sets the #GtkLabel:yalign property for @label.

Static functions

getType
GType getType()

Variables

gtkLabel
GtkLabel* gtkLabel;

the main Gtk struct

Inherited Members

From Misc

gtkMisc
GtkMisc* gtkMisc;

the main Gtk struct

getMiscStruct
GtkMisc* getMiscStruct(bool transferOwnership)

Get the main Gtk struct

getStruct
void* getStruct()

the main Gtk struct as a void*

getType
GType getType()
getAlignment
void getAlignment(float xalign, float yalign)

Gets the X and Y alignment of the widget within its allocation. See gtk_misc_set_alignment().

getPadding
void getPadding(int xpad, int ypad)

Gets the padding in the X and Y directions of the widget. See gtk_misc_set_padding().

setAlignment
void setAlignment(float xalign, float yalign)

Sets the alignment of the widget.

setPadding
void setPadding(int xpad, int ypad)

Sets the amount of space to add around the widget.

Meta