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Q72387: HOWTO: How to Determine If a Device Is Palette Capable

Article: Q72387
Product(s): Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit
Version(s): WINDOWS:3.1,95; winnt:3.5,3.51,4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbOSWinNT350 kbOSWinNT351 kbOSWinNT400 kbOSWin95 kbSDKWin16
Last Modified: 11-MAY-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.1 
- Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), used with:
   - Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0 
   - Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

On a device that supports the Windows palette management function, an
application can create a logical palette, select the palette into a Device
Context (DC), and realize the palette, which maps its colors into the system
(hardware) palette. The GetDeviceCaps() API informs an application whether a
given device is capable of performing palette manipulation and, if so, the size
of the palette. This article discusses the GetDeviceCaps() API and how it is
used.

MORE INFORMATION
================

To determine whether a device can perform palette operations, call the
GetDeviceCaps() API with the RASTERCAPS parameter. If the RC_PALETTE bit of the
return is set, the device supports the palette management functions.

To determine how many colors in the system palette are available for the
application to use, the following parameters can be used in a GetDeviceCaps()
call:

  Parameter      Description
  ---------      -----------
  SIZEPALETTE    Total number of entries in the system palette
  NUMRESERVED    Number of reserved (static) colors in the system palette

This functionality is demonstrated in the MyPal sample code that is included on
the Windows version 3.x Software Development Kit (SDK) Source Code 2 disk. For a
demonstration, start MyPal and click the right mouse button.

The reserved colors are entries in the system palette that are used by Windows
and cannot be changed by an application [except by using SetSystemPaletteUse(),
which is not recommended]. The reserved colors are used for the following
purposes:

  Active border
  Active caption
  Background color MDI applications
  Desktop background color
  Push button faces
  Push button edges
  Push button text
  Caption text
  Disabled (gray) text
  Highlight color in controls (to highlight items in the control)
  Highlight text color
  Inactive border
  Inactive caption
  Inactive caption text (new to Windows version 3.1)
  Menu background
  Menu text
  Scroll-bar gray area
  Window background
  Window frame
  Window text

Additional query words: 3.00 3.10 3.50 4.00 win16sdk

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Keywords          : kbOSWinNT350 kbOSWinNT351 kbOSWinNT400 kbOSWin95 kbSDKWin16 
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbSDKSearch kbWin32sSearch kbWin32API kbWinSDKSearch
Version           : WINDOWS:3.1,95; winnt:3.5,3.51,4.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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