CreateBitmapIndirect

The CreateBitmapIndirect function creates a bitmap with the specified width, height, and color format (color planes and bits per pixel).

HBITMAP CreateBitmapIndirect(
  CONST BITMAP *lpbm    // pointer to the bitmap data
);
 

Parameters

lpbm

Pointer to a BITMAP structure that contains information about the bitmap. If an application sets the bmWidth or bmHeight members to zero, CreateBitmapIndirect returns the handle to a 1- by 1-pixel, monochrome bitmap.

Return Values

If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to the bitmap.

If the function fails, the return value is NULL.

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

Remarks

After a bitmap is created, it can be selected into a device context by calling the SelectObject function.

While the CreateBitmapIndirect function can be used to create color bitmaps, for performance reasons applications should use CreateBitmapIndirect to create monochrome bitmaps and CreateCompatibleBitmap to create color bitmaps. When a color bitmap returned from CreateBitmapIndirect is selected into a device context, the system must ensure that the bitmap matches the format of the device context it is being selected into. Since CreateCompatibleBitmap takes a device context, it returns a bitmap that has the same format as the specified device context. Because of this, subsequent calls to SelectObject are faster than with a color bitmap returned from CreateBitmapIndirect.

If the bitmap is monochrome, zeros represent the foreground color and ones represent the background color for the destination device context.

When you no longer need the bitmap, call the DeleteObject function to delete it.

QuickInfo

  Windows NT: Requires version 3.1 or later.
  Windows: Requires Windows 95 or later.
  Windows CE: Unsupported.
  Header: Declared in wingdi.h.
  Import Library: Use gdi32.lib.

See Also

Bitmaps Overview, Bitmap Functions, BitBlt, BITMAP, CreateBitmap, CreateCompatibleBitmap, CreateDIBitmap, DeleteObject, SelectObject