LEADTOOLS Digital Paint C API Introduction

Summary

The LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint C API allows adding digital painting functionality to an application. With LEADTOOLS Digital Paint, a developer can create an entire image editing or design application, or simply add pieces of those types of functionality into an existing application.

The API includes both low-level and high-level functions for painting. With the low-level functions, you can programmatically control the painting. With the high-level functions (known as Automated Mode), you can simply turn on Automation, and allow the user to pick the painting tool. With Automation, the user's mouse events are automatically processed, and the coding is done for you.

The output can be painted to a device context (DC), a bitmap, or both. In addition, the LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint C API provides the option of color restriction, using an optional restriction palette.

Key Features

The LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint C API consists of five groups of paint functions. These groups are:

• Brush: The LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint brush group includes features that normally could be found only in artistic painting applications.  The resulting paintbrush will be translated and scaled automatically for the device context and/or the bitmap, using user-defined transformation settings. Brush options include:
  • Color brush
  • Image/pattern brush
  • Diameter
  • Hardness/Sharpness of brush edges
  • Spacing: frequency of touches
  • Density
  • Opacity
  • Fade out: allow the brush to fade during the stroke
  • Texture: apply a bitmapped texture to the brush
• Shape: The LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint shape group removes some of the Windows C API programming when drawing shapes. In addition, shapes may be painted with varying degrees of opacity, or with paper texture, gradient background, etc. The resulting shapes will be translated and scaled automatically for the device context and/or the bitmap, using user-defined transformation settings. Shapes include:
  • Line
  • Rectangle
  • Rounded rectangle
  • Ellipse
  • Polygon
  • Polybezier
• Region: Use the LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint region functionality to create regions for restricting image operations. Regions can range from simple to very complex (many of which are not supported by natively in Windows without LEADTOOLS). Additionally, functionality to resize or scale a region, which is not supported directly by Windows, is included with the LEADTOOLS Digital Paint C API. The resulting regions will be translated and scaled automatically for the device context (DC) and/or the bitmap, using user-defined transformation settings. The following regions can be created:
  • Rectangle
  • Rounded rectangle
  • Ellipse
  • Polygon
  • Curves
  • Surface: a region starting at a specified point and continues in all directions that contains a specified color and tolerance
  • Border: a region starting at a specified point and continues in all directions until finding a specified color and tolerance
  • Color: a region that contains a specified color and tolerance
• Fill: The LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint fill group gives the user the most complete area filling solutions for both fill method and fill features. The resulting filled area will be translated and scaled automatically for the device context (DC) and/or the bitmap, using user-defined transformation settings. Fill options and types include:
  • Solid
  • Gradient
  • Background tiled image
  • Opacity
  • Texture
  • Surface: Fills an area starting at a specified point and continues in all directions that contain a specified color and some tolerance.
  • Border: Fills an area starting at a specified point and continues in all directions until finding a specified color and some tolerance.
  • Color replace: Replaces every pixel using the current fill settings.
• Text: The LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint text group includes comprehensive text drawing features that could normally only be found in a painting application. The resulting text will be translated and scaled automatically for the device context (DC) and/or the bitmap, using user-defined transformation settings. Text options include:
  • Font
  • Border
  • Tiled background bitmap
  • Alignment
  • Opacity
  • Texture

Note: LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint products do not copy data passed to a DigitalPaint function by the user. Rather, they use data directly. Therefore, the data supplied by the user must remain valid for as long as the data is needed. For example, if a palette handle is passed to a DigitalPaint function, the toolkit uses this handle to access the palette. The toolkit does NOT make a copy of the handle or the palette. Therefore, if the palette handle provided by the use is destroyed, the toolkit's palette handle is also destroyed and the toolkit will have an invalid palette handle.

Windows Common Dialogs

Includes a set of ready to use dialog boxes for gathering information for use in setting the various paint options. These allow you to quickly add code to your application for getting input from the end-user. Additionally, it gives your application a consistent Windows look and feel, making your application easier to use and learn.

Supported Environments

See Also

Reference

API Overview

Getting Started

Programming with LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint

Tutorials

Example Programs

Version History

LEADTOOLS DigitalPaint C API Changes