How to: Apply Animations to Text

Animations can alter the display and appearance of text in your application. The following examples use different types of animations to affect the display of text in a TextBlock control.

Example

The following example uses a DoubleAnimation to animate the width of the text block. The width value changes from the width of the text block to 0 over a duration of 10 seconds, and then reverses the width values and continues. This type of animation creates a wipe effect.

<TextBlock
  Name="MyWipedText"
  Margin="20" 
  Width="480" Height="100" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Foreground="Maroon">
  This is wiped text

  <!-- Animates the text block's width. -->
  <TextBlock.Triggers>
    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="TextBlock.Loaded">
      <BeginStoryboard>
        <Storyboard>
          <DoubleAnimation
            Storyboard.TargetName="MyWipedText" 
            Storyboard.TargetProperty="(TextBlock.Width)"
            To="0.0" Duration="0:0:10" 
            AutoReverse="True" RepeatBehavior="Forever" />
        </Storyboard>
      </BeginStoryboard>
    </EventTrigger>
  </TextBlock.Triggers>
</TextBlock>

The following example uses a DoubleAnimation to animate the opacity of the text block. The opacity value changes from 1.0 to 0 over a duration of 5 seconds, and then reverses the opacity values and continues.

<TextBlock
  Name="MyFadingText"
  Margin="20" 
  Width="640" Height="100" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Foreground="Maroon">
  This is fading text

  <!-- Animates the text block's opacity. -->
  <TextBlock.Triggers>
    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="TextBlock.Loaded">
      <BeginStoryboard>
        <Storyboard>
          <DoubleAnimation
            Storyboard.TargetName="MyFadingText" 
            Storyboard.TargetProperty="(TextBlock.Opacity)"
            From="1.0" To="0.0" Duration="0:0:5" 
            AutoReverse="True" RepeatBehavior="Forever" />
        </Storyboard>
      </BeginStoryboard>
    </EventTrigger>
  </TextBlock.Triggers>
</TextBlock>

The following diagram shows the effect of the TextBlock control changing its opacity from 1.00 to 0.00 during the 5-second interval defined by the Duration.

Text Opacity changing from 1.00 to 0.00

The following example uses a ColorAnimation to animate the foreground color of the text block. The foreground color value changes from one color to a second color over a duration of 5 seconds, and then reverses the color values and continues.

<TextBlock
  Name="MyChangingColorText"
  Margin="20" 
  Width="640" Height="100" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold">
  This is changing color text
  <TextBlock.Foreground>
    <SolidColorBrush x:Name="MySolidColorBrush" Color="Maroon" />
  </TextBlock.Foreground>

  <!-- Animates the text block's color. -->
  <TextBlock.Triggers>
    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="TextBlock.Loaded">
      <BeginStoryboard>
        <Storyboard>
          <ColorAnimation 
            Storyboard.TargetName="MySolidColorBrush"
            Storyboard.TargetProperty="Color"
            From="DarkOrange" To="SteelBlue" Duration="0:0:5"
            AutoReverse="True" RepeatBehavior="Forever" />
        </Storyboard>
      </BeginStoryboard>
    </EventTrigger>
  </TextBlock.Triggers>
</TextBlock>

The following example uses a DoubleAnimation to rotate the text block. The text block performs a full rotation over a duration of 20 seconds, and then continues to repeat the rotation.

<TextBlock
  Name="MyRotatingText"
  Margin="20" 
  Width="640" Height="100" FontSize="48" FontWeight="Bold" Foreground="Teal" 
  >
  This is rotating text
  <TextBlock.RenderTransform>
    <RotateTransform x:Name="MyRotateTransform" Angle="0" CenterX="230" CenterY="25"/>
  </TextBlock.RenderTransform>

  <!-- Animates the text block's rotation. -->
  <TextBlock.Triggers>
    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="TextBlock.Loaded">
      <BeginStoryboard>
        <Storyboard>
          <DoubleAnimation
            Storyboard.TargetName="MyRotateTransform" 
            Storyboard.TargetProperty="(RotateTransform.Angle)"
            From="0.0" To="360" Duration="0:0:10" 
            RepeatBehavior="Forever" />
        </Storyboard>
      </BeginStoryboard>
    </EventTrigger>
  </TextBlock.Triggers>
</TextBlock>

Note:
For the complete code sample from which the preceding code examples were extracted, see Text Animation Sample.

See Also

Concepts

Animation Overview