Text

Text elements allow you to add formatted labels, descriptions, and annotations to your visualizations. They support rich styling options for typography and layout.

Source Code

1text title = {
2  value: "Algorithm Visualization"
3  fontSize: 24
4  color: "#2563eb"
5  fontWeight: "bold"
6  align: "center"
7  width: 300
8  height: 50
9}
10
11text description = {
12  value: ["This demonstrates text styling", "with multiple lines and colors"]
13  fontSize: [14, 12]
14  color: ["#374151", "#6b7280"]
15  fontFamily: ["Arial", "Georgia"]
16  align: ["left", "right"]
17  width: 300
18  height: 80
19}
20
21page
22show title
23show description

Rendered Diagram

Properties

Text elements support the following properties:

Property	Type	Description
value	string | string[]	Text content (single line or array of lines)
fontSize	number | number[]	Font size(s) for each line
color	color | (color | null)[]	Text color(s) for each line
fontWeight	fontWeight | (fontWeight | null)[]	Font weight (normal, bold, etc.)
fontFamily	fontFamily | (fontFamily | null)[]	Font family for each line
align	align | (align | null)[]	Text alignment (left, center, right)
lineSpacing	number	Spacing between lines
width	number	Text box width
height	number	Text box height

Methods

Text elements support these methods for manipulation:

info

Text objects do not support the setText() method since they are text themselves. Use setValue(), setFontSize(), and other text-specific methods instead.

Single Property Methods

• setValue(value) - Set text content for all lines
• setValue(line, value) - Set text content for specific line
• setFontSize(value) - Set font size for all text
• setFontSize(line, size) - Set font size for specific line
• setColor(line, color) - Set color for specific line
• setFontWeight(weight) - Set font weight for all text
• setFontWeight(line, weight) - Set font weight for specific line
• setFontFamily(family) - Set font family for all text
• setFontFamily(line, family) - Set font family for specific line
• setAlign(alignment) - Set alignment for all text
• setAlign(line, alignment) - Set alignment for specific line
• setLineSpacing(spacing) - Set line spacing
• setWidth(width) - Set text box width
• setHeight(height) - Set text box height

Multiple Element Methods

• setValues([...]) - Set text content for multiple lines
• setFontSizes([...]) - Set font sizes for multiple lines
• setColors([...]) - Set colors for multiple lines
• setFontWeights([...]) - Set font weights for multiple lines
• setFontFamilies([...]) - Set font families for multiple lines
• setAligns([...]) - Set alignments for multiple lines

Examples

Basic Text

Multi-line Text with Styles

Source Code

1text styled = {
2  value: ["Title Text", "Subtitle", "Body content here"]
3  fontSize: [20, 16, 12]
4  color: ["#1f2937", "#4b5563", "#6b7280"]
5  fontWeight: ["bold", "normal", "normal"]
6  align: ["center", "center", "left"]
7  width: 300
8  height: 100
9}
10
11page
12show styled

Rendered Diagram

Dynamic Text Updates

Source Code

1text status = {
2  value: "Status: Waiting"
3  fontSize: 14
4  color: "gray"
5  fontFamily: "monospace"
6}
7
8page
9show status
10
11page
12status.setColor(0, "orange")
13status.setValue(0, "Status: Processing")
14
15page
16status.setColor(0, "green")
17status.setValue(0, "Status: Complete")
18status.setFontWeight("bold")

Rendered Diagram

Multiple Lines with setValues

Source Code

1text progress = {
2  value: ["Step 1: Initialize", "Step 2: Process", "Step 3: Complete"]
3  fontSize: 14
4  color: ["gray", "gray", "gray"]
5}
6
7page
8show progress
9
10page
11progress.setValues(["Step 1: Initialize ✓", "Step 2: Process...", "Step 3: Complete"])
12progress.setColors(["green", "orange", "gray"])
13
14page
15progress.setValues(["Step 1: Initialize ✓", "Step 2: Process ✓", "Step 3: Complete ✓"])
16progress.setColors(["green", "green", "green"])

Rendered Diagram

Text as Data Labels

Source Code

1array myArr = {
2  value: [10, 25, 30, 15]
3  color: ["red", "green", "blue", "orange"]
4  above: "chartTitle"
5}
6
7text chartTitle = {
8  value: "Sample Data Visualization"
9  fontSize: 18
10  color: "#1f2937"
11  fontWeight: "bold"
12  align: "center"
13  width: 350
14  height: 30
15}
16
17text stats = {
18  value: ["Max: 30", "Min: 10", "Avg: 20"]
19  fontSize: 12
20  color: "#4b5563"
21  align: "left"
22  width: 150
23  height: 60
24}
25
26page
27show myArr
28show stats

Rendered Diagram

Rich Text Formatting

Source Code

1text rich = {
2  value: ["HEADER", "Important Notice", "Regular text here", "Footer info"]
3  fontSize: [24, 16, 14, 10]
4  color: ["#dc2626", "#f59e0b", "#374151", "#9ca3af"]
5  fontWeight: ["bold", "bold", "normal", "normal"]
6  fontFamily: ["Arial", "Georgia", "Times", "Courier"]
7  align: ["center", "center", "left", "right"]
8  lineSpacing: 20
9  width: 350
10  height: 120
11}
12
13page
14show rich

Rendered Diagram

Algorithm Step Description

Source Code

1array sorting = {
2  value: [64, 34, 25, 12]
3  color: ["red", "red", null, null]
4  below: "stepDesc"
5}
6
7text stepDesc = {
8  value: "Step 1: Compare first two elements"
9  fontSize: 14
10  color: "#1f2937"
11  fontFamily: "Arial"
12  align: "center"
13  width: 300
14  height: 40
15}
16
17page
18show sorting
19
20page
21sorting.setValues([34, 64, 25, 12])
22sorting.setColors(["green", "green", null, null])
23stepDesc.setValue(0, "Step 2: Swap if needed, continue")
24stepDesc.setColor(0, "#059669")

Rendered Diagram

Special Features

Implicit Text Fields

When you assign a string directly to positioning properties like above, below, left, or right, Merlin automatically creates an implicit text field:

Source Code

1graph myGraph = {
2  nodes: [n1, n2, n3]
3  edges: [n1-n2, n2-n3, n3-n1]
4  below: "Triangle Graph Representation"
5}
6
7page
8show myGraph

Rendered Diagram

The string "Triangle Graph Representation" automatically becomes a text element with default styling.

Linked Text Boxes

For more advanced styling and reusability, you can link explicit text elements to data structures by referencing them without quotes:

Source Code

1array numbers = {
2  value: [1, 2, 3]
3  color: ["blue", "green", "red"]
4  below: belowNumbers
5  above: "Prime Number Sequence"
6}
7
8text belowNumbers = {
9  value: "These are the first three prime numbers."
10  fontSize: 14
11  color: "gray"
12  fontWeight: "normal"
13  fontFamily: "Georgia"
14  align: "center"
15  lineSpacing: 10
16  width: 100
17  height: 40
18}
19
20page
21show numbers

Rendered Diagram

Benefits of Linked Text

Linked text boxes provide several advantages:

• Custom styling - Full control over typography and layout
• Reusability - Same text element can be referenced by multiple structures
• Dynamic updates - Text can be modified independently
• Complex formatting - Multi-line text with per-line styling

Source Code

1text sharedLabel = {
2  value: ["Data Analysis", "Updated: 2024"]
3  fontSize: [16, 12]
4  color: ["#1f2937", "#6b7280"]
5  fontWeight: ["bold", "normal"]
6  align: ["center", "center"]
7  width: 200
8  height: 50
9}
10
11array dataset1 = {
12  value: [10, 20, 30]
13  color: ["red", "green", "blue"]
14  above: sharedLabel
15}
16
17array dataset2 = {
18  value: [15, 25, 35]
19  color: ["orange", "purple", "yellow"]
20  below: sharedLabel
21}
22
23page 2x1
24show dataset1 (0, 0)
25show dataset2 (1, 0)

Rendered Diagram

Use Cases

Text elements are ideal for:

• Titles and headers - Chart titles, section headers
• Step descriptions - Algorithm step explanations
• Labels and annotations - Data labels, code comments
• Status indicators - Current state, progress messages
• Legends - Color coding explanations
• Instructions - User guidance, help text
• Mathematical notation - Formulas, equations (basic)
• Multi-language content - Different fonts per language

Related

• Methods Reference - Complete list of text methods
• Array - Text can label array elements
• Matrix - Text can describe matrix operations
• Graph - Text can annotate graph structures