Choosing a Color

This topic describes sample code that displays a Color dialog box so a user can select a color. The sample code first initializes a CHOOSECOLOR structure, and then calls the ChooseColor function to display the dialog box. If the function returns TRUE, indicating that the user selected a color, the sample code uses the selected color to create a new solid brush.

This example uses the CHOOSECOLOR structure to initialize the dialog box as follows:

• Initializes the lpCustColors member with a pointer to a static COLORREF array. The colors in the array are initially black, but the static array preserves custom colors created by the user for subsequent ChooseColor calls.
• Sets the CC_RGBINIT flag and initializes the rgbResult member to specify the color that is initially selected when the dialog box opens. If not specified, the initial selection is black. The example uses the rgbCurrent static variable to preserve the selected value between calls to ChooseColor.
• Sets the CC_FULLOPEN flag so the custom colors extension of the dialog box is always displayed.

CHOOSECOLOR cc;                 // common dialog box structure 
static COLORREF acrCustClr[16]; // array of custom colors 
HWND hwnd;                      // owner window
HBRUSH hbrush;                  // brush handle
static DWORD rgbCurrent;        // initial color selection

// Initialize CHOOSECOLOR 
ZeroMemory(&cc, sizeof(CHOOSECOLOR));
cc.lStructSize = sizeof(CHOOSECOLOR);
cc.hwndOwner = hwnd;
cc.lpCustColors = (LPDWORD) acrCustClr;
cc.rgbResult = rgbCurrent;
cc.Flags = CC_FULLOPEN | CC_RGBINIT;
 
if (ChooseColor(&cc)==TRUE) {
    hbrush = CreateSolidBrush(cc.rgbResult);
    rgbCurrent = cc.rgbResult; 
}