|
Icon Creation
Standard icons are predefined, so it is not necessary to create them. To use a
standard icon, an application can obtain its handle by using the LoadImage function. An icon handle is a unique value of the HICON type that identifies a standard or custom icon.
To create a custom icon for an application, developers typically use a
graphics application and include the ICON resource in the application's resource-definition file. At run time, an application
can call LoadIcon or LoadImage to retrieve the handle of the icon. An icon resource contains data for
several different display devices. LoadIcon and LoadImage automatically select the most appropriate data for the current display
device.
An application can also create a custom icon at run time by using the CreateIconIndirect function, which creates an icon based on the contents of an ICONINFO structure. The GetIconInfo function fills the structure with the hot spot coordinates and information
about the bitmask bitmap and color bitmap for the icon.
Applications should implement custom icons as resources and should use LoadIcon or LoadImage, rather than create the icon at run time. Using icon resources avoids device
dependence, simplifies localization, and enables applications to share icon
shapes.
The CreateIconFromResourceEx function enables an application to browse through the system's resources and
create icons and cursors based on resource data. CreateIconFromResourceEx creates an icon based on binary resource data from other executable files or
dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). An application must precede this function with
calls to the LookupIconIdFromDirectoryEx function and several of the resource functions. LookupIconIdFromDirectoryEx returns the identifier of the most appropriate icon data for the current
display device. For more information about the resource functions, see Resource Functions.
Related Links
Software for Delphi and C++ Builder developers
Software for Visual Studio .NET developers
Software for Visual Basic 6 developers
Delphi Tips&Tricks
MegaDetailed.NET
More Online Helps
Win32 Multimedia Programmer's Reference (mmedia.hlp)
OLE Programmer's Reference (ole.hlp)
Microsoft Windows Pen API Programmer's Reference (penapi.hlp)
Microsoft Windows Sockets 2 Reference (sock2.hlp)
Microsoft Windows Telephony API (TAPI) Programmer's Reference (tapi.hlp)
Unix Manual Pages
|
