diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 1b930e61a..93073c871 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -185,6 +185,8 @@ Detailed list of changes
 
 - Allow optionally dragging URLs with the mouse, see :sc:`start_simple_selection` (:pull:`9804`)
 
+- Improve ``draw_single_line_of_text()`` to accept an optional ``max_width`` parameter. When set, the width is treated as a maximum and reduced to the actual text width if smaller. The function now returns both pixel data and actual width used.
+
 - Fix thickness of diagonal lines in box drawing characters not the same as horizontal/vertical lines (:iss:`9719`)
 
 - Graphics protocol: Fix crash when handling invalid PNG image with direct transmission
diff --git a/kitty/glfw.c b/kitty/glfw.c
index 7cc51d264..d72454ddd 100644
--- a/kitty/glfw.c
+++ b/kitty/glfw.c
@@ -3111,7 +3111,7 @@ draw_single_line_of_text(PyObject *self UNUSED, PyObject *args) {
     size_t height = (size_t)w->fonts_data->fcm.cell_height + padding_y;
     if (max_width) {
         size_t text_w = text_width_for_single_line(font_sz_pts, ydpi, text, height);
-        if (text_w > 0 && (int)text_w < width) width = (int)text_w;
+        if (text_w > 0 && text_w < (size_t)width) width = (int)text_w;
     }
     size_t buf_sz = (size_t)width * height * 4;
     RAII_PyObject(ans, PyBytes_FromStringAndSize(NULL, buf_sz)); if (!ans) return NULL;