Drawing outlined text!

How to draw text like this!

Looks interesting right! Well this is done using plain window’s GDI functions, here is a function which does this!

// Thanks to Charles Petzold!
void CCanvas::DrawOutlineText( CDC& dc, const CString& Text )
{
  const int RestorePoint = dc.SaveDC();

  // Create new font
  CFont NewFont;
  NewFont.CreatePointFont( 700, TEXT( "Verdana" ), &dc );

  // Use this font
  dc.SelectObject( &NewFont );

  // Brush for pen
  LOGBRUSH lBrushForPen = { 0 };
  lBrushForPen.lbColor = RGB( 200, 150, 100 );
  lBrushForPen.lbHatch = HS_CROSS;
  lBrushForPen.lbStyle = BS_SOLID;

  // New pen for drawing outline text
  CPen OutlinePen;
  OutlinePen.CreatePen( PS_GEOMETRIC | PS_SOLID, 2, &lBrushForPen, 0, 0 );

  // Use this pen
  dc.SelectObject( &OutlinePen );

  dc.SetBkMode( TRANSPARENT );

  dc.BeginPath();
  // This text is not drawn on screen, but instead each action is being
  // recorded and stored internally as a path, since we called BeginPath
  dc.TextOut( 20, 20, Text );
  // Stop path
  dc.EndPath();

  // Now draw outline text
  dc.StrokePath();

  dc.RestoreDC( RestorePoint );
}

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Using PS_USERSTYLE for creating funky pens!

Using ExtCreatePen and PS_USERSTYLE you can create funky styled pens instead of the old PS_DOT, PS_DASHDOT, PS_DASHDOTDOT style pens. When using PS_USERSTYLE for creating pens you’ve got specify an array of DWORD which holds dash and space length while drawing a user styled pen!

I’ve created a sample application which demostrates marching ants demo, if you’ve worked in photoshop then you’ve already seen it after selecting a portion of an image…

A screenshot of marching ants…

Demo of marching ants

Download Executable (Rename to exe)

Here is the code!

// Add this to "OnPaint" function to have some fun :smiley:
void CDialogTestDlg::DrawMarchingStuff()
{
   CPaintDC dc(this);
   const int SavePoint = dc.SaveDC();
  
   // Just for demo, make this a member or whatever but not static !!!
   static CFont fnt;
   if( !fnt.GetSafeHandle() )
   {
      fnt.CreatePointFont( 700, _T( "verdana" ), &dc );
   }
   dc.SelectObject( fnt );
  
   // Create new ext pen
   CBrush Brush;
   Brush.CreateSolidBrush( RGB( 255, 00, 178 ));
   LOGBRUSH lBrush = { 0 };
   Brush.GetLogBrush( &lBrush );
  
   dc.SelectStockObject( NULL_BRUSH );
  
   int DashLen = 1;
   int SpaceLen = 2;
  
   // Well this is the array that I was talking about, every value at "odd index" denotes dash length and every
   // every value at "even index" denotes space length
   CPen NewPen;
   DWORD Style1[] = { DashLen, SpaceLen };
   DWORD Style2[] = { DashLen, SpaceLen + 1 }; // Secret to animation
  
   static int Decider = 0;
   int StyleLength = 0;
  
   DWORD* pStyle = NULL;
   if( !Decider )
   {
      StyleLength = sizeof(Style1)/sizeof(Style1[0]);
      pStyle = Style1;
      Decider = 1;
   }
   else
   {
      StyleLength = sizeof(Style2)/sizeof(Style2[0]);
      pStyle = Style2;
      Decider = 0;
   }
  
   NewPen.CreatePen( PS_GEOMETRIC | PS_USERSTYLE, 1, &lBrush, StyleLength, pStyle );
  
   // Hey Mr DC use MY pen
   dc.SelectObject( &NewPen );
   dc.SetBkMode(TRANSPARENT);
  
   dc.BeginPath();  
  
   // This text is not drawn on screen, but instead each action is being  
   // recorded and stored internally as a path, since we called BeginPath  
   dc.TextOut( 20, 20, _T( "Hello Nibu" ));  
  
   // Stop path  
   dc.EndPath();  
  
   // Draw outlined text
   dc.StrokePath();
  
   // Draw a marching rectangle wrapping above text
   dc.Rectangle( 20, 30, 500, 130 );
  
   // Restore previous stuff
   dc.RestoreDC( SavePoint );
}

How to rotate text using WinAPI?

Simple way to rotate a piece of text is to use a font object… Here is a sample which does this…

void CSomeDlg::OnPaint()
{    
  CPaintDC dc(this);   

  // Get existing dlg font    
  CFont NewFont;     
  LOGFONT lgFnt = { 0 };     
  GetFont()->GetLogFont(&lgFnt);   

  // Modify this existing font // 

  // Face name is important, some font's like MS Sans Serif doesn't work
  strcpy( lgFnt.lfFaceName, "Arial" ); 

  // Give rotation as multiples of 10, so rotation will be 90 degrees
  lgFnt.lfOrientation = 900;
  lgFnt.lfEscapement =  900;  

  // Create a font from this log font     
  VERIFY( NewFont.CreateFontIndirect( &lgFnt ));  

  // Save this DC    
  const int DcRestorePoint = dc.SaveDC();      
  dc.SetBkMode( TRANSPARENT );   

  // Set this font to DC     
  dc.SelectObject( &NewFont );     
  dc.TextOut( 100,100, _T( "Nibu babu thomas loves Jesus Christ" ));   

  // Restore dc to previous state    
  dc.RestoreDC( DcRestorePoint );
}// End OnPaint

Not much of work ! 🙂