HOWTO:: Print Rotated Text Using Win32 API

• Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic, 32-bit only, for Windows, version 4.0

SUMMARY

By using the CreateFont and CreateFontIndirect Win32 API calls, it is possible to rotate text on a Device context such as a picture box, a form, or the Printer Object. This article provides a Win32 Code sample demonstrating how this can be done.

MORE INFORMATION

1. Start a new Visual Basic Project. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add a Command button to Form1.

3. Place a PictureBox on Form1.

4. Place the following code in the General Declarations section of Form1:

   Option Explicit

      Private Declare Function CreateFontIndirect Lib "gdi32" Alias _
        "CreateFontIndirectA" (lpLogFont As LOGFONT) As Long
      Private Declare Function SelectObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc _
        As Long, ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
      Private Declare Function DeleteObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal _
        hObject As Long) As Long
      Private Const LF_FACESIZE = 32
   
      Private Type LOGFONT
        lfHeight As Long
        lfWidth As Long
        lfEscapement As Long
        lfOrientation As Long
        lfWeight As Long
        lfItalic As Byte
        lfUnderline As Byte
        lfStrikeOut As Byte
        lfCharSet As Byte
        lfOutPrecision As Byte
        lfClipPrecision As Byte
        lfQuality As Byte
        lfPitchAndFamily As Byte
        lfFaceName as String * LF_FACESIZE
      End Type
   
      Sub Command1_Click()
        Dim font As LOGFONT
        Dim prevFont As Long, hFont As Long, ret As Long
        Const FONTSIZE = 10 ' Desired point size of font
        font.lfEscapement = 1800    ' 180-degree rotation
        font.lfFaceName = "Arial" & Chr$(0) 'Null character at end
       ' Windows expects the font size to be in pixels and to
        ' be negative if you are specifying the character height
        ' you want.
        font.lfHeight = (FONTSIZE * -20) / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY
        hFont = CreateFontIndirect(font)
        prevFont = SelectObject(Picture1.hdc, hFont)
        Picture1.CurrentX = Picture1.Left + Picture1.Width / 2
        Picture1.CurrentY = Picture1.ScaleHeight / 2
        Picture1.Print "Rotated Text"
        ' Clean up by restoring original font.
        ret = SelectObject(Picture1.hdc, prevFont)
        ret = DeleteObject(hFont)
        Picture1.CurrentY = Picture1.ScaleHeight / 2
        Picture1.Print "Normal Text"
      End Sub
   
   

5. Press the F5 key to run the project, and then press the Command Button. You will see two pieces of text appear, one the right way up and one inverted.

REFERENCES

For information on the 16-bit equivalent of this sample, please see the following article on the Microsoft Knowledge Base: