Strings & i18n

Drawn text on the rendered frame (text/strings) and per-string locale coverage from values*/strings.xml (i18n/translations).

At a glance


Kinds	`text/strings`, `i18n/translations`
Schema version	1
Modules	`:data-strings-core` (published) · `:data-strings-connector`
Render mode	default
Cost	low
Token usage	~135 tok inline (`text/strings` ~470 chars); +~1.5 k per rendered PNG read. See token usage.
Transport	inline
Platforms	Android (i18n is Android-only) · Desktop · shared (`text/strings`)

What it answers

text/strings — every text run that ended up on screen, with locale, fontScale, fontSize, color, bounds, and per-entry truncated / overflow / lineCount / maxLines / didOverflowWidth / didOverflowHeight taken straight from Compose’s TextLayoutResult.
i18n/translations — for each visible string id, which locales have a translation and which fall through to the default. Highlights missing translations that actually matter on this screen — not the entire strings.xml.

What it does NOT answer

It does not score copy quality (clarity, brand voice, jargon) — that is a manual review.
It does not measure RTL correctness — pair with a render at locale=ar and compare bounds, or use the pseudolocale ar-XB runtime override to surface RTL bugs without translating to a real RTL language.
i18n/translations does not include Compose Multiplatform string resources (different resolution path, Android-specific for now).

Use cases

Catch text overflow before it ships: filter text/strings for didOverflowWidth=true across every preview.
Audit a feature’s locale coverage by listing visible strings whose missing-locale set is non-empty.
Verify a fontScale=2.0 accessibility test does not push critical CTAs off-screen.
Drive jump-to-source on a drawn label in the VS Code extension.

Payload shape

TextStringsPayload, TextStringEntry, I18nTranslationsPayload, I18nVisibleString in :data-strings-core.

// text/strings
{
  "entries": [
    { "text": "Submit", "locale": "en-US", "fontScale": 1.0,
      "fontSize": 14, "color": "#FFFFFFFF",
      "boundsInScreen": "48,200,144,232",
      "truncated": false, "didOverflowWidth": false, "didOverflowHeight": false,
      "lineCount": 1, "maxLines": 1 }
  ]
}

// i18n/translations
{
  "strings": [
    { "id": "submit", "default": "Submit",
      "locales": { "en-US": "Submit", "fr": "Envoyer" },
      "missing": ["de", "es"] }
  ]
}

Enabling

Producer runs once the Strings extension is publicly enabled. CLI / Gradle output: build/compose-previews/data/<id>/text-strings.json and i18n-translations.json.

Companion products

Fonts — fonts/used for the typeface side of the same drawn text.
Resources — resources/used for which R.string.* references resolved here.
Accessibility — a11y/hierarchy for assistive-technology labels alongside drawn copy.