Introducing the Text Layout Framework library

The Flash Text Engine, available in Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR 1.5, supports many new text capabilities. Although you have access to an API that provides low-level access to this engine, if you wanted to use the API you would have to write a lot of code. Instead, the Flash Text Engine is intended to provide the foundation for libraries that leverage these capabilities and thus make life easier for developers.

This is where the Text Layout Framework comes in. It is a library written in pure ActionScript, and thus can be used in Flash CS4 Professional, Flex 3.2, "Gumbo" (codename for the next generation of Flex), and Adobe AIR 1.5.

The Text Layout Framework library provides support for:

• Bidirectional text, vertical text, and over 30 writing systems, including Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Lao, and the major writing systems of India
• Selecting, editing, and flowing text across multiple columns and linked containers, as well as around inline images
• Vertical text, Tate-Chu-Yoko (horizontal within vertical text), and justifier for East Asian typography
• Rich typographical controls, including kerning, ligatures, typographic case, digit case, digit width, and discretionary hyphens
• Cut, copy, paste, undo, and standard keyboard and mouse controls for editing
• Rich developer APIs to manipulate text content, layout, and markup and to create custom text components

Figures 1 through 6 show screen shots of the Text Layout Framework library in action, taken from the samples available on Adobe Labs.

Figure 1. Japanese text, left to right, vertical; you can see the text selection.

Figure 2. Text flowing in linked containers.

Figure 3. Text formatting: orientation, alignment, rotation, spaces.

Figure 4. Multiple column layout.

Figure 5. Inline images.

Figure 6. Text blends and effects.

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