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The CreateFont function creates a logical font with the specified characteristics. The logical font can subsequently be selected as the font for any device.

Syntax

HFONT CreateFontA(
  [in] int    cHeight,
  [in] int    cWidth,
  [in] int    cEscapement,
  [in] int    cOrientation,
  [in] int    cWeight,
  [in] DWORD  bItalic,
  [in] DWORD  bUnderline,
  [in] DWORD  bStrikeOut,
  [in] DWORD  iCharSet,
  [in] DWORD  iOutPrecision,
  [in] DWORD  iClipPrecision,
  [in] DWORD  iQuality,
  [in] DWORD  iPitchAndFamily,
  [in] LPCSTR pszFaceName
Parameters
[in] cHeight
The height, in logical units, of the font's character cell or character. The character height value (also known as the em height) is the character cell height value minus the internal-leading value. The font mapper interprets the value specified in nHeight in the following manner.
Value
Meaning
For all height comparisons, the font mapper looks for the largest font that does not exceed the requested size.
This mapping occurs when the font is used for the first time.
For the MM_TEXT mapping mode, you can use the following formula to specify a height for a font with a specified point size:
nHeight = -MulDiv(PointSize, GetDeviceCaps(hDC, LOGPIXELSY), 72);
[in] cWidth
The average width, in logical units, of characters in the requested font. If this value is zero, the font mapper chooses a closest match value. The closest match value is determined by comparing the absolute values of the difference between the current device's aspect ratio and the digitized aspect ratio of available fonts.
[in] cEscapement
The angle, in tenths of degrees, between the escapement vector and the x-axis of the device. The escapement vector is parallel to the base line of a row of text.
When the graphics mode is set to GM_ADVANCED, you can specify the escapement angle of the string independently of the orientation angle of the string's characters.
When the graphics mode is set to GM_COMPATIBLE, nEscapement specifies both the escapement and orientation. You should set nEscapement and nOrientation to the same value.
[in] cOrientation
The angle, in tenths of degrees, between each character's base line and the x-axis of the device.
[in] cWeight
The weight of the font in the range 0 through 1000. For example, 400 is normal and 700 is bold. If this value is zero, a default weight is used.
The following values are defined for convenience.
Weight
Value
FW_DONTCARE
Specifies an italic font if set to TRUE.
[in] bUnderline
Specifies an underlined font if set to TRUE.
[in] bStrikeOut
A strikeout font if set to TRUE.
[in] iCharSet
The character set. The following values are predefined:
ANSI_CHARSET
BALTIC_CHARSET
CHINESEBIG5_CHARSET
DEFAULT_CHARSET
EASTEUROPE_CHARSET
GB2312_CHARSET
GREEK_CHARSET
HANGUL_CHARSET
MAC_CHARSET
OEM_CHARSET
RUSSIAN_CHARSET
SHIFTJIS_CHARSET
SYMBOL_CHARSET
TURKISH_CHARSET
VIETNAMESE_CHARSET
Korean language edition of Windows:
JOHAB_CHARSET
Middle East language edition of Windows:
ARABIC_CHARSET
HEBREW_CHARSET
Thai language edition of Windows:
THAI_CHARSET
The OEM_CHARSET value specifies a character set that is operating-system dependent.
DEFAULT_CHARSET is set to a value based on the current system locale. For example, when the system locale is English (United States), it is set as ANSI_CHARSET.
Fonts with other character sets may exist in the operating system. If an application uses a font with an unknown character set, it should not attempt to translate or interpret strings that are rendered with that font.
To ensure consistent results when creating a font, do not specify OEM_CHARSET or DEFAULT_CHARSET. If you specify a typeface name in the lpszFace parameter, make sure that the fdwCharSet value matches the character set of the typeface specified in lpszFace.
[in] iOutPrecision
The output precision. The output precision defines how closely the output must match the requested font's height, width, character orientation, escapement, pitch, and font type. It can be one of the following values.
Value
Meaning
OUT_CHARACTER_PRECIS
Not used.
Applications can use the OUT_DEVICE_PRECIS, OUT_RASTER_PRECIS, OUT_TT_PRECIS, and OUT_PS_ONLY_PRECIS values to control how the font mapper chooses a font when the operating system contains more than one font with a specified name. For example, if an operating system contains a font named Symbol in raster and TrueType form, specifying OUT_TT_PRECIS forces the font mapper to choose the TrueType version. Specifying OUT_TT_ONLY_PRECIS forces the font mapper to choose a TrueType font, even if it must substitute a TrueType font of another name.
[in] iClipPrecision
The clipping precision. The clipping precision defines how to clip characters that are partially outside the clipping region. It can be one or more of the following values.
Value
Meaning
CLIP_CHARACTER_PRECIS
Not used.
When this value is used, the rotation for all fonts depends on whether the orientation of the coordinate system is left-handed or right-handed.
If not used, device fonts always rotate counterclockwise, but the rotation of other fonts is dependent on the orientation of the coordinate system.
For more information about the orientation of coordinate systems, see the description of the nOrientation parameter
Not used by the font mapper, but is returned when raster, vector, or TrueType fonts are enumerated.
For compatibility, this value is always returned when enumerating fonts.
[in] iQuality
The output quality. The output quality defines how carefully GDI must attempt to match the logical-font attributes to those of an actual physical font. It can be one of the following values.
Value
Meaning
ANTIALIASED_QUALITY
Font is antialiased, or smoothed, if the font supports it and the size of the font is not too small or too large.
Character quality of the font is more important than exact matching of the logical-font attributes. For GDI raster fonts, scaling is disabled and the font closest in size is chosen. Although the chosen font size may not be mapped exactly when PROOF_QUALITY is used, the quality of the font is high and there is no distortion of appearance. Bold, italic, underline, and strikeout fonts are synthesized, if necessary.
If the output quality is DEFAULT_QUALITY, DRAFT_QUALITY, or PROOF_QUALITY, then the font is antialiased if the SPI_GETFONTSMOOTHING system parameter is TRUE. Users can control this system parameter from the Control Panel. (The precise wording of the setting in the Control panel depends on the version of Windows, but it will be words to the effect of "Smooth edges of screen fonts".)
[in] iPitchAndFamily
The pitch and family of the font. The two low-order bits specify the pitch of the font and can be one of the following values:
DEFAULT_PITCH
FIXED_PITCH
VARIABLE_PITCH
The four high-order bits specify the font family and can be one of the following values.
Value
Meaning
FF_DECORATIVE
Novelty fonts. Old English is an example.
An application can specify a value for the fdwPitchAndFamily parameter by using the Boolean OR operator to join a pitch constant with a family constant.
Font families describe the look of a font in a general way. They are intended for specifying fonts when the exact typeface requested is not available.
[in] pszFaceName
A pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the typeface name of the font. The length of this string must not exceed 32 characters, including the terminating null character. The EnumFontFamilies function can be used to enumerate the typeface names of all currently available fonts. For more information, see the Remarks.
If lpszFace is NULL or empty string, GDI uses the first font that matches the other specified attributes.
Return value
If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to a logical font.
If the function fails, the return value is NULL.
Remarks
When you no longer need the font, call the DeleteObject function to delete it.
To help protect the copyrights of vendors who provide fonts for Windows, applications should always report the exact name of a selected font. Because available fonts can vary from system to system, do not assume that the selected font is always the same as the requested font. For example, if you request a font named Palatino, but no such font is available on the system, the font mapper will substitute a font that has similar attributes but a different name. Always report the name of the selected font to the user.
To get the appropriate font on different language versions of the OS, call EnumFontFamiliesEx with the desired font characteristics in the LOGFONT structure, then retrieve the appropriate typeface name and create the font using CreateFont or CreateFontIndirect.
The font mapper for CreateFont,CreateFontIndirect, and CreateFontIndirectEx recognizes both the English and the localized typeface name, regardless of locale.
The following situations do not support ClearType antialiasing:
Text rendered on a printer.
A display set for 256 colors or less.
Text rendered to a terminal server client.
The font is not a TrueType font or an OpenType font with TrueType outlines. For example, the following do not support ClearType antialiasing: Type 1 fonts, Postscript OpenType fonts without TrueType outlines, bitmap fonts, vector fonts, and device fonts.
The font has tuned embedded bitmaps, only for the font sizes that contain the embedded bitmaps. For example, this occurs commonly in East Asian fonts.
Examples
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
    int wmId, wmEvent;
    PAINTSTRUCT ps;
    HDC hdc;
    switch (message)
    case WM_PAINT:
        RECT rect;
        HFONT hFontOriginal, hFont1, hFont2, hFont3;
        hdc = BeginPaint(hWnd, &ps);
            //Logical units are device dependent pixels, so this will create a handle to a logical font that is 48 pixels in height.
            //The width, when set to 0, will cause the font mapper to choose the closest matching value.
            //The font face name will be Impact.
            hFont1 = CreateFont(48,0,0,0,FW_DONTCARE,FALSE,TRUE,FALSE,DEFAULT_CHARSET,OUT_OUTLINE_PRECIS,
                CLIP_DEFAULT_PRECIS,CLEARTYPE_QUALITY, VARIABLE_PITCH,TEXT("Impact"));
            hFontOriginal = (HFONT)SelectObject(hdc, hFont1);
            //Sets the coordinates for the rectangle in which the text is to be formatted.
            SetRect(&rect, 100,100,700,200);
            SetTextColor(hdc, RGB(255,0,0));
            DrawText(hdc, TEXT("Drawing Text with Impact"), -1,&rect, DT_NOCLIP);
            //Logical units are device dependent pixels, so this will create a handle to a logical font that is 36 pixels in height.
            //The width, when set to 20, will cause the font mapper to choose a font which, in this case, is stretched.
            //The font face name will be Times New Roman.  This time nEscapement is at -300 tenths of a degree (-30 degrees)
            hFont2 = CreateFont(36,20,-300,0,FW_DONTCARE,FALSE,TRUE,FALSE,DEFAULT_CHARSET,OUT_OUTLINE_PRECIS,
                CLIP_DEFAULT_PRECIS,CLEARTYPE_QUALITY, VARIABLE_PITCH,TEXT("Times New Roman"));
            SelectObject(hdc,hFont2);
            //Sets the coordinates for the rectangle in which the text is to be formatted.
            SetRect(&rect, 100, 200, 900, 800);
            SetTextColor(hdc, RGB(0,128,0));
            DrawText(hdc, TEXT("Drawing Text with Times New Roman"), -1,&rect, DT_NOCLIP);
            //Logical units are device dependent pixels, so this will create a handle to a logical font that is 36 pixels in height.
            //The width, when set to 10, will cause the font mapper to choose a font which, in this case, is compressed. 
            //The font face name will be Arial. This time nEscapement is at 250 tenths of a degree (25 degrees)
            hFont3 = CreateFont(36,10,250,0,FW_DONTCARE,FALSE,TRUE,FALSE,DEFAULT_CHARSET,OUT_OUTLINE_PRECIS,
                CLIP_DEFAULT_PRECIS,ANTIALIASED_QUALITY, VARIABLE_PITCH,TEXT("Arial"));
            SelectObject(hdc,hFont3);
            //Sets the coordinates for the rectangle in which the text is to be formatted.
            SetRect(&rect, 500, 200, 1400, 600);
            SetTextColor(hdc, RGB(0,0,255));
            DrawText(hdc, TEXT("Drawing Text with Arial"), -1,&rect, DT_NOCLIP);
            SelectObject(hdc,hFontOriginal);
            DeleteObject(hFont1);
            DeleteObject(hFont2);
            DeleteObject(hFont3);
        EndPaint(hWnd, &ps);
        break;
    case WM_DESTROY:
        PostQuitMessage(0);
        break;
    default:
        return DefWindowProc(hWnd, message, wParam, lParam);
    return 0;
For another example, see "Setting Fonts for Menu-Item Text Strings" in Using Menus.
The wingdi.h header defines CreateFont as an alias which automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.
Requirements
Requirement
Value