Text and positioning
====================

A ``text`` element places a standalone run of text. Text supports multiple
lines with ``\n`` and can be aligned and positioned:

.. sheeptext-example::
   :label: Multiline text
   :alt: Two lines of centred text

   text "Top\nBottom" align center valign top

Place elements at explicit coordinates with ``at (x, y)``:

.. sheeptext-example::
   :label: Positioned caption
   :alt: A caption positioned near a box

   Caption: text "Overview" align center at (160, 40)
   box "System" at (160, 120)

Labels can use any Latin letter with accents (``Ünïcödé``), the common
punctuation marks (``—``, ``…``, curly quotes), arrows (``→``, ``⇒``), the
comparison operators, geometric shapes and common symbols such as ``✓``,
``✗``, ``★`` and ``⚠``; a character outside that bundled repertoire is
refused at its statement, with the character named, because SheepText draws
every glyph from its own bundled fonts and never falls back to a system
font.

Text runs can contain escaped characters: a literal quote is ``\"`` and a
literal backslash is ``\\``:

.. sheeptext-example::
   :label: Escaped text
   :alt: A line of text containing an escaped quote and an escaped backslash

   text "path C:\\tmp - she said \"hello\""

Next: change colours and strokes in :doc:`styling`.