Device-context attributes describe selected drawing objects (pens and brushes), the selected font and its color, the way in which objects are drawn (or mapped) to the device, the area on the device available for output (clipping region), and other important information. The structure that contains the device-context attributes is called the device-context data block. The default attributes and the GDI functions that affect or use them are as follows.
| Attribute | Default | GDI functions |