Evening - Just setting up a 2.9 inch waveshare - i have Hello World working 
and have moved onto displaying text from MQTT - ie from the basic example:
lambda: |-
it.printf(20, 20, id(roboto), id(mysensor).state.c_str());
The Q is - my text is all on one line, how do i split the text over multiple lines, i kind of hoped it would auto format
Andy
Did you ever figure this out? I have a multi-line string coming from Home Assistant but it’s always displayed as a single line on the E-Ink display.
Sadly not - i went down a different route in the end for multiline data, pulling it in seperatly via an html page (so sadly not from HA).
I put a tutorial online at: https://connected-environments.org/blog/node-js-node-express-and-puppeteer-for-epaper-eink-displays-how-to-open-a-web-page-save-as-an-image/
Andy
Any news since the last post ? I’m still looking for a solution without using any external program 
For anyone in the future looking for a solution to this… Not pretty but it works. Adjust limit and Y addition as required.:
std::string s = id(weather).state;
int limit = 35;
int space = 0;
int i = 0;
int line = 0;
y= 305; // start Y
while(i<s.length()){ //loop through string, counting all the spaces, and replacing the last one with ~ [marked by space variable] if the count exceeds limit of 35
if(s.substr(i,1) == " "){space = i; }
if(line>limit-1){s=s.substr(0,space)+"~"+s.substr(space+1);line = 0;}
i++;line++;}
size_t pos = s.find("~"); //find the first line break
int linecount = 1; //need number of lines to store the break positions in an array
int breakpositions[10]; //store breakpositions [the '~']
breakpositions[0] = -1; // start at -1 cause we need to truncate the replaced characters and without this will cut off 1st character of message
while ( pos != std::string::npos) //loop through replacing the ~ with CR - though this doesnt matter here it will never be displayed, but need to change them to keep the loop from repeating at the start
{
s.replace(pos,1, "\n");
breakpositions[linecount] = pos; //store the position of the break in an array
pos = s.find("~"); // move forward
linecount++; // we have a new line, count it
}
breakpositions[linecount] = s.length(); //set the last entry in array to the length of string for calculation below
std::string singleline; //this will be the line we print
i = 0;
while (i < linecount ) { // count through the lines
singleline = s.substr(breakpositions[i]+1,(breakpositions[i+1]-breakpositions[i]-1)); //extract each line of text from the string - strip off the CRLF and the space.
it.printf(10, y, id(font_footer), "%s", singleline.c_str()); //print it!
y=y+30; // increment y to print properly on display
i++;
}
Just wondering for those of us that are not coders (but give it a red hot go lol) can you provide this is context of the greater config file?
And is there a way to say replace characters. My sensor is pulling in a list that looks like;
['Work on lights', 'Walk home', 'Fix Formatting ESP32', 'Get liteneasy']
And I just want it to be;
Work on lights
Walk home
Fix Formatting ESP32
Get liteneasy
Thanks in advance
So been trying to get this working the last couple of days and have this as my code;
std::string s = id(alexa_to_do_list).state;
int limit = 35;
int space = 0;
int i = 0;
int line = 0;
y= 105; // start Y
while(i<s.length()){ //loop through string, counting all the spaces, and replacing the last one with ~ [marked by space variable] if the count exceeds limit of 35
if(s.substr(i,1) == " "){space = i; }
if(line>limSit-1){s=s.substr(0,space)+"~"+s.substr(space+1);line = 0;}
i++;line++;}
size_t pos = s.find("~"); //find the first line break
int linecount = 1; //need number of lines to store the break positions in an array
int breakpositions[10]; //store breakpositions [the '~']
breakpositions[0] = -1; // start at -1 cause we need to truncate the replaced characters and without this will cut off 1st character of message
while ( pos != std::string::npos) //loop through replacing the ~ with CR - though this doesnt matter here it will never be displayed, but need to change them to keep the loop from repeating at the start
{
s.replace(pos,1, "\n");
breakpositions[linecount] = pos; //store the position of the break in an array
pos = s.find("~"); // move forward
linecount++; // we have a new line, count it
}
breakpositions[linecount] = s.length(); //set the last entry in array to the length of string for calculation below
std::string singleline; //this will be the line we print
i = 0;
while (i < linecount ) { // count through the lines
singleline = s.substr(breakpositions[i]+1,(breakpositions[i+1]-breakpositions[i]-1)); //extract each line of text from the string - strip off the CRLF and the space.
it.printf(10, y, id(font_small_bold), "%s", singleline.c_str()); //print it!
y=y+30; // increment y to print properly on display
i++;
}
But Im getting the following error
/config/esphome/to-do.yaml:201:11: error: 'y' was not declared in this scope
y= 105; // start Y
^
/config/esphome/to-do.yaml:201:11: note: suggested alternative: 'yn'
y= 105; // start Y
^
yn
/config/esphome/to-do.yaml:204:21: error: 'limSit' was not declared in this scope
if(line>limSit-1){s=s.substr(0,space)+"~"+s.substr(space+1);line = 0;}
^~~~~~
/config/esphome/to-do.yaml:204:21: note: suggested alternative: 'limit'
if(line>limSit-1){s=s.substr(0,space)+"~"+s.substr(space+1);line = 0;}
^~~~~~
limit
Any ideas?
Ahhh, some of the variables like Y I’ve declared much further up. Every variable you use must be declared a type before use. Type means string [words] or integer [whole numbers] etc.
add an int y=0; [or whatever Y position you’d like to start the wording at at top. The LimSit error is likely because of a typo - it should be limit.
LOL see that’s the thing, if you don’t know, you don’t know.
Thats so cool thanks!
Once I got it working, I can understand it a bit better and changed the limit from 35 to 20, which looks better for me.
I’m just wondering is anyone can help me to create code for the following.
replace [ and ] with nothing
replace “,” with “~” to perform the line break.
Would that work?
That simple change would give me just a list right?
Even if this is as far as I get, its still really cool, so thanks for that
EDIT
How did you figure this out LOL??? Im looking at the ESPHome doco and if has nothing about line breaks ect 
Oh ok, I think I misinterpreted your code here. It seemed like you were saying that anytime ESPHome sees ~ it performs a line break. But that must be wrong lol
However adding
| replace('[','') | replace(']','') | replace(',','~') }}"
To the value template did allow me to get rid of some of those characters which is great. I just need to know how to turn “,” into a line break
EDIT
Sorry that I’m basically adding my working for everyone to scroll past HAHA
So its “\n” that needs to be added. I cant do the value template thing, it doesn’t seem to work.
If anyone knows, Id appreciate it
EDIT again,
Ok, giving up for today lol, ChatGPT gave me this;
std::string shopping_list = id(alexa_shopping_list).state;
std::replace(shopping_list.begin(), shopping_list.end(), ',', '\n');
it.printf(20, 440, id(font_small_bold), TextAlign::BASELINE_LEFT, "%s", shopping_list.c_str());
And it displays, but does not return the line, just turns the comma into an X character of some kind
Would be curious to understand how to simply add newlines too. Same problem.
Thanks for the directions. For who it might help, this worked for my Nextion display:
Under lambda: |- add (add the text_sensors…):
// Fetch the weather state
// std::string s = id(weather).state.c_str();
int rounded_temp = static_cast<int>(round(id(outside_temperature).state));
std::string s = "Het is buiten " + std::to_string(rounded_temp) + " graden. De weersverwachting is: " + id(weather).state.c_str();
int limit = 56;
int space = 0;
int i = 0;
int line = 0;
// Loop through string, counting spaces and replacing the last one with ~ if the count exceeds the limit
while (i < s.length()) {
if (s.substr(i, 1) == " ") {
space = i;
}
if (line > limit - 1) {
s = s.substr(0, space) + "~" + s.substr(space + 1);
line = 0;
}
i++;
line++;
}
// Find the first line break
size_t pos = s.find("~");
// Loop through, replacing ~ with \r characters
while (pos != std::string::npos) {
s.replace(pos, 1, "\\r");
pos = s.find("~", pos + 1);
}
// Send the formatted string to the Nextion display component "verlichting.t11"
it.set_component_text_printf("verlichting.t11", "%s", s.c_str());