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

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.Label.newWithMnemonic or gtk.label.Label.setTextWithMnemonic.

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.Label.setMnemonicWidget. Here’s a simple example where the label is inside a button:

// 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:

// 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.Label.setMnemonicWidget:

// 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:

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.Label.setMarkup must be valid; for example, literal <, > and & characters must be escaped as <, >, and &. If you pass text obtained from the user, file, or a network to gtk.label.Label.setMarkup, you’ll want to escape it with glib.global.markupEscapeText or glib.global.markupPrintfEscaped.

Markup strings are just a convenient way to set the #PangoAttrList on a label; gtk.label.Label.setAttributes 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.Label.setSelectable. 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.Label.setLineWrap.

gtk.label.Label.setJustify 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:

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.Label.getCurrentUri function.

class Label : Misc {

this(void* ptr, Flag!"Take" take);

static GType _getGType();

GType _gType [@property getter];

Label self();

static LabelGidBuilder builder();

double angle [@property getter];

double angle [@property setter];

pango.attr_list.AttrList attributes [@property getter];

pango.attr_list.AttrList attributes [@property setter];

int cursorPosition [@property getter];

pango.types.EllipsizeMode ellipsize [@property getter];

pango.types.EllipsizeMode ellipsize [@property setter];

gtk.types.Justification justify [@property getter];

gtk.types.Justification justify [@property setter];

string label [@property getter];

string label [@property setter];

int lines [@property getter];

int lines [@property setter];

int maxWidthChars [@property getter];

int maxWidthChars [@property setter];

uint mnemonicKeyval [@property getter];

gtk.widget.Widget mnemonicWidget [@property getter];

gtk.widget.Widget mnemonicWidget [@property setter];

string pattern [@property setter];

bool selectable [@property getter];

bool selectable [@property setter];

int selectionBound [@property getter];

bool singleLineMode [@property getter];

bool singleLineMode [@property setter];

bool trackVisitedLinks [@property getter];

bool trackVisitedLinks [@property setter];

bool useMarkup [@property getter];

bool useMarkup [@property setter];

bool useUnderline [@property getter];

bool useUnderline [@property setter];

int widthChars [@property getter];

int widthChars [@property setter];

bool wrap [@property getter];

bool wrap [@property setter];

pango.types.WrapMode wrapMode [@property getter];

pango.types.WrapMode wrapMode [@property setter];

float xalign [@property getter];

float xalign [@property setter];

float yalign [@property getter];

float yalign [@property setter];

this(string str);

static gtk.label.Label newWithMnemonic(string str);

double getAngle();

pango.attr_list.AttrList getAttributes();

string getCurrentUri();

pango.types.EllipsizeMode getEllipsize();

gtk.types.Justification getJustify();

string getLabel();

pango.layout.Layout getLayout();

void getLayoutOffsets(int x, int y);

bool getLineWrap();

pango.types.WrapMode getLineWrapMode();

int getLines();

int getMaxWidthChars();

uint getMnemonicKeyval();

gtk.widget.Widget getMnemonicWidget();

bool getSelectable();

bool getSelectionBounds(int start, int end);

bool getSingleLineMode();

string getText();

bool getTrackVisitedLinks();

bool getUseMarkup();

bool getUseUnderline();

int getWidthChars();

float getXalign();

float getYalign();

void selectRegion(int startOffset, int endOffset);

void setAngle(double angle);

void setAttributes(pango.attr_list.AttrList attrs);

void setEllipsize(pango.types.EllipsizeMode mode);

void setJustify(gtk.types.Justification jtype);

void setLabel(string str);

void setLineWrap(bool wrap);

void setLineWrapMode(pango.types.WrapMode wrapMode);

void setLines(int lines);

void setMarkup(string str);

void setMarkupWithMnemonic(string str);

void setMaxWidthChars(int nChars);

void setMnemonicWidget(gtk.widget.Widget widget);

void setPattern(string pattern);

void setSelectable(bool setting);

void setSingleLineMode(bool singleLineMode);

void setText(string str);

void setTextWithMnemonic(string str);

void setTrackVisitedLinks(bool trackLinks);

void setUseMarkup(bool setting);

void setUseUnderline(bool setting);

void setWidthChars(int nChars);

void setXalign(float xalign);

void setYalign(float yalign);

gulong connectActivateCurrentLink(T callback, Flag!"After" after);

gulong connectActivateLink(T callback, Flag!"After" after);

gulong connectCopyClipboard(T callback, Flag!"After" after);

gulong connectMoveCursor(T callback, Flag!"After" after);

gulong connectPopulatePopup(T callback, Flag!"After" after);

}

Constructors

this this(void* ptr, Flag!"Take" take)
this this(string str): Creates a new label with the given text inside it. You can pass null to get an empty label widget.

Members

Functions

connectActivateCurrentLink gulong connectActivateCurrentLink(T callback, Flag!"After" after): Connect to ActivateCurrentLink signal.
connectActivateLink gulong connectActivateLink(T callback, Flag!"After" after): Connect to ActivateLink signal.
connectCopyClipboard gulong connectCopyClipboard(T callback, Flag!"After" after): Connect to CopyClipboard signal.
connectMoveCursor gulong connectMoveCursor(T callback, Flag!"After" after): Connect to MoveCursor signal.
connectPopulatePopup gulong connectPopulatePopup(T callback, Flag!"After" after): Connect to PopulatePopup signal.
getAngle double getAngle(): Gets the angle of rotation for the label. See gtk.label.Label.setAngle.
getAttributes pango.attr_list.AttrList getAttributes(): Gets the attribute list that was set on the label using gtk.label.Label.setAttributes, if any. This function does not reflect attributes that come from the labels markup (see gtk.label.Label.setMarkup). 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 pango.types.EllipsizeMode getEllipsize(): Returns the ellipsizing position of the label. See gtk.label.Label.setEllipsize.
getJustify gtk.types.Justification getJustify(): Returns the justification of the label. See gtk.label.Label.setJustify.
getLabel string getLabel(): Fetches the text from a label widget including any embedded underlines indicating mnemonics and Pango markup. (See gtk.label.Label.getText).
getLayout pango.layout.Layout 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.Label.getLayoutOffsets. 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.Widget.getHasWindow). 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.Label.setLineWrap.
getLineWrapMode pango.types.WrapMode getLineWrapMode(): Returns line wrap mode used by the label. See gtk.label.Label.setLineWrapMode.
getLines int getLines(): Gets the number of lines to which an ellipsized, wrapping label should be limited. See gtk.label.Label.setLines.
getMaxWidthChars int getMaxWidthChars(): Retrieves the desired maximum width of label, in characters. See gtk.label.Label.setWidthChars.
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 gtk.widget.Widget getMnemonicWidget(): Retrieves the target of the mnemonic (keyboard shortcut) of this label. See gtk.label.Label.setMnemonicWidget.
getSelectable bool getSelectable(): Gets the value set by gtk.label.Label.setSelectable.
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.
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.Label.getLabel)
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.Label.setUseUnderline.
getWidthChars int getWidthChars(): Retrieves the desired width of label, in characters. See gtk.label.Label.setWidthChars.
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.Label.setSelectable. 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.
self Label self(): Returns this, for use in with statements.
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(pango.attr_list.AttrList attrs): Sets a #PangoAttrList; the attributes in the list are applied to the label text.
setEllipsize void setEllipsize(pango.types.EllipsizeMode 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(gtk.types.Justification jtype): Sets the alignment of the lines in the text of the label relative to each other. gtk.types.Justification.Left is the default value when the widget is first created with gtk.label.Label.new_. If you instead want to set the alignment of the label as a whole, use gtk.widget.Widget.setHalign instead. gtk.label.Label.setJustify 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(pango.types.WrapMode wrapMode): If line wrapping is on (see gtk.label.Label.setLineWrap) this controls how the line wrapping is done. The default is pango.types.WrapMode.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(gtk.widget.Widget widget): If the label has been set so that it has an mnemonic key (using i.e. gtk.label.Label.setMarkupWithMnemonic, gtk.label.Label.setTextWithMnemonic, gtk.label.Label.newWithMnemonic 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.Label.setMnemonicWidget.
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.Label.setMarkup.
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.

Properties

_gType GType _gType [@property getter]
angle double angle [@property getter]: Get angle property.
angle double angle [@property setter]: Set angle property.
attributes pango.attr_list.AttrList attributes [@property getter]
attributes pango.attr_list.AttrList attributes [@property setter]
cursorPosition int cursorPosition [@property getter]
ellipsize pango.types.EllipsizeMode ellipsize [@property getter]: Get ellipsize property.
ellipsize pango.types.EllipsizeMode ellipsize [@property setter]: Set ellipsize property.
justify gtk.types.Justification justify [@property getter]
justify gtk.types.Justification justify [@property setter]
label string label [@property getter]: Get label property.
label string label [@property setter]: Set label property.
lines int lines [@property getter]: Get lines property.
lines int lines [@property setter]: Set lines property.
maxWidthChars int maxWidthChars [@property getter]: Get maxWidthChars property.
maxWidthChars int maxWidthChars [@property setter]: Set maxWidthChars property.
mnemonicKeyval uint mnemonicKeyval [@property getter]
mnemonicWidget gtk.widget.Widget mnemonicWidget [@property getter]
mnemonicWidget gtk.widget.Widget mnemonicWidget [@property setter]
pattern string pattern [@property setter]
selectable bool selectable [@property getter]
selectable bool selectable [@property setter]
selectionBound int selectionBound [@property getter]
singleLineMode bool singleLineMode [@property getter]: Get singleLineMode property.
singleLineMode bool singleLineMode [@property setter]: Set singleLineMode property.
trackVisitedLinks bool trackVisitedLinks [@property getter]: Get trackVisitedLinks property.
trackVisitedLinks bool trackVisitedLinks [@property setter]: Set trackVisitedLinks property.
useMarkup bool useMarkup [@property getter]
useMarkup bool useMarkup [@property setter]
useUnderline bool useUnderline [@property getter]
useUnderline bool useUnderline [@property setter]
widthChars int widthChars [@property getter]: Get widthChars property.
widthChars int widthChars [@property setter]: Set widthChars property.
wrap bool wrap [@property getter]
wrap bool wrap [@property setter]
wrapMode pango.types.WrapMode wrapMode [@property getter]: Get wrapMode property.
wrapMode pango.types.WrapMode wrapMode [@property setter]: Set wrapMode property.
xalign float xalign [@property getter]: Get xalign property.
xalign float xalign [@property setter]: Set xalign property.
yalign float yalign [@property getter]: Get yalign property.
yalign float yalign [@property setter]: Set yalign property.

Static functions

_getGType GType _getGType()
builder LabelGidBuilder builder(): Get builder for gtk.label.Label
newWithMnemonic gtk.label.Label newWithMnemonic(string str): Creates a new #GtkLabel, containing the text in str.

Inherited Members

From Misc

_getGType GType _getGType()
_gType GType _gType [@property getter]
self Misc self(): Returns this, for use in with statements.
builder MiscGidBuilder builder(): Get builder for gtk.misc.Misc
xalign float xalign [@property getter]: Get xalign property.
xalign float xalign [@property setter]: Set xalign property.
xpad int xpad [@property getter]: Get xpad property.
xpad int xpad [@property setter]: Set xpad property.
yalign float yalign [@property getter]: Get yalign property.
yalign float yalign [@property setter]: Set yalign property.
ypad int ypad [@property getter]: Get ypad property.
ypad int ypad [@property setter]: Set ypad property.
getAlignment void getAlignment(float xalign, float yalign): Gets the X and Y alignment of the widget within its allocation. See gtk.misc.Misc.setAlignment.
getPadding void getPadding(int xpad, int ypad): Gets the padding in the X and Y directions of the widget. See gtk.misc.Misc.setPadding.
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.

gtk label classes