Thread: changing edit control font

the win32 programmers reference is confusing on the topic of changing fonts. all i want is to change the font of a single line edit box to Courier New. is there a simple way to do this?

thanks, it worked. except i discovered i didn't really like courier new at all. oh well

now i have another problem. GetTextExtentPoint32() returns the same values as before, even though the height and width of the device font has changed. ill post a bit of code:

Code:

hwndEdit=CreateWindowEx(0,"EDIT","00000000",...)
hFont=CreateFont(0,12,...,TEXT("Courier New"));
SendMessage(hwndEdit,WM_SETFONT,(WPARAM)hFont,0);

GetTextExtentPoint32(GetDC(hwndEdit),"00000000",8,&tmpSize);

what IS the problem? does GetTextExtentPoint32() not take fonts into account? previously, when using the default font, it worked fine. help!

>>what IS the problem?<<

Don't quote me on this, but the default wndproc for the edit probably selects/deselects its font into the control dc during WM_PAINT handling and so is only available either then or, at any time, via WM_GETFONT.

Try this:

Code:

SIZE& GetTextSize(HWND hwnd,TCHAR *chTxt)
{
/*retrieve font for hwnd and get dimensions of chTxt using that font.*/
HDC   hdc;
HFONT hFont,hOldFont;
static SIZE  st;

hdc=CreateCompatibleDC(0);
hFont=(HFONT)SendMessage(hwnd,WM_GETFONT,0,0);
hOldFont=(HFONT)SelectObject(hdc,hFont);
GetTextExtentPoint32(hdc,chTxt,lstrlen(chTxt),&st);
/*clean up*/
SelectObject(hdc,hOldFont);
DeleteDC(hdc);
return st;
}

Hope that is of some use to you.

edit: changed fn so it no longer returns temp

you know ken, you're a real smart guy. but tell me, what is the difference between the device context for the edit control and the one we made?

---a little later---

i think i worked it out. the device context is not as such a permanent object, it is more like a temporary key that CAN (but doesn't have to) contain information about a specific window. what happens is, you create a temporary hdc, and specify that it uses the HFONT you made. then you give it a string to calculate with, and delete the hdc afterwards, because it serves no more purpose. alternatively, you could do this:

Code:

hFont=CreateFont(0,12,0,0,FW_NORMAL,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,TEXT("Courier New"));
SendMessage(hwndEdit,WM_SETFONT,(WPARAM)hFont,0);
hdc=GetDC(hwndEdit);
SelectObject(hdc,hFont);
GetTextExtentPoint32(hdc,"00000000",8,&tmpSize);
DeleteDC(hdc);

in this case, the hdc DOES actually refer to a specific window, but for some reason it doesn't yet know that hFont is the relevant font. so, you SelectObject the font into it, and calculate the string width. afterwards, you can delete the hdc because it is simply info about a window that is also stored elsewhere.

well, i sure have rambled a bit, but i think im on the right track. any feedback?