Rendering GIF, JPEG, Icon, or Bitmap Files with OleLoadPicture

Introduction

This article describes a simple way to do basic rendering of various types of image files into a view window.

It uses a rendering method described in the MSDN article Q218972, LOADPIC.EXE.

I ran across this sample application purely by accident. After reviewing it, I re-wrote the guts of the functionality for use in an MFC document-view environment.

The re-write consists of three functions:

• DrawImage(), which draws the image contained in an image file.
• GetImageSize(), which returns the height and width of the image in the image file.
• LoadPictureFile(), which loads the image from disk and readies it for display via OleLoadPicture().

Header Definitions:

BOOL DrawImage(CDC*    pDC,         //Device context
               CString csFile,      //Pathname to image file
               CPoint  ptCenter,    //Center point for image
               HWND    hWnd,        //Handle to view window
               CRect   rectImage);  //Display area rectangle

DrawImage() will render the image whose pathname is passed in in csFile into the area of the rectangle in rectImage.

rectImage must be in device units.

Important: These functions assume a DC mapping mode other than MM_TEXT. That is, negative Y is downward.

If you are going to use MM_TEXT, you will need to change the signs of the height variables in the Render() function call.

BOOL GetImageSize(CDC*    pDC,       //Device context
                  LPCTSTR szFile,    //Pathname to image file
                  int*    pnHeight,  //Height to return
                  int*    pnWidth);  //Width to return

GetImageSize() returns the height and width of the image in szFile. These values are in device units for the DC passed in to the function.

It is good to use this function to fetch the true size of the image, in case you want to let the user reset the image display.

BOOL LoadPictureFile(LPCTSTR    szFile,      //Image file pathname
                     LPPICTURE* pgpPicture); //Ptr to PICTURE for image

LoadPictureFile() loads the image bytes in szFile into pgpPicture.

Includes:

The LOADPIC project has a reference to olectl.h in its stdafx.h file.

However, I am using these functions in an MFC application with no special includes.

MSDN does not mention any need for OleLoadPicture.

Source:

BOOL DrawImage(CDC*    pDC,
               CString csFile,
               CPoint  ptCenter,
               HWND    hWnd,
               CRect   rectImage)
{
    if (pDC == NULL || csFile.IsEmpty() || hWnd == NULL)
        return FALSE;
    
    LPPICTURE gpPicture = NULL;
        
    if (LoadPictureFile((LPCTSTR)csFile,&gpPicture))
    {
        //Get width and height of picture
        long hmWidth  = 0;
        long hmHeight = 0;

        gpPicture->get_Width (&hmWidth);
        gpPicture->get_Height(&hmHeight);

        //Use to get height and width for display
        CRect rectI = rectImage;
        rectI.NormalizeRect();

        int nWidth = rectI.Width();
        int nHeight= rectI.Height();

        CPoint ptUL(ptCenter.x-(nWidth /2),
                    ptCenter.y+(nHeight/2));

		RECT rc;
		GetClientRect(hWnd, &rc);

        HRESULT hrP = NULL;
        
        hrP =
        gpPicture->Render(pDC->m_hDC,
                          ptUL.x,
                          ptUL.y,
                          nWidth,
                          -nHeight,
                          0,
                          hmHeight,
                          hmWidth,
                          -hmHeight,
                          &rc);

        gpPicture->Release();

        if (SUCCEEDED(hrP))
            return TRUE;
    }

    return FALSE;
}

BOOL GetImageSize(CDC*       pDC,
                  LPCTSTR    szFile,
                  int*       pnHeight,
                  int*       pnWidth)
{
    LPPICTURE gpPicture = NULL;

    if (!LoadPictureFile(szFile,&gpPicture))
        return FALSE;

    //Get width and height of picture
    long hmWidth  = 0;
    long hmHeight = 0;

    gpPicture->get_Width (&hmWidth);
    gpPicture->get_Height(&hmHeight);

    int nPixX = pDC->GetDeviceCaps(LOGPIXELSX);
    int nPixY = pDC->GetDeviceCaps(LOGPIXELSY);

    //For printers, pixels per inch is really DPI, so be careful!
    if (pDC->IsPrinting())
    {
		nPixX = 96;
        nPixY = 96;
    }

    //Convert to device units
    *pnWidth  = MulDiv(hmWidth,  nPixX, HIMETRIC_INCH);
    *pnHeight = MulDiv(hmHeight, nPixY, HIMETRIC_INCH);

    return TRUE;
}

BOOL LoadPictureFile(LPCTSTR    szFile,
                     LPPICTURE* pgpPicture)
{
    // open file
    HANDLE hFile = CreateFile(szFile,
                              GENERIC_READ,
                              0,
                              NULL,
                              OPEN_EXISTING,
                              0,
                              NULL);

    if (hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
    {
        AfxMessageBox ("Could not read file");
        return FALSE;
    }

    // get file size
    DWORD dwFileSize = GetFileSize(hFile, NULL);

    if (dwFileSize == (DWORD)-1)
    {
        CloseHandle(hFile);
        AfxMessageBox ("File seems to be empty");
        return FALSE;
    }

    LPVOID pvData = NULL;

    // alloc memory based on file size
    HGLOBAL hGlobal = GlobalAlloc(GMEM_MOVEABLE, dwFileSize);

    if (hGlobal == NULL)
    {
        CloseHandle(hFile);
        AfxMessageBox ("Could not allocate memory for image");
        return FALSE;
    }

    pvData = GlobalLock(hGlobal);

    if (pvData == NULL)
    {
        GlobalUnlock(hGlobal);
        CloseHandle(hFile);
        AfxMessageBox ("Could not lock memory for image");
        return FALSE;
    }

    DWORD dwBytesRead = 0;

    // read file and store in global memory
    BOOL bRead = ReadFile(hFile,
                          pvData,
                          dwFileSize,
                          &dwBytesRead,
                          NULL);

    GlobalUnlock(hGlobal);
    CloseHandle(hFile);

    if (!bRead)
    {
        AfxMessageBox ("Could not read file");
        return FALSE;
    }

    LPSTREAM pstm = NULL;

    // create IStream* from global memory
    HRESULT hr = CreateStreamOnHGlobal(hGlobal,
                                       TRUE,
                                       &pstm);

    if (!(SUCCEEDED(hr)))
    {
        AfxMessageBox ("CreateStreamOnHGlobal() failed");

        if (pstm != NULL)
            pstm->Release();
            
        return FALSE;
    }

    else if (pstm == NULL)
    {
        AfxMessageBox ("CreateStreamOnHGlobal() failed");
        return FALSE;
    }

	// Create IPicture from image file
	if (*pgpPicture)
		(*pgpPicture)->Release();

    hr = ::OleLoadPicture(pstm,
                          dwFileSize,
                          FALSE,
                          IID_IPicture,
                          (LPVOID *)&(*pgpPicture));

    if (!(SUCCEEDED(hr)))
    {
    	pstm->Release();
        AfxMessageBox("Could not load image (hr failure)");
        return FALSE;
    }

    else if (*pgpPicture == NULL)
    {
    	pstm->Release();
        AfxMessageBox("Could not load image (pgpPicture failure)");
        return FALSE;
    }

    pstm->Release();

    return TRUE;  //Made it ...!
}

Example of Use:

The picture above shows use of these functions in a map-making program I have been working on.

Here is how the program uses them:

Document Class:

First a handler for the "Map" menu allows a user to navigate to the desired image file and open it. This simply saves off the file path for use later, and sets the program into "rendering images" mode: Wherever the user clicks, a stroke "image" object will be created to display the image.

The CStroke class handles this (remember Scribble?).

View Class:

Once the program is in "rendering images" mode, the view class handles the left mouse button click. Here is the code block from OnLButtonDown():

void CGameMaprView::OnLButtonDown(UINT nFlags, CPoint point) 
{
    CGameMaprDoc* pDoc = GetDocument();
    CRect rectTemp;

    CClientDC dc(this);
    OnPrepareDC(&dc);
    dc.DPtoLP(&point);

    ...


    //---------------------------------------
    else if (pDoc->DrawType() == DRAW_IMAGE_FILE)
    {
        m_pStrokeCur = pDoc->NewStroke(FALSE,
                                       &dc,
                                       point.x,
                                       point.y,
                                       pDoc->BitmapResourceName()); //Pathname to image file

        if (m_pStrokeCur != NULL)
        {
            m_pStrokeCur->DrawStroke(&dc,FALSE,this);

            //Invalidate for re-display
            pDoc->RedrawArea(m_pStrokeCur->m_rectBounding);
        }
    }

    ...

    return;
}

Document Class (again):

Back in the document class, NewStroke() creates a new stroke, and gets the original image size for the initial bounding box:

CStroke* CGameMaprDoc::NewStroke(BOOL bPasting,
                                 CDC  *pDC,
                                 int  nX,
                                 int  nY,
                                 CString csBmp) //Image file in this case...
{

    ...


    else if (m_eDrawType == DRAW_IMAGE_FILE)
    {
        eType = S_TYPE_IMAGE_FILE;
    }

    pStrokeItem = new CStroke( ... );

	...

    //Do bitmap-related processing
    else if (m_eDrawType == DRAW_IMAGE_FILE &&
             !csBmp.IsEmpty())
    {
        int nH = 0;
        int nW = 0;

        //Set the original size of the image
        if (GetImageSize(pDC,(LPCTSTR)csBmp,&nH,&nW))
        {            
            pStrokeItem->m_csBitmapResource = csBmp;
            pStrokeItem->m_rectBounding.SetRect(nX-(nW/2),
                                                nY+(nH/2),
                                                nX+(nW/2),
                                                nY-(nH/2));
        }

        else
        {
            AfxMessageBox("Could not create image object");
            delete pStrokeItem;
            return NULL;
        }
    }

    ...
}

Stroke Class:

In the CStroke class, the DrawStroke() function handles drawing of the image:

BOOL CStroke::DrawStroke(CDC*           pDC,
                         BOOL           bDirectDisplay,
                         CGameMaprView* pView)
{

    ...


    //Render an image file-----------------------
    else if (StrokeType() == S_TYPE_IMAGE_FILE)
    {
        DrawImage(pDC,
                  m_csBitmapResource,
                  m_rectBounding.CenterPoint(),
                  pView->m_hWnd,
                  m_rectBounding);
    }

    ...

}

The stroke class also has an "update properties" method that allows a user to specify a different height and width for the image.

Printing Issues:

For some reason, articles dealing with images (especially bitmaps) never talk about printing issues to consider.

The biggest one is the aspect ratio:

LOGPIXELSX and LOGPIXELSY, to a printer's Device Context (DC) mean the number of Dots Per Inch (DPI). On a 600 DPI printer, these values will be returned as 600.

If you are not careful, this will have "interesting" results when you print!

The second issue is transparency. Hewlett-Packard printers, for example, do not seem to recognize the BitBlt ROP codes properly, making it impossible to render an image transparently by the normally-shown methods.

(This may have been fixed on later models - HP never responded when I tried to contact them about it.)

This limitation also exists in the above functions: You will not be able to print a transparent image (such as the knight in the image sample above) using OleLoadImage(). Non-transparent printing seems to work fine.

To do transparent printing, you would need to turn the image into a bitmap, and then print it using regions of color rather than bit-blitting with the "true mask" method.

Failures to Load:

LOADPIC states that it will open Enhanced metafiles and Windows metafiles (EMF and WMF formats).

I successfully loaded two EMF's; however, when I tried to load c:\windows\system\spbanner.wmf, I got:

"Could not load image (hr failure)". Word 97 would not load this file properly either.

If desired, a reader could add further analysis code to list the detailed cause of such failures.

Conclusion:

I have found these functions very useful; it is my hope that other readers will also find them useful for rendering various types of images.