pango:layout-height (layout)

layout -- a pango:layout object
height -- an integer for the desired height of the Pango layout in Pango units if positive, or the desired number of lines if negative

The pango:layout-height function gets the height of layout used for ellipsization. The (setf pango:layout-height) function sets the height to which the Pango layout should be ellipsized at. There are two different behaviors, based on whether height is positive or negative.

If height is positive, it will be the maximum height of the Pango layout. Only lines would be shown that would fit, and if there is any text omitted, an ellipsis is added. At least one line is included in each paragraph regardless of how small the height value is. A value of zero will render exactly one line for the entire Pango layout.

If height is negative, it will be the (negative of) maximum number of lines per paragraph. That is, the total number of lines shown may well be more than this value if the Pango layout contains multiple paragraphs of text. The default value of -1 means that first line of each paragraph is ellipsized. This behvaior may be changed in the future to act per Pango layout instead of per paragraph. File a bug against pango at http://bugzilla.gnome.org/ if your code relies on this behavior.

Height setting only has effect if a positive width is set on the Pango layout and the ellipsization mode of the Pango layout is not :none. The behavior is undefined if a height other than -1 is set and the ellipsization mode is set to :none, and may change in the future.