Text Providers

OverviewCopy Anchor Link

Evo UI routes text, input fields, and fonts through a text provider. TextMesh Pro is built in and selected by default. UniText is supported automatically when its package (media.lightside.unitext) is installed.

The selected provider is used by Evo UI components, Styler, and the Create menu. Text references on Evo UI components accept a text component of any supported provider, so the same component works with either engine.

UsageCopy Anchor Link

The selection is saved to ProjectSettings/Evo/EvoUISettings.json. Commit it so your team uses the same provider. Components that generate text, such as charts and List View, save the provider with the scene or prefab, so builds create the same text as the editor.

If the selected provider isn't installed, for example on a machine without its package, the page marks it and Evo UI uses TextMesh Pro until it is.

Converting Existing TextCopy Anchor Link

Convert Existing Text replaces text components and input fields with the selected provider's components on the same GameObjects, then repoints every reference to them. The result appears below the Convert button.

• Fonts are paired through the Font entries of the Styler Presets in your project. Text that uses an entry's TextMesh Pro font receives the same entry's UniText font, and the other way around. Text without a paired font uses the provider's default font and is listed in the Console.
• Text that cannot follow is skipped and listed in the Console. This includes text required by a provider-specific component, such as Text Effects, and text kept in a script field that only accepts one provider's type, such as TMP_Text.
• Evo Localization Localized Objects are switched between their TMPText and UniText object types along with their text.
• Evo UI prefabs ship with TextMesh Pro. When another provider is selected, the Create menu converts each new object as it is created, so the package templates stay unchanged.

FontsCopy Anchor Link

Each Styler Font entry holds one font per provider: a TextMesh Pro font asset, plus a font for each other provider (a UniTextFontStack or UniTextFont for UniText). When more than one provider is installed, the entry shows a field for each. Components resolve the font that matches their text, so one Font ID works with every provider.

Other font fields, such as List View style fonts and custom font mappings, accept fonts of the active provider.

Provider DifferencesCopy Anchor Link

• Text Effects and Smooth TMP Gradient require TextMesh Pro.
• Input Field Enhancer's Handle Shift Enter is TextMesh Pro only. For UniText fields, set the field's Submit Key behavior to Enter.
• Use Uniform Digit Width on Counter and Timer measures the widest digit and adds an <mspace> tag for TextMesh Pro, which needs Rich Text enabled; Digit Width Scale adjusts that width. UniText uses the font's tabular figures instead.
• Text Style auto-size width (WD%) and Line adjustments apply to TextMesh Pro only. Overflow maps Ellipsis and Truncate to UniText; other overflow modes have no UniText equivalent.
• UniText input fields are UniTextEditable components on the edited text object, while a TMP_InputField sits on a parent object of its text.

ScriptingCopy Anchor Link

Evo UI fields that reference text use provider-neutral types:

Prefer component properties such as Button.Text or ModalWindow.Title when they exist. Otherwise, use TextProvider, or cast the reference to the provider's type (for example, TMP_Text) when you need an engine-specific API.

Mark your own fields with [TextComponent], [TextInput], or [TextFont] to get the same Inspector filtering and to include them in conversions.

TextProviderCopy Anchor Link

Use TextProvider in the Evo.UI namespace. Shortcut methods do nothing, or return an empty value, for components that no installed provider supports.

For settings without a shortcut, such as font, alignment, focus, or interactability, call the TextBackend returned by Find() or FindInput(). To receive input field events from any provider, bind a TextInputListener to the field.

Custom ProvidersCopy Anchor Link

To support another text engine, derive from TextBackend and call TextProvider.Register() in both the editor and builds before Evo UI components use it. Its Id is saved in Project Settings and in components, so never change it after release.

ExampleCopy Anchor Link

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;
using Evo.UI;

public class TextProviderExample : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Accepts a text component of any installed provider.
    [SerializeField, TextComponent] private Graphic statusText;
    [SerializeField] private InputFieldEnhancer nameField;

    private void Start()
    {
        TextProvider.SetText(statusText, "Ready");

        // Restore a saved name without invoking value-change listeners.
        TextProvider.SetValue(nameField.source, "Player", notify: false);
        Debug.Log($"Name: {TextProvider.GetValue(nameField.source)}");
    }
}