TextOut

taken from http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/psdk/gdi/fontext_5yd0.htm

The TextOut function writes a character string at the specified location, using the currently selected font, background color, and text color.

BOOL TextOut(
  HDC hdc,           // handle to DC
  int nXStart,       // x-coordinate of starting position
  int nYStart,       // y-coordinate of starting position
  LPCTSTR lpString,  // character string
  int cbString       // number of characters
);

Parameters

hdc

[in] Handle to the device context.

nXStart

[in] Specifies the logical x-coordinate of the reference point that the system uses to align the string.

nYStart

[in] Specifies the logical y-coordinate of the reference point that the system uses to align the string.

lpString

[in] Pointer to the string to be drawn. The string does not need to be zero-terminated, since cbString specifies the length of the string.

cbString

[in] Specifies the length of the string. For the ANSI function it is a BYTE count and for the Unicode function it is a WORD count. Note that for the ANSI function, characters in SBCS codepages take one byte each while most characters in DBCS codepages take two bytes; for the Unicode function, most currently defined Unicode characters (those in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP)) are one WORD while Unicode surrogates are two WORDs.

Windows 95/98: This value may not exceed 8192.

Return Values

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.

If the function fails, the return value is zero.

Windows NT/ 2000: To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

Although not true in general, Windows 95/98 supports the Unicode version of this function as well as the ANSI version.

The interpretation of the reference point depends on the current text-alignment mode. An application can retrieve this mode by calling the GetTextAlign function; an application can alter this mode by calling the SetTextAlign function.

By default, the current position is not used or updated by this function. However, an application can call the SetTextAlign function with the fMode parameter set to TA_UPDATECP to permit the system to use and update the current position each time the application calls TextOut for a specified device context. When this flag is set, the system ignores the nXStart and nYStart parameters on subsequent TextOut calls.

When the TextOut function is placed inside a path bracket, the system generates a path for the TrueType text that includes each character plus its character box. The region generated is the character box minus the text, rather than the text itself. You can obtain the region enclosed by the outline of the TrueType text by setting the background mode to transparent before placing the TextOut function in the path bracket. Following is sample code that demonstrates this procedure.

// Obtain the window's client rectangle 
GetClientRect(hwnd, &r); 
 
// THE FIX: by setting the background mode 
// to transparent, the region is the text itself 
// SetBkMode(hdc, TRANSPARENT); 
 
// Bracket begin a path 
BeginPath(hdc); 
 
// Send some text out into the world 
TextOut(hdc, r.left, r.top, "Defenestration can be hazardous", 4); 
 
// Bracket end a path 
EndPath(hdc); 
 
// Derive a region from that path 
SelectClipPath(hdc, RGN_AND); 
 
// This generates the same result as SelectClipPath() 
// SelectClipRgn(hdc, PathToRegion(hdc)); 
 
// Fill the region with grayness 
FillRect(hdc, &r, GetStockObject(GRAY_BRUSH)); 

Requirements

  Windows NT/2000: Requires Windows NT 3.1 or later.
  Windows 95/98: Requires Windows 95 or later.
  Header: Declared in Wingdi.h; include Windows.h.
  Library: Use Gdi32.lib.
  Unicode: Implemented as Unicode and ANSI versions on all platforms.

See Also

Fonts and Text Overview, Font and Text Functions, GetTextAlign, SelectObject, SetBkColor, SetTextAlign, SetTextColor, TabbedTextOut