c - How to render text in SDL2?

Question

I'm using an SDL_Window and SDL_Renderer.

Is it possible to use SDL_TTF with SDL_Render/SDL_Window? If so, how?

Answer 1

Yep, it is possible, given that you have a renderer and a window plus you don't really have any thoughts on dabbling with surfaces then you might want to mind on creating texture, here is a sample code

//this opens a font style and sets a size
TTF_Font* Sans = TTF_OpenFont("Sans.ttf", 24);

// this is the color in rgb format,
// maxing out all would give you the color white,
// and it will be your text's color
SDL_Color White = {255, 255, 255};

// as TTF_RenderText_Solid could only be used on
// SDL_Surface then you have to create the surface first
SDL_Surface* surfaceMessage =
    TTF_RenderText_Solid(Sans, "put your text here", White); 

// now you can convert it into a texture
SDL_Texture* Message = SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(renderer, surfaceMessage);

SDL_Rect Message_rect; //create a rect
Message_rect.x = 0;  //controls the rect's x coordinate 
Message_rect.y = 0; // controls the rect's y coordinte
Message_rect.w = 100; // controls the width of the rect
Message_rect.h = 100; // controls the height of the rect

// (0,0) is on the top left of the window/screen,
// think a rect as the text's box,
// that way it would be very simple to understand

// Now since it's a texture, you have to put RenderCopy
// in your game loop area, the area where the whole code executes

// you put the renderer's name first, the Message,
// the crop size (you can ignore this if you don't want
// to dabble with cropping), and the rect which is the size
// and coordinate of your texture
SDL_RenderCopy(renderer, Message, NULL, &Message_rect);

// Don't forget to free your surface and texture
SDL_FreeSurface(surfaceMessage);
SDL_DestroyTexture(Message);

I tried to explain the code line by line, you don't see any window right there since I already assumed that you knew how to initialize a renderer which would give me an idea that you also know how to initialize a window, then all you need is the idea on how to initialize a texture.

Minor questions here, did your window open? was it colored black? if so then my thoughts were right, if not, then you can just ask me and I could change this code to implement the whole section which consists of a renderer and a window.