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.
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.
#include <SDL.h>
#include <SDL_ttf.h>
#include <string>
int main() {
SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);
TTF_Init();
SDL_Window* window = SDL_CreateWindow(
"Styled Title Example",
SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED,
SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED,
800,
600,
SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN
);
SDL_Renderer* renderer = SDL_CreateRenderer(
window, -1, SDL_RENDERER_ACCELERATED);
TTF_Font* font =
TTF_OpenFont("Arial.ttf", 24);
// White text
SDL_Color color = {255, 255, 255, 255};
SDL_Surface* surface = TTF_RenderText_Blended(
font, "Bold Title Inside Window", color);
SDL_Texture* texture =
SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(
renderer, surface);
SDL_Rect dst = {
200, 250, surface->w, surface->h};
SDL_FreeSurface(surface);
SDL_RenderClear(renderer);
SDL_RenderCopy(renderer, texture, nullptr,
&dst);
SDL_RenderPresent(renderer);
SDL_Delay(3000);
SDL_DestroyTexture(texture);
TTF_CloseFont(font);
SDL_DestroyRenderer(renderer);
SDL_DestroyWindow(window);
TTF_Quit();
SDL_Quit();
}
Displays "Bold Title Inside Window" rendered in the window.
For styling, always work within your window’s content area.
Answers to questions are automatically generated and may not have been reviewed.
Learn how to set, get, and update window titles dynamically