# Exploring Custom Text Rendering with Jetpack Compose

DevFeed: [Exploring Custom Text Rendering with Jetpack Compose](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/exploring-custom-text-rendering-with-jetpack-compose-25835.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://segunfamisa.com/posts/exploring-custom-text-rendering-in-compose>)

Author: Segun Famisa

Published: 2026-01-11T06:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Segun Famisa](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/segun-famisa.md>)

Topics: [Jetpack Compose](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/jetpack-compose.md>), [Canvas](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/canvas.md>), [API](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/api.md>)

Tags: [android](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android.md>), [api](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/api.md>), [canvas](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/canvas.md>), [compose](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compose.md>), [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [jetpack-compose](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/jetpack-compose.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explores custom text rendering in Jetpack Compose using the TextMeasurer, TextLayoutResult, and Canvas APIs. It explains how to measure text, inspect line and character-level layout information, and use those results when drawing text with custom effects.

## Source excerpt

TL;DR: exploring TextMeasurer, TextLayoutResult and Canvas for custom text rendering with Jetpack compose My coworker showed me this article from devtechie on how to implement custom text rendering in SwiftUI. I was a bit envious of how easy it looked and I thought..."hmm, I think we should actually be able to do this in compose quite easily too". So, I decided to explore the lower level text APIs available on Compose and challenged myself to recreate the renderings with Compose. Before I talk through my take on some of the custom text renderings I want to recreate, I want to get straight to the main APIs that we can use to achieve the effects. Jetpack Compose Lower-Level Text APIs TextMeasurer The TextMeasurer API allows us to - you guessed it - measure the text before we draw it. It takes into account the style, text, constraints, and other things that could influence the size of the text. TextMeasurer has a measure function that returns a TextLayoutResult. The typical way one would create a text measurer is: val textStyle = MaterialTheme.typography.headlineLarge val text = "My special text" val textMeasurer = rememberTextMeasurer() val textLayoutResult = remember(text, textStyle, constraints) { textMeasurer.measure( text = text, style = textStyle, //constraints = constraints <--- if you need constraints ) } TextLayoutResult The TextLayoutResult is where the fun is. It contains information about the text being laid out. With TextLayoutResult, you can do a lot of cool things. You can get the number of lines required to draw the text via TextLayoutResult.lineCount. It also allows us to get the size of the text via TextLayoutResult.size. I really like this API because it's so powerful - it even gives us character by character information. You can get the bounding box Rect of a particular index in the text, and this is powerful for influencing the text rendering on a character-by-character basis. I strongly recommend going through the TextResultLayout docs to see what y