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Q75469: HOWTO: Accurately Showing on the Screen What Will Print

Article: Q75469
Product(s): Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit
Version(s): WINDOWS:3.1,95; winnt:3.5,3.51
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbOSWinNT350 kbOSWinNT351 kbOSWin95 kbDSupport 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 
   - Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51 
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SUMMARY
=======

Many applications have an option where the screen display is set to closely
correspond to the printed output. This article discusses some of the issues
involved in implementing this feature.

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

If a screen font is available that exactly matches (or at least very closely
corresponds to) the chosen printer font, then the process is very
straightforward and consists of seven steps:

1. Retrieve a Device Context (DC) or an Information Context (IC) for the
  printer.

2. Call EnumFontFamilies() to obtain a LOGFONT structure for the selected
  printer font. The nFontType parameter to the EnumFontFamilies() callback
  function specifies if a given font is a device font.

3. Get a DC for the screen.

4. Convert the lfHeight and lfWidth members of the LOGFONT structure from
  printer resolution units to screen resolution units. If a mapping mode other
  than MM_TEXT is used, round-off error may occur.

5. Call CreateFontIndirect() with the LOGFONT structure.

6. Call SelectObject(). GDI will select the appropriate screen font to match the
  printer font.

7. Release the printer device context or information context and the screen
  device context.

If a screen font that corresponds to the selected printer font is not available,
the process is more difficult. It is possible to modify the character placement
on the screen to match the printer font to show justification, line breaks, and
page layout. However, visual similarity between the printer fonts and screen
fonts depends on a number of factors, including the number and variety of screen
fonts available, the selected printer font, and how the printer driver describes
the font. For example, if the printer has a serifed Roman- style font, one of
the GDI serifed Roman-style fonts will appear to be very similar to the printer
font. However, if the printer has a decorative Old English-style font, no
corresponding screen font will typically be available. The closest available
match would not be very similar.

To have a screen font that matches the character placement of a printer font, do
the following:

1. Perform the preceding seven steps to retrieve an appropriate screen font.

2. Get the character width from the TEXTMETRIC structure returned by the
  EnumFonts function in step 2 above. Use this information to calculate the
  page position of each character to be printed in the printer font.

3. Allocate a block of memory and specify the spacing between characters. Make
  sure that this information is in screen resolution units.

4. Specify the address of the memory block as the lpDx parameter to
  ExtTextOut(). GDI will space the characters as listed in the array.

Additional query words: 3.00 3.10 3.50 4.00 WYSIWYG win16sdk

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

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