CreateFont

Syntax

HFONT CreateFont(nHeight,nWidth,nEscapement,nOrientation,nWeight,cItalic,cUnderline,cStrikeOut,cCharSet,cOutputPrecision,cClipPrecision,cQuality,cPitchAndFamily,lpFacename)

This function creates a logical font that has the specified characteristics. The logical font can subsequently be selected as the font for any device.

Parameter Type/Description  
nHeight int Specifies the desired height (in logical units) of the font. The font height can be specified in three ways: If nHeight is greater than zero, it is transformed into device units and matched against the cell height of the available fonts. If it is zero, a reasonable default size is used. If it is less than zero, it is transformed into device units and the absolute value is matched against the character height of the available fonts. For all height comparisons, the font mapper looks for the largest font that does not exceed the requested size, and, if there is no such font, looks for the smallest font available.  
nWidth int Specifies the average width (in logical units) of characters in the font. If nWidth is zero, the aspect ratio of the device will be matched against the digitization aspect ratio of the available fonts to find the closest match, determined by the absolute value of the difference.  
nEscapement int Specifies the angle (in tenths of degrees) of each line of text written in the font (relative to the bottom of the page).  
nOrientation int Specifies the angle (in tenths of degrees) of each character's baseline (relative to the bottom of the page).  
nWeight int Specifies the desired weight of the font in the range 0 to 1000 (for example, 400 is normal, 700 is bold). If nWeight is zero, a default weight is used.  
cItalic BYTE Specifies whether the font is italic.  
cUnderline BYTE Specifies whether the font is underlined.  
cStrikeOut BYTE Specifies whether characters in the font are struck out.  
cCharSet BYTE Specifies the desired character set. The following values are predefined:  
  ANSI_CHARSET OEM_CHARSET SYMBOL_CHARSET  
  The OEM character set is system-dependent.  
  Fonts with other character sets may exist in the system. If an application uses a font with an unknown character set, it should not attempt to translate or interpret strings that are to be rendered with that font. Instead, the strings should be passed directly to the output device driver.  
cOutputPrecision BYTE Specifies the desired output precision. The output precision defines how closely the output must match the requested font's height, width, character orientation, escapement, and pitch. It can be any one of the following values:  
  OUT_CHARACTER_PRECIS
OUT_DEFAULT_PRECIS
OUT_STRING_PRECIS
OUT_STROKE_PRECIS
 
cClipPrecision BYTE Specifies the desired clipping precision. The clipping precision defines how to clip characters that are partially outside the clipping region. It can be any one of the following values:  
  CLIP_CHARACTER_PRECIS CLIP_DEFAULT_PRECIS CLIP_STROKE_PRECIS  
cQuality BYTE Specifies the desired output quality. The output quality defines how carefully GDI must attempt to match the logical-font attributes to those of an actual physical font. It can be any one of the following values:  
  DEFAULT_QUALITY DRAFT_QUALITY PROOF_QUALITY  
cPitchAndFamily BYTE Specifies the pitch and family of the font. The two low-order bits specify the pitch of the font and can be any one of the following values:  
  DEFAULT_PITCH FIXED_PITCH VARIABLE_PITCH  
  The four high-order bits of the field specify the font family and can be any one of the following values:  
  FF_DECORATIVE
FF_DONTCARE
FF_MODERN
FF_ROMAN
FF_SCRIPT
FF_SWISS
 
lpFacename LPSTR Points to a null-terminated character string that specifies the typeface name of the font. The length of this string must not exceed 30 characters. The EnumFonts function can be used to enumerate the typeface names of all currently available fonts.  

Return Value

The return value identifies a logical font if the function is successful. Otherwise, it is NULL.

Comments

The CreateFont function does not create a new font. It merely selects the closest match from the fonts available in GDI's pool of physical fonts.