Metafile functions close, copy, create, delete, retrieve, play, and return infor-mation about metafiles. A metafile is a collection of GDI commands that creates desired text or images.
Metafiles provide a convenient method of storing graphics commands that create text or images. Metafiles are especially useful in applications that use specific text or a particular image repeatedly. They are also device-independent; by creating text or images with GDI commands and then placing the commands in a metafile, an application can re-create the text or images repeatedly on a variety of devices. Metafiles are also useful in applications that need to pass graphics information to other applications.
The following list briefly describes each metafile function:
| Function | Description | |
| CloseMetaFile | Closes a metafile and creates a metafile handle. | |
| CopyMetaFile | Copies a source metafile to a file. | |
| CreateMetaFile | Creates a metafile display context. | |
| DeleteMetaFile | Deletes a metafile from memory. | |
| EnumMetaFile | Enumerates the GDI calls within a metafile. | |
| GetMetaFile | Creates a handle to a metafile. | |
| GetMetaFileBits | Stores a metafile as a collection of bits in a global memory block. | |
| PlayMetaFile | Plays the contents of a specified metafile. | |
| PlayMetaFileRecord | Plays a metafile record. | |
| SetMetaFileBits | Creates a memory metafile. |