SetTextCharacterExtra function (wingdi.h)

Article
02/22/2024

The SetTextCharacterExtra function sets the intercharacter spacing. Intercharacter spacing is added to each character, including break characters, when the system writes a line of text.

Syntax

int SetTextCharacterExtra(
  [in] HDC hdc,
  [in] int extra
);

Parameters

[in] hdc

A handle to the device context.

[in] extra

The amount of extra space, in logical units, to be added to each character. If the current mapping mode is not MM_TEXT, the nCharExtra parameter is transformed and rounded to the nearest pixel.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is the previous intercharacter spacing.

If the function fails, the return value is 0x80000000.

Remarks

This function is supported mainly for compatibility with existing applications. New applications should generally avoid calling this function, because it is incompatible with complex scripts (scripts that require text shaping; Arabic script is an example of this).

The recommended approach is that instead of calling this function and then TextOut, applications should call ExtTextOut and use its lpDx parameter to supply widths.

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