Text on a plane without Rasterize

Question

When I plot Text in Graphics3D it always faces the ViewPoint. I would like to put the text on a plane. Motivation for this is to have tick labels of a 3D plot on XY plane and never overlap no matter the viewpoint. Here is the example of the plot I need it for.

Here is how I have done it so far by rasterizing the text and using it as Texture for a Polygon. Dimensions of the Polygon can be taken automatically using ImageDimensions.

textStr = "Dodecahedron";
texture = 
 Graphics[{Text[textStr, Background -> None, 
    BaseStyle -> {FontFamily -> "Monospac821 BT", FontSize -> 22}]}, 
  ImageSize -> {Automatic, 28}]
textureDim = ImageDimensions@texture

Graphics3D[
 {Antialiasing -> True, Yellow, Opacity[.8], 
  PolyhedronData["Dodecahedron", "Faces"],
  Texture[Rasterize[texture, ImageResolution -> 300]], 
  Polygon[{-1, 2 + 0.5, 0} + {2, 2, 2} #/textureDim[[2]] & /@ {{0, 
      textureDim[[1]], 0}, {textureDim[[2]], textureDim[[1]], 
      0}, {textureDim[[2]], 0, 0}, {0, 0, 0}}, 
   VertexTextureCoordinates -> -1 {{0, 0}, {0, 1}, {1, 1}, {1, 0}}]}, 
 ViewPoint -> {2, -2, 2}]

Note that I Rasterize explicitly, such that I would have a control over ImageResolution. Texture will Rasterize anyway.

What I do not know, if there is a possibility of doing it without rasterization, which gets slow for many labels and requires DPI specification before exporting the plots.

You could outline the text and create polygons. DiscretizeGraphics can do this, search for "Text" in its documentation. Then convert 2D polygons to 3D ones and position them as you like. — Szabolcs, Jul 20 '16 at 07:46
Possible duplicate: (24946) Simon Woods shows exactly how to do this in his answer. — Mr.Wizard, Jul 20 '16 at 10:47

Johu · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-20T12:10:19.593

Based on the comment by Szabolcs I came up with a solution. Here it is

xyText[str_, scaling_: 1, offset_: {0, 0, 0}] := Module[{
   mesh = 
    DiscretizeGraphics[
     Text[Style[str, FontFamily -> "Monospac821 BT"]], _Text, 
     MaxCellMeasure -> 1]
   },
  MeshPrimitives[mesh, 
    2] /. {x_?NumberQ, y_?NumberQ} :> (scaling {x, y, 0} + offset)
  ]

Graphics3D[{Antialiasing -> True, Yellow, Opacity[.8], 
  PolyhedronData["Dodecahedron", "Faces"], 
  xyText["Dodecahedron", 0.2, {11, 0.1, 0}]}]

Edit: As suggested by Mr.Wizard the mesh can easily be hidden by specificifing EdgeForm[None]. This also removed the outer edge of the text, but this one can extract as an independent graphics using MeshPrimitives[BoundaryMesh[mesh],1]. Here is an example where the mesh is hidden and outer edge of the text recovered.

xyText[str_, scaling_: 1, offset_: {0, 0, 0}] := Module[{
   mesh = 
    DiscretizeGraphics[
     Text[Style[str, FontFamily -> "Monospac821 BT"]], _Text, 
     MaxCellMeasure -> 0.2]
   },
  Join[{EdgeForm[]},
   MeshPrimitives[mesh, 
     2] /. {x_?NumberQ, y_?NumberQ} :> (scaling {x, y, 0} + offset),
   {Black},
   MeshPrimitives[BoundaryMesh[mesh], 
     1] /. {x_?NumberQ, y_?NumberQ} :> (scaling {x, y, 0} + offset)
   ]]

meshedSol = 
 Graphics3D[{Antialiasing -> True, Yellow, Opacity[.8], 
   PolyhedronData["Dodecahedron", "Faces"], EdgeForm[Black], 
   xyText["Dodecahedron", 0.2, {11, 0.1, 0}]}, 
  ViewPoint -> {-2, -2, 2}]

Thank you for posting your solution to the benefit of others. +1 By the way you might want to add an EdgeForm[] before xyText in the Graphics3D expression. — Mr.Wizard, Jul 20 '16 at 10:29
Thank you for the pointing that out. I was aware of it and left the mesh for illustration. I will add a second example for benefit to others. — Johu, Jul 20 '16 at 11:50

Text on a plane without Rasterize

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