C++ GDI+ drawing text on a transparent layered window - c++

Question

(unmanaged C++)
I already succeeded drawing PNG files to a transparent layered window that I can drag around the desktop, but now my problem is drawing text on a transparent layered window
Here's my code and my attempt at drawing text in the middle, it's important to note that i'm using the screenDC instead of using the one in WM_PAINT messages
[edit]
updated code after the comments, now i'm just trying to write text on the bitmap before getting the HBITMAP version which i need to use
this time I'm using DrawString because textout() isn't GDI+, I hope DrawString really is GDI+ lol
still doesn't work though, wonder what i'm doing wrong
void Draw() // draws a frame on the layered window AND moves it based on x and y
{
HDC screenDC( NULL ); // grab screen
HDC sourceDC( CreateCompatibleDC(screenDC) );
POINT pos = {x,y}; // drawing location
POINT sourcePos = {0,0}; // top left of image
SIZE size = {100,100}; // 100x100 image
BLENDFUNCTION blendFunction = {0};
HBITMAP bufferBitmap = {0};
Bitmap* TheBitmap = crnimage; // crnimage was already loaded earlier
// ------------important part goes here, my attempt at drawing text ------------//
Gdiplus::Graphics Gx(TheBitmap);
// Font* myFont = new Font(sourceDC);
Font myFont(L"Arial", 16);
RectF therect;
therect.Height = 20;
therect.Width = 180;
therect.X = 0;
therect.Y = 0;
StringFormat format;
format.SetAlignment(StringAlignmentCenter);
format.GenericDefault();
Gdiplus::SolidBrush GxTextBrush(Gdiplus::Color(255, 255, 0,255));
WCHAR thetext[] = L"Sample Text";
int stats = Gx.DrawString(thetext, -1, &myFont, therect, &format, &GxTextBrush);
if(stats) // DrawString returns nonzero if there is an error
msgbox(stats);
stats = Gx.DrawRectangle(&Pen(Color::Red, 3), therect);
// the rectangle and text both draw fine now
// ------------important part goes here, my attempt at drawing text ------------//
TheBitmap->GetHBITMAP(0, &bufferBitmap);
HBITMAP oldBmpSelInDC;
oldBmpSelInDC = (HBITMAP)SelectObject(sourceDC, bufferBitmap);
// some alpha blending
blendFunction.BlendOp = AC_SRC_OVER;
blendFunction.SourceConstantAlpha = wndalpha;
blendFunction.AlphaFormat = AC_SRC_ALPHA;
COLORREF colorKey( RGB(255,0,255) );
DWORD flags( ULW_ALPHA);
UpdateLayeredWindow(hWnd, screenDC, &pos, & size, sourceDC, &sourcePos,
colorKey, &blendFunction, flags);
// release buffered image from memory
SelectObject(sourceDC, oldBmpSelInDC);
DeleteDC(sourceDC);
DeleteObject(bufferBitmap);
// finally release the screen
ReleaseDC(0, screenDC);
}
I've been trying to write text on my layered window for two days now, but from those attempts I know there are several ways I can go about doing this
(unfortunately I have no idea how exactly)
The usual option I see is drawing text on a bitmap, then rendering the bitmap itself
Use Gdi+ to load a bitmap
Create a Graphics object from the bitmap
Use DrawString to write text to the bitmap
Dispose of the Graphics object
Use the bitmap Save method to save the result to a file
Apparently one can also make a graphics object from a DC, then draw text on the DC, but again i have no clue as to how to do this

Answer 1

The overall approach looks right, but I think you've got some problems with the DrawString call. Check out the documentation (especially the sample) on MSDN.
Gx.DrawString(thetext, 4, NULL, therect, NULL, NULL)
The third, fifth, and sixth parameters (font, format, and brush) probably need to be specified. The documentation doesn't say that they are optional. Passing NULL for these is probably causing GDI+ to treat the call as a no-op.
The second parameter should not include the terminating L'\0' in the string. It's probably safest to use -1 if your string is always terminated.