# ADV / NVL Text Layout (ADV／NVL（ノベルゲームの文字組み）)

> 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.

- IndexStyle No.542 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/adv-nvl-layout
- Kind: Layout · Family: Games and Play · Era: 1990s–
- Mood: Intimacy, Calm
- What this family collects: Small pictures handled again and again, where the imagery is inseparable from the rules of play and instant recognition is the governing design requirement.

## Defining characteristics

- 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

## 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

## Composition recipe

- Typography & lettering: 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.
- Layout & structure: 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 & texture: 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.

## Colour

Read off the reference works below, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.

- Ground: #FFFFFF
- The colour it is remembered by: #C8FFC8
- Text and outlines: #1A1A1A

## What to avoid

Stacking lines in NVL mode without inserting page breaks pushes text below the bottom of the screen where it cannot be read.

## Application checklist

Work through this before calling a piece an application of this style.

- [ ] Visible in the piece: In ADV mode a wide window stays at the bottom of the screen and holds one line at a time
- [ ] Visible in the piece: In NVL mode the text fills the screen and the lines already read stack upward
- [ ] Visible in the piece: An NVL page break clears the whole stack at once and the next page starts empty
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Choices behave differently in each mode: NVL puts them directly after the current text instead of on a full screen menu
- [ ] The layout follows: 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.
- [ ] The lettering follows: 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.
- [ ] The material and surface follow: 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.
- [ ] The colour relation holds: #FFFFFF as ground, #C8FFC8 carrying the style, #1A1A1A for text and outlines
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Manga Lettering (漫画の描き文字)** — In Japanese manga, sound effects and even the feel of silence are drawn as pictures, from a booming don to a hushed shiin. Hand-lettering turns the texture of a sound into line weight and shape, dissolving the border between image and word inside the panel. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/manga-lettering
- **Anime Style (アニメ絵)** — The drawing conventions Japanese television animation accumulated in order to deliver the most information from the fewest drawings. A unified, sign like face, clarity of contour, and speed produced by held drawings and effects have influenced drawing styles around the world. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/anime-style

## Compose it with something else

The dictionary can put this entry in a structural role and another in an accent role, and report where the two fight: https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=adv-nvl-layout+manga-lettering

## 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

## Reference works

- ADV-style screen made with Ren'Py — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipe-tan%20Visual%20Novel%20School%20French%20(Ren'Py).png
- NVL-style screen from the Korean edition of Higurashi When They Cry — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Higurashi%20no%20naku%20koro%20ni%20Korean%20(hacked%20NScripter).png
- ADV-style screen from Cameliagirls, 2011 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cameliagirls1%200.55a.png

## Source of record

- Ren'Py Documentation — NVL-Mode Tutorial — https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/nvl_mode.html

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/adv-nvl-layout
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/adv-nvl-layout/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compare_styles, compose_styles, find_related_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)