Pygame Pen. Render characters once for faster changing text.

import string
from pygame import Rect
from pygame.sprite import Sprite, Group
from pygame.font import Font

def color_wash(image, color):
    if not isinstance(color, pygame.Color):
        color = pygame.Color(color)

    width, height = image.get_size()
    for x in range(width):
        for y in range(height):
            pcolor = image.get_at((x, y))
            color.a = pcolor.a
            image.set_at((x, y), color)

PRINTABLE = string.ascii_letters + string.punctuation + string.digits

class Character(Sprite):
    def __init__(self, image):
        super().__init__()
        self.image = image
        self.rect = image.get_rect()

class Pen:
    @classmethod
    def font(cls, fontname, size, color, printable=PRINTABLE):
        font = Font(fontname, size)
        return cls(font, color, printable)

    def __init__(self, font, color, printable=PRINTABLE):
        self.printable = printable
        self.characters = {}
        self.advance = {}
        self.font = font
        self._character_build(color)

    def _character_build(self, color):
        for char in self.printable:
            self.characters[char] = self.font.render(char, 1, color)

        printable_space = self.printable + " "
        for char in printable_space:
            result = {}
            for key in printable_space:
                text = char + key
                adv = self.font.size(text)[0]
                base = self.font.size(key)[0]
                result[key] = adv - base

            self.advance[char] = result

    def _line(self, text, position, padding, anchor, yline=0):
        line = []
        previous_char = None
        width, height = self.font.size(text)
        rect = Rect(0, 0, width + padding * len(text) - padding, height)
        setattr(rect, anchor, position)
        xpos, ypos = rect.topleft

        for enumx, char in enumerate(text):
            if char in self.printable:
                if previous_char:
                    xpos += self.advance[previous_char][char] + padding

                images = self.characters[char]
                sprite = Character(images)
                sprite.rect.topleft = xpos, ypos
                line.append(sprite)
                previous_char = char
            elif char == " ":
                if previous_char:
                    xpos += self.advance[previous_char][char] + padding

                previous_char = char

        return line

    def render(self, text, position, padding=(0, 0), anchor='topleft'):
        lines = self.write(text, position, padding, anchor)
        result = Group()
        for line in lines:
            result.add(line)

        return result

    def set_color(self, color):
        for image in self.characters.values():
            color_wash(image, color)

    def write(self, text, position, padding=(0, 0), anchor='topleft'):
        if text.count('\n') > 0:
            lines = []
            xpos, ypos = position
            text_lines = text.split('\n')
            linesize = self.font.get_linesize() + padding[1]

            for yline, text_line in enumerate(text_lines):
                pos = xpos, ypos
                line = self._line(text_line, pos, padding[0], anchor, yline)
                lines.append(line)
                ypos += linesize

            return lines
        else:
            return [self._line(text, position, padding[0], anchor, 0)]