CreateFontIndirectA function (wingdi.h)

The CreateFontIndirect function creates a logical font that has the specified characteristics. The font can subsequently be selected as the current font for any device context.

Syntax

HFONT CreateFontIndirectA(
  [in] const LOGFONTA *lplf
);

Parameters

[in] lplf

A pointer to a LOGFONT structure that defines the characteristics of the logical font.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to a logical font.

If the function fails, the return value is NULL.

Remarks

The CreateFontIndirect function creates a logical font with the characteristics specified in the LOGFONT structure. When this font is selected by using the SelectObject function, GDI's font mapper attempts to match the logical font with an existing physical font. If it fails to find an exact match, it provides an alternative whose characteristics match as many of the requested characteristics as possible.

To get the appropriate font on different language versions of the OS, call EnumFontFamiliesEx with the desired font characteristics in the LOGFONT structure, retrieve the appropriate typeface name, and create the font using CreateFont or CreateFontIndirect.

When you no longer need the font, call the DeleteObject function to delete it.

The fonts for many East Asian languages have two typeface names: an English name and a localized name. CreateFont and CreateFontIndirect take the localized typeface name only on a system locale that matches the language, while they take the English typeface name on all other system locales. The best method is to try one name and, on failure, try the other. Note that EnumFonts, EnumFontFamilies, and EnumFontFamiliesEx return the English typeface name if the system locale does not match the language of the font.

The font mapper for CreateFont, CreateFontIndirect, and CreateFontIndirectEx recognizes both the English and the localized typeface name, regardless of locale.

Examples

For an example, see Creating a Logical Font.

Note

The wingdi.h header defines CreateFontIndirect as an alias which automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform Windows
Header wingdi.h (include Windows.h)
Library Gdi32.lib
DLL Gdi32.dll

See also

CreateFont

CreateFontIndirectEx

DeleteObject

EnumFontFamilies

EnumFontFamiliesEx

EnumFonts

Font and Text Functions

Fonts and Text Overview

LOGFONT

SelectObject