Applies to: desktop apps only

Retrieves the current color of the specified display element. Display elements are the parts of a window and the display that appear on the system display screen.

Syntax

DWORD WINAPI GetSysColor(
  __in  int nIndex
);

Parameters

nIndex [in]

Type: int

The display element whose color is to be retrieved. This parameter can be one of the following values.

Value	Meaning
COLOR_3DDKSHADOW 21	Dark shadow for three-dimensional display elements.
COLOR_3DFACE 15	Face color for three-dimensional display elements and for dialog box backgrounds.
COLOR_3DHIGHLIGHT 20	Highlight color for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing the light source.)
COLOR_3DHILIGHT 20	Highlight color for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing the light source.)
COLOR_3DLIGHT 22	Light color for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing the light source.)
COLOR_3DSHADOW 16	Shadow color for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing away from the light source).
COLOR_ACTIVEBORDER 10	Active window border.
COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION 2	Active window title bar. Specifies the left side color in the color gradient of an active window's title bar if the gradient effect is enabled.
COLOR_APPWORKSPACE 12	Background color of multiple document interface (MDI) applications.
COLOR_BACKGROUND 1	Desktop.
COLOR_BTNFACE 15	Face color for three-dimensional display elements and for dialog box backgrounds.
COLOR_BTNHIGHLIGHT 20	Highlight color for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing the light source.)
COLOR_BTNHILIGHT 20	Highlight color for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing the light source.)
COLOR_BTNSHADOW 16	Shadow color for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing away from the light source).
COLOR_BTNTEXT 18	Text on push buttons.
COLOR_CAPTIONTEXT 9	Text in caption, size box, and scroll bar arrow box.
COLOR_DESKTOP 1	Desktop.
COLOR_GRADIENTACTIVECAPTION 27	Right side color in the color gradient of an active window's title bar. COLOR_ACTIVECAPTION specifies the left side color. Use SPI_GETGRADIENTCAPTIONS with the SystemParametersInfo function to determine whether the gradient effect is enabled.
COLOR_GRADIENTINACTIVECAPTION 28	Right side color in the color gradient of an inactive window's title bar. COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION specifies the left side color.
COLOR_GRAYTEXT 17	Grayed (disabled) text. This color is set to 0 if the current display driver does not support a solid gray color.
COLOR_HIGHLIGHT 13	Item(s) selected in a control.
COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT 14	Text of item(s) selected in a control.
COLOR_HOTLIGHT 26	Color for a hyperlink or hot-tracked item.
COLOR_INACTIVEBORDER 11	Inactive window border.
COLOR_INACTIVECAPTION 3	Inactive window caption. Specifies the left side color in the color gradient of an inactive window's title bar if the gradient effect is enabled.
COLOR_INACTIVECAPTIONTEXT 19	Color of text in an inactive caption.
COLOR_INFOBK 24	Background color for tooltip controls.
COLOR_INFOTEXT 23	Text color for tooltip controls.
COLOR_MENU 4	Menu background.
COLOR_MENUHILIGHT 29	The color used to highlight menu items when the menu appears as a flat menu (see SystemParametersInfo). The highlighted menu item is outlined with COLOR_HIGHLIGHT. Windows 2000:  This value is not supported.
COLOR_MENUBAR 30	The background color for the menu bar when menus appear as flat menus (see SystemParametersInfo). However, COLOR_MENU continues to specify the background color of the menu popup. Windows 2000:  This value is not supported.
COLOR_MENUTEXT 7	Text in menus.
COLOR_SCROLLBAR 0	Scroll bar gray area.
COLOR_WINDOW 5	Window background.
COLOR_WINDOWFRAME 6	Window frame.
COLOR_WINDOWTEXT 8	Text in windows.

 

Return value

Type:

Type: DWORD

The function returns the red, green, blue (RGB) color value of the given element.

If the nIndex parameter is out of range, the return value is zero. Because zero is also a valid RGB value, you cannot use GetSysColor to determine whether a system color is supported by the current platform. Instead, use the GetSysColorBrush function, which returns NULL if the color is not supported.

Remarks

To display the component of the RGB value, use the GetRValue, GetGValue, and GetBValue macros.

System colors for monochrome displays are usually interpreted as shades of gray.

To paint with a system color brush, an application should use GetSysColorBrush(nIndex), instead of CreateSolidBrush(GetSysColor(nIndex)), because GetSysColorBrush returns a cached brush, instead of allocating a new one.

Color is an important visual element of most user interfaces. For guidelines about using color in your applications, see Color.

Examples

For an example, see SetSysColors.

Requirements

See also

CreateSolidBrush

GetSysColorBrush

SetSysColors

SystemParametersInfo

Send comments about this topic to Microsoft

Build date: 2/3/2012