How to stroke text when drawing it with DrawString function in GDI+? - c++

Question

There's a GDI's StrokePath API that can allow to simulate "stroking" of text using this method. I'll copy it here:
void CCanvas::DrawOutlineText( CDC& dc, const CString& Text )
{
const int RestorePoint = dc.SaveDC();
// Create new font
CFont NewFont;
NewFont.CreatePointFont( 700, TEXT( "Verdana" ), &dc );
// Use this font
dc.SelectObject( &NewFont );
// Brush for pen
LOGBRUSH lBrushForPen = { 0 };
lBrushForPen.lbColor = RGB( 200, 150, 100 );
lBrushForPen.lbHatch = HS_CROSS;
lBrushForPen.lbStyle = BS_SOLID;
// New pen for drawing outline text
CPen OutlinePen;
OutlinePen.CreatePen( PS_GEOMETRIC | PS_SOLID, 2, &lBrushForPen, 0, 0 );
// Use this pen
dc.SelectObject( &OutlinePen );
dc.SetBkMode( TRANSPARENT );
dc.BeginPath();
// This text is not drawn on screen, but instead each action is being
// recorded and stored internally as a path, since we called BeginPath
dc.TextOut( 20, 20, Text );
// Stop path
dc.EndPath();
// Now draw outline text
dc.StrokePath();
dc.RestoreDC( RestorePoint );
}
In my case I'm using DrawString function from GDI+ to draw text.
Does anyone know if there's an alternative to BeginPath, EndPath and StrokePath in GDI+ to simulate text stroking?
EDIT: Following the advice by jschroedl below, I tried the following:
CString str = L"Text";
Graphics grpx(dc.GetSafeHdc());
SolidBrush gdiBrush(Color(0xFF, 0xFF, 0, 0));
StringFormat gdiSF;
gdiSF.SetAlignment(StringAlignmentNear);
gdiSF.SetFormatFlags(StringFormatFlagsNoWrap | StringFormatFlagsNoFitBlackBox |
StringFormatFlagsNoFontFallback | StringFormatFlagsNoClip);
gdiSF.SetHotkeyPrefix(HotkeyPrefixNone);
gdiSF.SetTrimming(StringTrimmingNone);
grpx.SetTextRenderingHint(TextRenderingHintAntiAlias);
grpx.SetPixelOffsetMode(PixelOffsetModeNone);
grpx.SetInterpolationMode(InterpolationModeHighQualityBicubic);
GraphicsPath dd;
FontFamily gdiFF(L"Segoe UI");
const PointF pntF(0, 0);
dd.AddString(str, str.GetLength(), &gdiFF, FontStyleRegular, 58.0f, pntF, &gdiSF);
Pen penFF(Color(0xFF, 0xFF, 0, 0), 1.0f);
grpx.DrawPath(&penFF, &dd);
that produced quite a jagged outline (enlarged screenshot):
Any idea how to make it render with anti-aliasing?

Answer 1

I believe our code creates a GraphicsPath object, calls GraphicsPath::AddString() to get the path for the text and later draws the path with Graphics::DrawPath().
Update:
Based on the blocky text, I experimented and think this looks a bit smoother.
grpx.SetTextRenderingHint(TextRenderingHintClearTypeGridFit);
grpx.SetSmoothingMode(SmoothingModeHighQuality);
grpx.SetPixelOffsetMode(PixelOffsetModeHalf);