Flutter Circular Text: How to Add and Style Curved Text in Your App

When it comes to enhancing the visual appeal of an app, the way text is presented plays a crucial role. In Flutter, a versatile UI toolkit, there's a growing demand for unique text presentations, such as displaying text along a circular path. This is where the concept of Flutter circular text comes into play. This blog will delve into the technical aspects of implementing Flutter circular text within your Flutter app, using the flutter_circular_text package.

Understanding the Flutter Circular Text Widget

The Flutter circular text widget is a powerful tool that allows developers to place text along a circular path, creating a visually striking effect. This widget is handy when displaying text non-linearly, such as around the edges of a clock or as a decorative element in your app's UI.

Setting Up the Flutter Circular Text Package

To begin with, you need to add the flutter_circular_text package to your project. This package provides the necessary tools to create and style circular text within your app. To include it in your project, add the following line to your pubspec.yaml file under the dependencies section:

Copy
1
2
dependencies:
  flutter_circular_text: 0.3.1

After adding the dependency, run flutter pub get in your terminal to fetch the package.

Creating the Circular Text Widget

To create a circular text widget, you first need to import the package into your Dart file:

Copy
1
import 'package:flutter_circular_text/flutter_circular_text.dart';

Next, you can instantiate the CircularText widget and define its properties. Here's a basic example:

Copy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
CircularText(
  children: [
    TextItem(
      text: Text(
        'Your circular text goes here',
        style: TextStyle(
          fontSize: 28,
          fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
          color: Colors.blue,
        ),
      ),
      space: 12,
      startAngle: -90,
      startAngleAlignment: StartAngleAlignment.center,
      direction: CircularTextDirection.clockwise,
    ),
  ],
)

We defined a TextItem with the desired text and style in this code snippet. The space property controls the distance between the letters, and the startAngle sets the starting point of the text on the circular path.

Customizations and Styling of Flutter Circular Text

Customizing and styling the Flutter circular text is crucial to integrating it into your app's design language. The flutter_circular_text package provides a variety of properties to fine-tune the appearance and behavior of your circular text. Let's explore some of the key customization and styling options available.

Adjusting Text Style

The TextStyle property within the Text widget is your primary tool for styling the text. You can adjust the font size, color, weight, and more to match your design requirements. For example, to create a bold and italicized text, you can use the following style:

Copy
1
2
3
4
5
6
TextStyle(
  fontSize: 24,
  fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
  fontStyle: FontStyle.italic,
  color: Colors.red,
)

Controlling Letter Spacing

The space property in the TextItem allows you to control the spacing between individual letters. This is particularly useful to increase readability or create a specific visual effect. You can adjust the space value to increase or decrease the distance between letters.

Setting the Start Angle and Direction

The startAngle property defines the angle at which the text starts rendering on the circular path. By adjusting this angle, you can control the starting location of your text. The direction property lets you specify whether the text should be drawn clockwise or counterclockwise, giving you control over the text flow.

Customizing the Circular Path

The radius of the circular path can be adjusted to make the text appear closer or further from the center. A larger radius will create a larger circle, and a smaller radius will create a tighter circle. This can be set using the radius property of the CircularText widget.

Here's an example that demonstrates various customizations, including text style, letter spacing, start angle, and direction:

Copy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
CircularText(
  radius: 120,
  children: [
    TextItem(
      text: Text(
        'Stylized Circular Text',
        style: TextStyle(
          fontSize: 18,
          fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
          fontStyle: FontStyle.italic,
          color: Colors.green,
        ),
      ),
      space: 14,
      startAngle: 0,
      startAngleAlignment: StartAngleAlignment.start,
      direction: CircularTextDirection.counterClockwise,
    ),
  ],
)

In this example, the text "Stylized Circular Text" is styled with a bold, italic green font of size 18. The letters are spaced 14 units apart, and the text starts from the rightmost point of the circle (0 degrees) and is drawn in a counterclockwise direction.

Drawing the Circular Text on Screen

To draw the circular text on the screen, you must place the CircularText widget within your app's tree. It can be nested within other widgets to achieve the desired location and alignment on the screen.

Copy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_circular_text/flutter_circular_text.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Circular Text Demo',
      theme: ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: CircularTextScreen(),
    );
  }
}

class CircularTextScreen extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: Text('Circular Text Example'),
      ),
      body: Center(
        child: CircularText(
          radius: 150,
          children: [
            TextItem(
              text: Text(
                'Circular Text around the path',
                style: TextStyle(
                  fontSize: 20,
                  color: Colors.blue,
                  fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
                ),
              ),
              space: 10,
              startAngle: -90,
              startAngleAlignment: StartAngleAlignment.center,
              direction: CircularTextDirection.clockwise,
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

This code will display the circular text "Circular Text around the path" centered on the screen, with each letter spaced 10 units apart, starting from the top center of the circle and going clockwise.

Conclusion

Implementing Flutter circular text in your Flutter app can significantly enhance the visual appeal and user experience. Using the flutter_circular_text package gives you access to tools that make it easy to create, style, and display circular text within your app. Circular text is worth considering whether you want to add a creative touch to your UI or want to present text uniquely.