CreateDC

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This function creates a device context (DC) for a device.

HDC CreateDC(
LPCTSTR
lpszDriver
,
LPCTSTR
lpszDevice
,
LPCTSTR
lpszOutput
,
CONST DEVMODE
*
lpInitData
);

Parameters

lpszDriver

[in] Long pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the file name of a driver. If this parameter is set to NULL, the system returns a screen DC.

lpszDevice

[in] Long pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the name of the specific output device being used, as shown by the Print Manager (for example, "Epson FX-80"). It is not the printer model name. The lpszDeviceparameter must be used.

In Windows CE versions 2.0 and 2.01, this parameter is ignored.

lpszOutput

[in] Long pointer to an output destination. It can be one of the following values, and the colon is required when specifying a port.

Value	Description
COM x:	Serial ports; xis a number from 1 to 9.
LPT x:	Parallel ports; xis a number from 1 to 9.
IRDA:	IRDA port. For Windows CE versions 2.0 and 2.01, use COM3: to specify the IRDA port.
\\ servername\sharename	Universal naming convention (UNC) that identifies a network printer server.

lpInitData

[in] Long pointer to a DEVMODEstructure containing device-specific initialization data for the device driver. The lpInitDataparameter must be NULL if the device driver is to use the default initialization (if any) specified by the user.

Return Values

The handle to a device context for the specified device indicates success. NULL indicates failure. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

Windows CE passes the lpInitDataand lpszOutputparameters to the driver without modification. The lpszOutputparameter must contain a colon after the port—that is, use "LPT1:" or "COM1:"—otherwise, the connection fails.

When you no longer need the device context, call the DeleteDCfunction to delete it.

Requirements

Runs on	Versions	Defined in	Include	Link to
Windows CE OS	2.0 and later	Wingdi.h		Mgdc.lib

Note This API is part of the complete Windows CE OS package as provided by Microsoft. The functionality of a particular platform is determined by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and some devices may not support this API.

See Also

DeleteDC, GetLastError, DEVMODE