Dynamically change font size of QLabel to fit available space

Question

I'm trying to make an horizontal layout with 3 QLabel scale use all its available space. More specifically, this is what I have

this is what I am aiming for

At the moment, the second image is achieved by changing the stylesheet of the qlabels with a slider. Additionally, since I have the the three labels in a layout inside a groupbox, the groupbox resizes to fit its contents, cool.

Now I wanted to drop the slider approach and instead autofit the space available when moving the splitters. In this question, OP reimplements the resizeEvent, and I've seen other posts suggesting the same, changing point by point with this while( !doesFit ) or something similar.

I tried using this approach, both on the resize event and on the splitterMoved event. However, this approach is way prone to feedback loops and other display errors caused. In the other question, they suggest enabling ignoreSizePolicy to prevent the size policy retriggering the sizeevent, but I like how qt handles the size of the layout, how it keeps a minimum size and then it folds the widget if the user insists. Maybe it would work if the HLayout would ignore the resize events triggered by the QLabels, still IMHO unclean thought.

I was wondering if that's the recommended way of achieving this, and wether a less unstable solution exists, maybe using using stylesheets. There are some behaviours that I could also drop, the minimum size limit (so the user could potentially hide the groupbox).

If that's the recommended way of doing it, how should I use the fontmetrics if I have three separate labels, one of which (the number) changes its text dynamically and rapidly? It should not have an impact on performance, and that while loop makes me wary.

It doesn't sound like the while(!fit) approach is going to cut it. Or does it?

--- Edit regarding the duplicate question

Another post creates an event filter, which might also work if reworked to deal with a layout with 3 labels. I finally used a version of the first mentioned post with the variation of the post mentioned in the comments. I'll post the answer if the question is reopened.

Answer 1

One could apply the Newton's method approach from this answer to work on all widgets in a given layout. It will work on any widget with a settable font, not only on a QLabel.

The Newton's algorithm converges reasonably quickly when given a good starting point, e.g. when resizing interactively. It's not atypical to have the loop execute only once. On the other hand, QWidget::sizeHint is integer-valued and and widgets may round fractional font sizes, thus sometimes the iteration is a bit slower than one would expect. The number of iterations is capped to ensure decent performance.

A custom replacement for the label, that provided a QSizeF sizeHintF(), would work better here.

The minimum sizing for the widgets is a bit of a stretch, as the size is not updated as the widget contents change. This could be remedied easily, though.

 // https://github.com/KubaO/stackoverflown/tree/master/questions/label-text-size-vert-40861305
#include <QtWidgets>

class LabelStretcher : public QObject {
   Q_OBJECT
   static constexpr const char kMinimumsAcquired[] = "ls_minimumsAcquired";
   static constexpr const char kStretcherManaged[] = "ls_stretcherManaged";
public:
   LabelStretcher(QObject *parent = 0) : QObject(parent) {
      apply(qobject_cast<QWidget*>(parent));
   }
   void apply(QWidget *widget) {
      if (!widget) return;
      setManaged(widget);
      setMinimumSize(widget);
      widget->installEventFilter(this);
   }
   void setManaged(QWidget *w, bool managed = true) {
      w->setProperty(kStretcherManaged, managed);
   }
protected:
   bool eventFilter(QObject * obj, QEvent * ev) override {
      auto widget = qobject_cast<QWidget*>(obj);
      if (widget && ev->type() == QEvent::Resize)
         resized(widget);
      return false;
   }
private:
   void onLayout(QLayout *layout, const std::function<void(QWidget*)> &onWidget) {
      if (!layout) return;
      auto N = layout->count();
      for (int i = 0; i < N; ++i) {
         auto item = layout->itemAt(i);
         onWidget(item->widget());
         onLayout(item->layout(), onWidget);
      }
   }
   void setFont(QLayout *layout, const QFont &font) {
      onLayout(layout, [&](QWidget *widget){ setFont(widget, font); });
   }
   void setFont(QWidget *widget, const QFont &font) {
      if (!widget || !widget->property(kStretcherManaged).toBool()) return;
      widget->setFont(font);
      setFont(widget->layout(), font);
   }
   void setMinimumSize(QWidget *widget) {
      if (widget->layout()) return;
      widget->setMinimumSize(widget->minimumSizeHint());
   }
   static int dSize(const QSizeF & inner, const QSizeF & outer) {
      auto dy = inner.height() - outer.height();
      auto dx = inner.width() - outer.width();
      return std::max(dx, dy);
   }
   qreal f(qreal fontSize, QWidget *widget) {
      auto font = widget->font();
      font.setPointSizeF(fontSize);
      setFont(widget, font);
      auto d = dSize(widget->sizeHint(), widget->size());
      qDebug() << "f:" << fontSize << "d" << d;
      return d;
   }
   qreal df(qreal fontSize, qreal dStep, QWidget *widget) {
      fontSize = std::max(dStep + 1.0, fontSize);
      return (f(fontSize + dStep, widget) - f(fontSize - dStep, widget)) / dStep;
   }
   void resized(QWidget *widget) {
      qDebug() << "pre: " << widget->minimumSizeHint() << widget->sizeHint() << widget->size();
      if (!widget->property(kMinimumsAcquired).toBool()) {
         onLayout(widget->layout(), [=](QWidget *widget){ setMinimumSize(widget); });
         widget->setProperty(kMinimumsAcquired, true);
      }

       // Newton's method
      auto font = widget->font();
      auto fontSize = font.pointSizeF();
      qreal dStep = 1.0;
      int i;
      for (i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
         auto prevFontSize = fontSize;
         auto d = df(fontSize, dStep, widget);
         if (d == 0) {
            dStep *= 2.0;
            continue;
         }
         fontSize -= f(fontSize, widget)/d;
         fontSize = std::max(dStep + 1.0, fontSize);
         auto change = fabs(prevFontSize - fontSize)/fontSize;
         qDebug() << "d:" << d << " delta" << change;
         if (change < 0.01) break; // we're within 1% of target
      }
      font.setPointSizeF(fontSize);
      setFont(widget, font);
      qDebug() << "post:" << i << widget->minimumSizeHint() << widget->sizeHint() << widget->size();
   }
};
constexpr const char LabelStretcher::kMinimumsAcquired[];
constexpr const char LabelStretcher::kStretcherManaged[];

int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
   QApplication app{argc, argv};
   QWidget w;
   QGridLayout layout{&w};
   LabelStretcher stretch{&w};
   QLabel labels[6];
   QString texts[6] = {"V", "30.0", "kts", "H", "400.0", "ft"};
   int i = 0, j = 0, k = 0;
   for (auto & label : labels) {
      stretch.setManaged(&label);
      label.setFrameStyle(QFrame::Box);
      label.setText(texts[k++]);
      if (j == 0) label.setAlignment(Qt::AlignRight | Qt::AlignVCenter);
      else if (j == 1) label.setAlignment(Qt::AlignCenter);
      layout.addWidget(&label, i, j++);
      if (j >= 3) { i++; j=0; }
   }
   w.show();
   return app.exec();
}
#include "main.moc"