ADV / NVL Text Layout

ADV／NVL（ノベルゲームの文字組み） / 1990s– / Layout / Games and Play

The visual novel has two named text layouts, of which ADV mode presents dialogue and narration one line at a time, generally in a window at the bottom of the screen. NVL mode presents several lines at once in a window that takes up the entire screen and starts a fresh page at marked breaks. The Ren'Py documentation defines the pair in exactly those terms.

In ADV mode a wide window stays at the bottom of the screen and holds one line at a time / In NVL mode the text fills the screen and the lines already read stack upward / An NVL page break clears the whole stack at once and the next page starts empty / Choices behave differently in each mode: NVL puts them directly after the current text instead of on a full screen menu

ADV / NVL Text Layout — ADV-style screen made with Ren'Py — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — ADV-style screen made with Ren'Py — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 ／ NVL-style screen from the Korean edition of Higurashi When They Cry — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain ／ ADV-style screen from Cameliagirls, 2011 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

ADV / NVL Text Layout — NVL-style screen from the Korean edition of Higurashi When They Cry — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — ADV-style screen made with Ren'Py — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 ／ NVL-style screen from the Korean edition of Higurashi When They Cry — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain ／ ADV-style screen from Cameliagirls, 2011 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Dictionary entry

Best used for: Choosing between the two layouts when building a reading app that advances dialogue one line at a time · Presenting a long monologue or letter as an accumulating page rather than a sequence of screens
Type: Fix the line spacing and put the speaker's name at the head of the line. Give each speaker a distinct name colour so the voice is legible at a glance.
Composition: In ADV mode pin the window to a band at the bottom and leave the art above it. In NVL mode give the window the whole screen and stack lines from the top. Decide the lines per page before anything else.
Material: Lay a translucent window over background and character art, dark or light enough that text survives whatever is behind it. Pick speaker colours by the value that separates them from the background.
Caution: Stacking lines in NVL mode without inserting page breaks pushes text below the bottom of the screen where it cannot be read.
Further study: where Ren'Py's nvl clear breaks the page / the role of nvl_narrator, which handles narration with no speaker / how the presentation of choices changes between ADV and NVL

Related entries

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