Effect Text
Renders text on the model, sourced from typed text, a text file, or a lyric track, with font, movement, and per-word color options.
| Parameter | Type | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text | text entry | any text | The text string to display. Supports multiple lines and special tokens for countdown modes. When non-empty, the file picker and lyric track are disabled. |
| From File | custom (file path picker) | any file path | Path to a text file whose contents are displayed instead of the text field. Each line in the file is treated as a separate text line. Disabled when Text is non-empty. |
| From Lyrics | dropdown | populated by lyricTimingTracks (lyric timing tracks defined in the sequence) | Selects a lyric timing track to use as the text source. The current lyric phrase or word is displayed at each point in time. Disabled when Text or From File is set. |
| Font | custom (OS font picker) | system fonts, sizes, styles | The font face, size, and style used to render the text. Lockable. |
| XL Font | dropdown | Use OS Fonts, 5-5x5 Thin, 5-5x5 Mono, 6-5x6 Thin, 6-5x6 Thin Vertical, 6-6x6 Thin, 6-6x6 Thin Vertical, 7-7x9 Thin, 7-7x9 Thin Narrow, 7-7x9 Bold, 8-8x8 Thin, 8-8x8 Thin Vertical, 10-12x12 Bold, 10-12x12 Bold Vertical, 10-12x12 Thin, 10-12x12 Thin Vertical, 12-15x15 Bold, 12-15x15 Bold Vertical | Selects an xLights bitmap font (under fonts/) to use instead of the OS font. "Use OS Fonts" falls back to the Font picker above. |
| Movement | dropdown | none, left, right, up, down, vector, up-left, down-left, up-right, down-right, wavey, word-flip, left-right, up-down | Direction the text moves across the model. Includes scrolling, diagonal, wavey motion, word-flip, and vector-based movement between start and end positions. Lockable. |
| Move to center | checkbox | true/false | Stops the text movement when it reaches the center of the model rather than continuing off screen. Only meaningful when Movement is not "none". |
| Do not repeat | checkbox | true/false | Text scrolls through once and then stops instead of cycling. Only meaningful when Movement is not "none". |
| Speed | slider | 0-100 | How fast the text scrolls across the model. Higher values are faster. |
| Effect | dropdown | normal, vert text up, vert text down, rotate up 45, rotate up 90, rotate down 45, rotate down 90 | Text rendering orientation. Normal draws text horizontally; other options rotate or orient the text vertically. Lockable. |
| Count down | dropdown | none, seconds, minutes seconds, to date 'd h m s', to date 'h:m:s', to date 'm' or 's', to date 's', !to date!%fmt | Enables countdown mode. The Text field value is used as the target/format, and the displayed text shows the remaining time. "seconds" takes a time in seconds; "minutes seconds" takes mm:ss (delimit with / to prepend/append text, e.g. The next show begins in /15:30/! Stay Tuned.); the "to date ..." options count down to a given date/time (e.g. Fri, 25 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0100); !to date!%fmt counts down to a date using a custom output format (e.g. append %D to show days only). Lockable. |
| Offsets In Pixels | checkbox | true/false | When enabled, X/Y position values are interpreted as pixel offsets rather than percentage-based positions. |
| Color Per Word | checkbox | true/false | Each word in the text is drawn using a different palette color, cycling through the available colors. |
| X-axis Start | slider | -200 to 200 | Horizontal starting position of the text. Origin for vector movement, or a static offset when Movement is "none". |
| Y-axis Start | slider | -200 to 200 | Vertical starting position of the text. Origin for vector movement, or a static offset when Movement is "none". |
| X-axis End | slider | -200 to 200 | Horizontal ending position for vector movement mode. The text moves from the start position to this position over the effect duration. |
| Y-axis End | slider | -200 to 200 | Vertical ending position for vector movement mode. The text moves from the start position to this position over the effect duration. |
X-axis/Y-axis Start and X-axis/Y-axis End are grouped into "Start Position" and "End Position" tabs, each with an xy-center helper control for setting the position visually.
Visibility rules:
- When Movement is not "none", Move to center and Do not repeat are enabled; when Movement is "none", both are disabled.
- When Text is non-empty, From File and From Lyrics are disabled.
- When From File is non-empty, From Lyrics is disabled.
Use a Count down option with the Text field to build countdown timers — delimit prepend/append text with / in "minutes seconds" mode, or use !to date!%fmt to control exactly what the countdown displays. Combine an XL bitmap font with small matrices for crisp pixel text, or use the OS Font picker for arbitrary system fonts on higher-resolution models.
Last updated: 2026-07-01