Windows 3.1 Device Drivers (ddag31qh.hlp) (Table of Contents; Topic list)
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Device-Independent Bitmaps
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Device-independent bitmaps (DIBs) are bitmaps in a new format that was
designed to provide a device-independent way for applications to transfer
bitmap images to a variety of output devices. Besides the bitmap bits, these
bitmaps contain color-table information and additional dimension
information.
 
A printer driver should include support for DIBs, especially in color
devices. If a driver does not support DIBs, GDI can convert DIBs into the
standard monochrome bitmap format, but the quality of DIB output will rarely
be satisfactory in such situations.
 
If a printer driver can do more with the bitmap, it should attempt to
support DIBs handling, especially if it can perform its own half-toning or
coloring of bitmaps. To enable such functionality, the driver should support
the SetDIBitsToDevice and StretchDIBits functions, and possibly support the
SetDIBits and GetDIBits functions if the driver deals with GDI bitmaps.
 
 
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