Is it possible to style the window title (e.g., bold text)?

Question

Ryan McCombe · Accepted Answer

Unfortunately, SDL does not support styling window titles. The title displayed in a window's border is entirely controlled by the operating system's window manager. This means you cannot apply styles like bold, italic, or color changes.

Workarounds for Styled Titles

If you need styled text, consider displaying it inside the window itself, rather than relying on the title bar. Use SDL rendering or a library like SDL_ttf for custom text rendering.

1#include <SDL.h>
2#include <SDL_ttf.h>
3#include <string>
4
5int main() {
6  SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);
7  TTF_Init();
8
9  SDL_Window* window = SDL_CreateWindow(
10    "Styled Title Example",
11    SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED,
12    SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED,
13    800,
14    600,
15    SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN
16  );
17
18  SDL_Renderer* renderer = SDL_CreateRenderer(
19    window, -1, SDL_RENDERER_ACCELERATED);
20  TTF_Font* font =
21    TTF_OpenFont("Arial.ttf", 24);
22    
23  // White text
24  SDL_Color color = {255, 255, 255, 255};
25  
26  SDL_Surface* surface = TTF_RenderText_Blended(
27    font, "Bold Title Inside Window", color);
28    
29  SDL_Texture* texture =
30    SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(
31      renderer, surface);
32
33  SDL_Rect dst = {
34    200, 250, surface->w, surface->h};
35  SDL_FreeSurface(surface);
36
37  SDL_RenderClear(renderer);
38  SDL_RenderCopy(renderer, texture, nullptr,
39                 &dst);
40  SDL_RenderPresent(renderer);
41
42  SDL_Delay(3000);
43  SDL_DestroyTexture(texture);
44  TTF_CloseFont(font);
45  SDL_DestroyRenderer(renderer);
46  SDL_DestroyWindow(window);
47
48  TTF_Quit();
49  SDL_Quit();
50}

1Displays "Bold Title Inside Window" rendered in the window.

For styling, always work within your window's content area.

Window Titles

Styling SDL Titles

Workarounds for Styled Titles

Window Titles

Game Development with SDL2

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