To post a reply to my own question, just in case ..

think of x, y instead of coordinates, as a tri-state variable

on the horizontal,
1 'right-align' the text
0 'left-align' the text
-1 'center' the text (horizontally)

and for the vertical:
1 'bottom' align the text
0 'top-align' the text
-1 'center' the text (vertically)


thanks for the basis !