Cosmetic Pens

The dimensions of a cosmetic pen are specified in device units. Therefore, lines drawn with a cosmetic pen always have a fixed width. Lines drawn with a cosmetic pen are generally drawn 3 to 10 times faster than lines drawn with a geometric pen. Cosmetic pens have three attributes: width, style, and color. For more information about these attributes, see Pen Attributes.

To create a cosmetic pen, use the CreatePen, CreatePenIndirect, or ExtCreatePen function. To retrieve one of the three stock cosmetic pens managed by the system, use the GetStockObject function.

After you create a pen (or obtain a handle to one of the stock pens), select the pen into the application's device context (DC) using the SelectObject function. From this point on, the application uses this pen for any line-drawing operations in its client area.