Hello Hans, I don't understand how I managed not to spot this before since I use it frequently, but \sometxt seems to scale the labels according to the last defined label. In other words, if one defines one \sometxt{short} in the first graphic and one \sometxt{\dorecurse{10}{very }long} then the first text will be scaled to the length of the second one. Mojca \setupcolors[state=start] \setuptyping[file][option=TEX] % In my opinion this should be the default \chardef\TeXtextcolormode\zerocount \def\getexample{\placefigure[force]{none}{\getbuffer}} \startbuffer \startMPcode draw fullcircle xyscaled (3cm,2cm); label(\sometxt{Hello world!}, origin); \stopMPcode \stopbuffer \typebuffer \getexample \startbuffer \startTeXtexts \TeXtext{1}{Hello} \TeXtext{2}{world!} \stopTeXtexts \startMPcode draw sometxt(1) withcolor red; draw sometxt(2) shifted (2cm,0) withcolor blue; \stopMPcode \stopbuffer \typebuffer \getexample \startbuffer \def\ForThoseWhoReallyHateLongCommands#1% {\framed[framecolor=blue]{\strut\bs #1}} \definetextext[xs]{\ForThoseWhoReallyHateLongCommands} \startMPcode picture p; p = \sometxt[xs]{Framed title with eXtra Small overhelm}; fill bbox p withcolor .7white; draw p; \stopMPcode \stopbuffer \typebuffer % try to uncomment this one \getexample \stoptext