Text Outline (Like Shapes "Line" Parameter)

[Woland]

Hello all,

I may just be daft from staying up all night again, but I can't figure out how to make text show up well over background. I'm headed into three text-heavy shows and being able to see text on any background would be extremely helpful. (Some text is static, but other parts have to be live-generated, so I can't just make an image or movie.)

I've been playing with a clever workaround, courtesy of @jhoepffner from this thread but it's not perfect. 

Even with this workaround, light text doesn't show up well on light backgrounds, and dark doesn't show up well on dark backgrounds.

Example:

As you can see, the dark text is hard to read on the dark quadrant.

However, if there were Parameters for the Text Draw actor that allowed one to make an outline around the text, of a specified colour, (like the Shapes actor), any colour text could show up on any coloured background.

White text with a black outline is visible on any background.

Inverted: Black text with a white outline can be seen on any background.

Any colour with a black outline can be read on any background.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I think having a black or white outline parameter for the Text Draw actor would be extremely helpful. (Or would the extra load break everything?)

Also, I refined @jhoepffner 's patch a bit so that it scales itself automatically. Please find it attached.

Best wishes,

Woland

>>>PATCH<<<

[Michel]

@woland

I read your post and thought, oh great a good reason fiddling around with Izzy again. Attached is my version of a text outline. 

Best Michel

TextOutline