Text-Styling.md

Text Styling

Balatro includes a very basic formatting syntax for styling and formatting displayed text in-game. Where supported, text can be styled with the use of style modifier codes included within the text string. For example, the text string:

{C:blue}+1{} hand	produces

Most SMODS objects that display description text will parse and style text strings automatically when loading from localization files or loc_txt. This includes the text strings of descriptions for Achievements, Consumables, Decks, Jokers, Vouchers, and more.

Style modifiers are not additive - text will only be styled by the modifiers contained within the previous set of curly braces. Using empty braces {} will reset text styling for text after it.

Additionally, multiple modifiers can be combined in a single set of curly braces. For example, the text string:

{X:mult,C:white}X0.5{}	produces

Valid style modifiers are as follows:

Defined text colour	{C:colour-key}
Defined background colour	{X:colour-key}
Variable/custom text colour	{V:colour-index}
Variable/custom background colour	{B:colour-index}
Text motion	{E:motion-index}
Text hover tooltip	{T:tooltip-key}
Text scale	{s:scale}
No modifiers (use default styling)	{}

Important

Modifiers are case sensitive – {s:} must be lowercase, while all other modifiers are UPPERCASE.

---

Defined text colour modifier {C:}

{C:colour-key} changes the color of the text, where colour-key is the key of a colour defined in G.ARGS.LOC_COLOURS.

Examples

Text string	loc_vars	Result
{C:mult}+4{} Mult
{C:attention}1{} free {C:green}Reroll{}
{C:green}#1# іn #2#{} chance	vars = { G.GAME.probabilities.normal, -- 1 card.ability.extra.odds -- 6 }

Defined background colour modifier {X:}

{X:colour-key} sets the background color of the text, where colour-key is the key of a colour defined in G.ARGS.LOC_COLOURS.

This modifier is usually combined with the text colour modifier to make labels.

This modifier uniquely strips all whitespace from the styled text, so text like {X:gold} W I D E {} is rendered as . This can be helpful for improving the readability of otherwise dense strings.

Examples

Text string	loc_vars	Result
{X:mult,C:white}X3{} Mult{}
{X:chips,C:white} X 1 . 5 {} Chips{}
{X:mult,C:white} X#1# {}	vars = { card.ability.extra.xmult -- 0.5 }

Variable/custom text colour modifier {V:}

{V:index} changes the colour of the text to a custom colour provided as an entry in the loc_vars vars.colours table. See Localization for more details.

index is the array index of the colour entry in the vars.colours table.

Examples

Text string	loc_vars	Result
{V:1}FF00FF{}	vars = { colours = { HEX("#FF00FF") } }
{V:2}#2#{} suit{}	vars = { "Spade", "Heart", "Club", "Diamond", colours = { G.C.SUITS.Spades, G.C.SUITS.Hearts, G.C.SUITS.Clubs, G.C.SUITS.Diamonds } }

Variable/custom background colour modifier {B:}

Note

This modifier is added by Steamodded and is not supported by vanilla Balatro.

{B:index} changes the colour of the background to a custom colour provided as an entry in the loc_vars vars.colours table. See Localization for more details.

index is the array index of the colour entry in the vars.colours table.

Unlike the similar Defined background modifier {X:}, {B:} does not remove or change the whitespace of styled text, so displayed contents will remain the same as their input string.

Examples

Text string	loc_vars	Result
{B:1}00FF00{}	vars = { colours = { HEX("#00FF00") } }
{B:1,V:2}Oh no!{} Anyway...	vars = { colours = { {1, 0, 0, 1}, --#FF0000 {0, 0, 0, 1} --#000000 } }
{B:1,V:2}#1#{B:2,V:1}#2#{}	vars = { "Spa", "rts", colours = { G.C.SUITS.Spades, G.C.SUITS.Hearts, } }

Text motion modifier {E:}

{E:1} applies a floating animation to each letter in the text.

{E:2} applies a bumping animation to each letter in sequence.

Examples

Text string	Result
{C:green,E:1}probabilities{}
{E:2}Joker{}
{C:red,E:2}self destructs{}

Text hover tooltip modifier {T:}

{T:tooltip-key} adds tooltip functionality to the text, which displays a small tooltip UI above the text when the text is hovered over.

tooltip-key must be the name of a key found in either G.P_CENTERS or G.P_TAGS. See the entries in the SMODS.Center category and SMODS.Tag for more.

Examples

Text string	Result
{C:tarot,T:v_crystal_ball}Crystal Ball{}

Text scale modifier {s:}

Important

This modifier requires the lowercase s, unlike other modifiers which must be UPPERCASE.

{s:scale} changes the size of the text.

scale is a decimal value where the default size is 1.0.

Vanilla Balatro only uses s:0.8, s:0.85 and s:1.1 text scales.

Examples

Text string	Result
{s:0.8}0.8 {s:1.0}1.0 {s:1.1}1.1{}

Combinations

Some style codes can be combined within one set of curly braces, like {X:mult,C:white}.

• {T:} and {s:} are compatible with all other modifiers.

• Background modifiers {X:} or {B:} can be used in conjunction with text colour modifiers {C:} or {V:}.

• {C:} and {V:} are exclusive - if both are used, {C:} will be ignored.

• {X:} and {B:} are exclusive - if both are used, {X:} will be ignored.

Examples

Text string	loc_vars	Result
{X:mult,C:white}X0.5{}
{C:edition,E:1,s:2}YOU WIN!{}
{s:0.8}({V:1,s:0.8}lvl.#1# {s:0.8}){} Level up{}	vars = { G.GAME.hands[card.config.hand_type].level, colours = { G.C.HAND_LEVELS[math.min(7, G.GAME.hands[card.config.hand_type].level )] } }

Named colours dictionary (G.ARGS.LOC_COLOURS)

Colour	Key	Value	Example	Note
	red	G.C.RED
	mult	G.C.MULT
	blue	G.C.BLUE
	chips	G.C.CHIPS
	green	G.C.GREEN
	money	G.C.MONEY
	gold	G.C.GOLD
	attention	G.C.FILTER
	purple	G.C.PURPLE
	white	G.C.WHITE
	inactive	G.C.INACTIVE
	spades	G.C.SUITS.Spades		Suit colours affected by High Contrast setting
	hearts	G.C.SUITS.Hearts
	clubs	G.C.SUITS.Clubs
	diamonds	G.C.SUITS.Diamonds
	tarot	G.C.SECONDARY_SET.Tarot
	planet	G.C.SECONDARY_SET.Planet
	spectral	G.C.SECONDARY_SET.Spectral
	edition	G.C.EDITION		Animated colours
	dark_edition	G.C.DARK_EDITION
	common	G.C.RARITY.Common		Added by Steamodded
	uncommon	G.C.RARITY.Uncommon
	rare	G.C.RARITY.Rare
	legendary	G.C.RARITY[4] or G.C.RARITY.Legendary
	enhanced	G.C.SECONDARY_SET.Enhanced
	default	G.C.UI.TEXT_DARK

This dictionary is initially assigned by the loc_colour function in functions/misc_functions.lua.

Steamodded automatically adds additional entries to LOC_COLOURS for all custom objects in:

• SMODS.Rarity
• SMODS.Gradient
• SMODS.ConsumableType
• SMODS.Suit

which can be used as colour keys in the same way by {C:} and {X:}. When referring to custom Rarity, Gradient, Consumable or Suit colours added by SMODS, the key must be prefixed with the mod prefix.