How to Print with Rotated Text

• Professional Edition of Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows, version 3.0

SUMMARY

You can use the CreateFont or CreateFontIndirect Windows API calls to obtain a rotated font. This allows printing of rotated text to a Visual Basic form, picture control, or the printer object.

NOTE: This technique may not work under Windows version 3.0 or when you use a non-TrueType font.

MORE INFORMATION

You can specify the rotation for a font when you request a font from Windows with the CreateFont or CreateFontIndirect Windows API calls; you do this by setting the escapement of the desired font. The escapement is expressed in tenths of degrees of rotation, so an escapement of 450 would be a 45-degree rotation; an 1800 escapement would be 180 degrees of rotation.

Once you have obtained a handle to the desired font with CreateFont/CreateFontIndirect, you can then use the SelectObject Windows API call to select the font for the device context (DC) of the Visual Basic printer object or for a Visual Basic form or picture control.

The following is a sample program that demonstrates printing rotated text in a Visual Basic picture control:

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add a command button (Command1) and a picture box (Picture1) to the form.

3. Create a new module and add the following code to the General declarations section of the module (NOTE: each declaration must be placed on one line.):

      Declare Function CreateFontIndirect Lib "GDI" (lpLogFont As Any)
                                                    As Integer
      Declare Function SelectObject Lib "GDI" (ByVal hDC As Integer,
                                               ByVal hgdiObj As Integer)
                                              As Integer
      Declare Function DeleteObject Lib "GDI" (ByVal hgdiObj As Integer)
                                              As Integer
   
      Type LOGFONT_TYPE
          lfHeight As Integer
          lfWidth As Integer
          lfEscapement As Integer
          lfOrientation As Integer
          lfWeight As Integer
          lfItalic As String * 1
          lfUnderline As String * 1
          lfStrikeOut As String * 1
          lfCharSet As String * 1
          lfOutPrecision As String * 1
          lfClipPrecision As String * 1
          lfQuality As String * 1
          lfPitchAndFamily As String * 1
          lfFaceName As String * 32
      End Type
   
   

4. Add the following code to the Command1_Click event:

      Sub Command1_Click ()
        Dim font As LOGFONT_TYPE
        Dim prevFont As Integer, hFont As Integer, ret As Integer
   
        Const FONTSIZE = 12   ' Desired point size of font
   
   
        font.lfEscapement = 1800    ' 180-degree rotation
        font.lfFaceName = "Arial" + Chr$(0)
   
        ' Windows expects the font size to be in pixels and to
        ' be negative if you are specifying the character height
        ' you want.
        font.lfHeight = (FONTSIZE * -20) / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY
   
        hFont = CreateFontIndirect(font)
        prevFont = SelectObject(Picture1.hDC, hFont)
   
        Picture1.CurrentX = Picture1.Width \ 2
        Picture1.CurrentY = Picture1.Height \ 2
        Picture1.Print "Rotated Text"
   
        ' Clean up by restoring original font.
        ret = SelectObject(Picture1.hDC, prevFont)
        ret = DeleteObject(hFont)
   
        Picture1.Print "Normal Text"
      End Sub
   
   

5. Press F5 to run the program. Choose the new command button and the string "Rotated Text" will be printed with a rotation of 180 degrees on the picture control.