Controlling Painting Properties

When working with digital paint automation, specific properties, as well as the background color, can be set or retrieved using the following functions:

L_AutGetPaintBkColor

L_AutGetPaintProperty

L_AutSetPaintBkColor

L_AutSetPaintProperty

The LEADTOOLS Digital Paint tools let you manipulate the following:

• Paintbrush characteristics

• Shape characteristics

• Region characteristics

• Fill characteristics

• Text characteristics

Each set of characteristics given above has several properties that can be set. This lets the user fine tune the output. These properties can be set using the L_AutSetPaintProperty function. To retrieve the current settings for the properties, use the L_AutGetPaintProperty function. Below is an example showing how to manipulate the Shape properties:

/* this example shows how to change the paint shape properties */
L_INT SetPaintShapePropsTest ( pAUTOMATIONHANDLE pAutomation ) 
{
   if ( SUCCESS == L_AutIsValid ( pAutomation ) ) /* check the validity of the automation handle */
   {
      PAINTSHAPE shape ; 


      /* set the paint shape group properties */
      L_AutGetPaintProperty ( pAutomation, PAINT_GROUP_SHAPE, &shape ) ; 

      /* make some changes to the required properties */
      if ( SHAPE_BORDER_STYLE_SOLID == shape.nBorderStyle ) 
      {
         /* set the desired shape properties using the field masks */
         shape.nSize         = sizeof ( PAINTSHAPE ) ; 
         shape.dwMask    = PSF_BORDERSTYLE |
                                   PSF_BORDERWIDTH |
                                   PSF_BORDERENDCAP; 
         shape.nBorderStyle  = SHAPE_BORDER_STYLE_DOT ; 
         shape.nBorderWidth  = 10 ; 
         shape.nBorderEndCap = SHAPE_BORDER_ENDCAP_ROUND ; 

         /*set the paint shape group properties */
         L_AutSetPaintProperty ( pAutomation, PAINT_GROUP_SHAPE, &shape ) ; 
      }

      return SUCCESS ; 
   }
   else
   {
      return FAILURE ; 
   }
}

For more examples showing the use of digital paint automation, refer to Paint Automation Tutorials.

When the user cuts or deletes some region from a bitmap, an exposed area is left behind This area will be filled by the paint background color, set by the function L_AutSetPaintBkColor. To determine the current paint background color, call L_AutGetPaintBkColor. The example below shows how to retrieve and set the paint background color:

/* This example will make sure that the BK is not anything but black */
L_INT StickToBalck ( pAUTOMATIONHANDLE pAutomation ) 
{
   if ( SUCCESS == L_AutIsValid ( pAutomation ) ) /* check the validity of the automation handle */
   {
      COLORREF crBkColor ; 


      /* get the current paint automation color */
      L_AutGetPaintBkColor ( pAutomation, &crBkColor ) ; 
 
      if ( crBkColor != RGB ( 0, 0, 0 ) ) /* check if its not black */
      {
         /* set the paint automation background color */ 
         L_AutSetPaintBkColor ( pAutomation, RGB(0, 0, 0 ) ) ; 
      }

      return SUCCESS ; 
   }
   else
   {
      return FAILURE ; 
   }
}