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Q47451: Black and White Text Modes Display in Color on Color System

Article: Q47451
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 2.00 2.01
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | S_C docerr | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 22-DEC-1989

Question :

The characteristics of the different video modes that you can obtain
with _setvidemode are listed in "C for Yourself" on Page 201. The two
black and white text modes, _TEXTBW40 and _TEXTBW80, both show 16 gray
shades as the available colors. When I set either of these modes, my
text is output in color rather than in gray shades. Why can't I get
gray tones?

Response :

The information in "C for Yourself" is accurate, but incomplete. The
chart under _setvideomode in the QuickC on-line help is more
informative. "C for Yourself" fails to explain that these modes do
provide 16 colors, unless you are using a monochrome display, in which
case you get 16 gray shades.

The "C 5.1 Run-time Library Reference" and the QuickC on-line help for
_setvideomode both list the black and white text modes as follows:

   Mode                Type      Size      Colors    Adapter
   ----                ----      ----      ------    -------

   _TEXTBW40           M/T       40x25     16        CGA
   _TEXTBW80           M/T       80x25     16        CGA

This table is followed by the footnote:

"For monochrome displays the number of colors is the number of gray
shades".

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