How to calculate font height in WPF?

wpf fonts font-size
Tim Lloyd picture Tim Lloyd · Dec 22, 2010 · Viewed 12.9k times · Source

For a FontFamily how do I programatically retrieve/calculate the maximum height range for that font at a particular FontSize?

I need a value to set the height of a textblock that will display the font at the specified FontSize - this has to be carried out programatically.

I need a value that will take into consideration ascenders and descenders, etc.

Update

To clarify, I need the maximum height range for the entire FontFamily, not the height of some sample text in that font. I do not know what the text will be in advance.

Answer

Tim Lloyd picture Tim Lloyd · Jan 6, 2011

The maximum height range for a font can be calculated using its LineSpacing property which is a proportional figure for the font. This can be used to give a line height which can accommodate all glyphs for that font at a particular size.

    FontFamily fontFamily = new FontFamily("Segoe UI");
    double fontDpiSize = 16;

    double fontHeight = Math.Ceiling(fontDpiSize * fontFamily.LineSpacing);

Result:

   22.0

This figure will contain a small amount of leading which is desirable when needing a height for rows of text (so that ascenders and descenders from adjacent rows of text have spacing).

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