A curated list of projects, packages, demos, and experiments built with Pretext, Cheng Lou's text layout engine for measuring and laying out multiline text without DOM reflow.
This list is meant to be useful to the broader Pretext community:
- official resources first
- ecosystem packages with live demos
- selected community experiments and integrations
Pretext lets you answer layout questions before paint:
- measure multiline text without
getBoundingClientRect() - predict height for virtualization and zero-CLS UI
- drive canvas, SVG, WebGL, and server-side rendering paths
- build shrinkwrapped, width-aware text interfaces in plain arithmetic
These are the strongest package-shaped projects in the current ecosystem.
| Project | What it does | Links |
|---|---|---|
pretext-react |
React hooks and UI primitives for stable text sizing, bubbles, streaming text, and virtualization. | demo |
pretext-chat |
Chat UI components with precomputed message sizing and streaming-friendly layout. | demo |
pretext-terminal |
Canvas-first terminal and log UI for large scrollback and ANSI-rich output. | demo |
pretext-editor |
Canvas text editor using Pretext for line measurement instead of DOM text nodes. | demo |
pretext-pdf |
PDF generation with correct wrapping and pagination powered by Pretext + pdf-lib. | demo |
All demo links below were verified live on March 30, 2026.
| Project | Description | Demo |
|---|---|---|
pretext-react |
React hooks and components for stable text measurement and streaming layout. | live |
pretext-accordion |
Zero-CLS accordion with predictive height measurement. | live |
pretext-forms |
Auto-sizing form controls without DOM reflow. | live |
pretext-tooltip |
Tooltips that know their size before render. | live |
pretext-truncate |
Multiline truncation without content flash. | live |
pretext-ssr |
SSR-first font loading and fallback prediction for zero layout shift. | live |
pretext-typewriter |
Streaming text animation with stable final-height measurement. | live |
pretext-masonry |
Masonry grid layout driven by predicted card heights. | live |
pretext-overflow-menu |
Nav bar that collapses items into "+N more" dropdown correctly on frame 1. | live |
pretext-animate |
Physics-based text animations with zero layout reflows. 120fps on mid-range devices. | live |
| Project | Description | Demo |
|---|---|---|
pretext-chat |
React chat surfaces for message streaming and virtualized history. | live |
pretext-terminal |
Canvas terminal for large scrollback and ANSI rendering. | live |
pretext-logviewer |
Virtualized log viewer for very large ANSI-heavy outputs. | live |
pretext-repl |
REPL/notebook UI where output cells expand without shifting other cells. | live |
| Project | Description | Demo |
|---|---|---|
pretext-editor |
Canvas editor with hidden textarea input and Pretext line layout. | live |
pretext-blocks |
Notion-style block editor virtualization. | live |
pretext-markdown |
Streaming markdown rendering with stable block heights. | live |
pretext-diff |
Large side-by-side diff viewer with virtualized rendering. | live |
pretext-pdf |
PDF generation with wrapped text and pagination. | live |
pretext-docgen |
JS-first document generation without a headless browser. | live |
pretext-epub |
EPUB pagination with direct page access. | live |
pretext-slides |
Markdown-to-canvas presentation system. | live |
pretext-captions |
Subtitle editor and renderer with WCAG-aware layout. | live |
pretext-diff-navigator |
Side-by-side diff viewer with drift-free synchronized scrolling. | live |
| Project | Description | Demo |
|---|---|---|
pretext-canvas |
Canvas and WebGL text rendering helpers powered by Pretext. | live |
pretext-comic |
Speech bubbles and shape-aware text fitting for comics. | live |
pretext-og |
Open Graph image generation that fixes wrapping issues in Satori-style flows. | live |
pretext-tts-highlight |
Karaoke-style word highlighting synced to audio or TTS. | live |
pretext-webxr |
3D and XR-oriented text layout surfaces. | live |
pretext-sparkline |
Inline sparklines with collision-free value labels computed before render. | live |
pretext-word-cloud |
Deterministic word cloud layout. 500x faster than d3-cloud. | live |
pretext-map-labels |
Collision-free label placement for 2D maps and diagrams. | live |
pretext-gantt |
Zero-flicker Gantt chart with labels measured and placed correctly on frame 1. | live |
pretext-infinite-canvas |
Figma/Miro-style infinite canvas with correct text wrapping at any zoom level. | live |
pretext-code-minimap |
VS Code-style code minimap for the browser. Pixel-accurate, Canvas-rendered. | live |
| Project | Description | Demo |
|---|---|---|
pretext-table |
Virtualized data table with Pretext-powered column sizing. | live |
pretext-rn |
React Native bridge for text measurement and list layout. | live |
| Project | Description | Demo |
|---|---|---|
pretext-storybook |
Stress-test UI components with dynamic text. Flags overflow before it ships. | live |
pretext-devtools |
Overlay Pretext text measurements on any webpage. See predicted vs actual dimensions. | live |
pretext-a11y |
WCAG text overflow audit in CI. No browser needed. | live |
pretext-i18n |
Catch i18n text overflow at build time. No browser needed. | live |
pretext-overflow-monitor |
Detect text overflow in CI before any browser render. Zero DOM, pure arithmetic. | live |
This section exists so the list is useful beyond one GitHub account.
| Project | Why it is interesting |
|---|---|
pinch-type |
Highest-visibility public experiment built on Pretext right now. |
pretext-playground |
Strong creative coding showcase with multiple text-driven scenes. |
react-pretext |
Earlier React wrapper for Pretext-style measurement workflows. |
pretext-rich |
Inline rich text engine on top of Pretext. |
textmash |
Experimental text-wrapping demo around other text chunks. |
pretext-php |
Interesting port that shows the design can travel outside JS. |
- it solves a real layout problem before paint
- it demonstrates something hard to do with plain DOM measurement
- it ships a live demo, not just a repo
- it explains why Pretext is the enabling primitive
Open a PR with:
- repo link
- one-line description
- live demo link if available
- what Pretext unlocks in that project
This is an independent ecosystem list. Pretext itself is authored and maintained by Cheng Lou, and the canonical upstream project is chenglou/pretext.
