SelectPalette function (wingdi.h)

Article
10/13/2021

The SelectPalette function selects the specified logical palette into a device context.

Syntax

HPALETTE SelectPalette(
  [in] HDC      hdc,
  [in] HPALETTE hPal,
  [in] BOOL     bForceBkgd
);

Parameters

[in] hdc

A handle to the device context.

[in] hPal

A handle to the logical palette to be selected.

[in] bForceBkgd

Specifies whether the logical palette is forced to be a background palette. If this value is TRUE, the RealizePalette function causes the logical palette to be mapped to the colors already in the physical palette in the best possible way. This is always done, even if the window for which the palette is realized belongs to a thread without active focus.

If this value is FALSE, RealizePalette causes the logical palette to be copied into the device palette when the application is in the foreground. (If the hdc parameter is a memory device context, this parameter is ignored.)

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to the device context's previous logical palette.

If the function fails, the return value is NULL.

Remarks

An application can determine whether a device supports palette operations by calling the GetDeviceCaps function and specifying the RASTERCAPS constant.

An application can select a logical palette into more than one device context only if device contexts are compatible. Otherwise SelectPalette fails. To create a device context that is compatible with another device context, call CreateCompatibleDC with the first device context as the parameter. If a logical palette is selected into more than one device context, changes to the logical palette will affect all device contexts for which it is selected.

An application might call the SelectPalette function with the bForceBackground parameter set to TRUE if the child windows of a top-level window each realize their own palettes. However, only the child window that needs to realize its palette must set bForceBackground to TRUE; other child windows must set this value to FALSE.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	wingdi.h (include Windows.h)
Library	Gdi32.lib
DLL	Gdi32.dll