about savepicture

which version of vb have you got?

That was in VB3 + Windows95.
Thank you.

I haven't used VB3 for a while, but i think the SavePicture supports only 16 colors.

I agree with MikeP, the SavePicture support 16 colors as far as I know, but maybe you could find a vbx which gives you the ability to save 256 color pictures

username1 (and MikeP)
SavePicture supports all color depths (including 16 million colors) and saves the picture of a picturebox to a file using the same color depth of the picture. It works just fine in VB3 under Win95.
username1, try to set the AutoRedraw property of the picturebox to TRUE (although setting it to FALSE works fine) and call a DoEvents before saving the picture.

Regards

Sorry, haven't used VB3 for quit a while.
The only thing I can sugest is to search for some other procedure that deals with pictures. Try copying it to somewhere (maybe a form) and find some API function... Just wild guesses

Good luck,
Matvey

davvan,
I tried the SavePicture statement with a 256 & 16M color picture (before posing my previous comment) and it worked just fine!!!
How can you agree with MikeP???

Hello Experts,

Thank you very much for your kindly suggestions.

I am sorry, I didn't make my Q very clear....I believe that I need to tell you the detail:

1. Run PAINT with the screen display setted to 256 colours. One may see the colour palette in the screen.
2. Run VB3: Following the help from VBKB16, I called the API function to copy the screen to the picture box picture1.
  (I have checked the copied picture in the picture pox and that was perfect.)
3. Then, savepicture picture1.image, "thefile.bmp".
4. Open thefile.bmp in PAINT, only 16 colurs (in the palette) left, the rest turned to black.
5. If the picture in the picture box is loaded from a bmp file (with 256 colours), the statement savepicture works just fine.

username1,
Can you send me your code for copying the screen?

Hi Kamall,

How to send? Can you give me your E-mail addess?

Cheers.

Username1

You can paste the code portion here in a comment, or send it to me at: kamal@egnatia.ee.auth.gr

When I added my comment, I wrote 'as far as I know'. I haven't used VB3 for several days myself, so I was not sure. And now, it seems that I was wrong.

Hi Kamal and other experts,

Following is what I did (almost all copied from VBKB16) for save the screen to a picture box. Please ignore the comments.

Type lrect
    Left As Integer
    Top As Integer
    right As Integer
    bottom As Integer
End Type

Declare Function GetDesktopWindow Lib "user" () As Integer
Declare Function GetDC Lib "user" (ByVal hwnd%) As Integer
            ' Enter the following Declare on one, single line:
Declare Function BitBlt Lib "GDI" (ByVal hDestDC%, ByVal x%, ByVal y%, ByVal nWidth%, ByVal nHeight%, ByVal hSrcDC%, ByVal XSrc%, ByVal YSrc%, ByVal dwRop&) As Integer
            ' Enter the following Declare on one, single line:
Declare Function ReleaseDC Lib "User" (ByVal hwnd As Integer, ByVal hDC As Integer) As Integer
Declare Sub GetWindowRect Lib "User" (ByVal hwnd%, lpRect As lrect)

Sub GrabScreen (thepicture As Control)
Dim winSize As lrect

              ' Assign information of the source bitmap.
              ' Note that BitBlt requires coordinates in pixels.
    hwndSrc% = GetDesktopWindow()
    hSrcDC% = GetDC(hwndSrc%)
    XSrc% = 0: YSrc% = 0
    Call GetWindowRect(hwndSrc%, winSize)
    nWidth% = winSize.right             ' Units in pixels.
    nHeight% = winSize.bottom           ' Units in pixels.

               ' Assign informate of the destination bitmap.
    hDestDC% = thepicture.hDC

    x% = 0: y% = 0

               ' Set picture box to same size as screen being grabbed.
               ' If picture box not the same size as picture being
               ' BitBlt'ed to it, it will chop off all that does not
               ' fit in the picture box.
    thepicture.Top = 0
    thepicture.Left = 0
    thepicture.Width = (nWidth% + 1) * screen.TwipsPerPixelX
    thepicture.Height = (nHeight% + 1) * screen.TwipsPerPixelY

               ' Assign the value of the constant SRCOPYY to the Raster operation.
    dwRop& = &HCC0020

               ' NOTE: function call must be on one line:
    Suc% = BitBlt(hDestDC%, x%, y%, nWidth%, nHeight%, hSrcDC%, XSrc%, YSrc%, dwRop&)

               ' Release the DeskTopWindow's hDC to Windows.
               ' Windows may hang if this is not done.
    Dmy% = ReleaseDC(hwndSrc%, hSrcDC%)

End Sub

Edited text of question

Edited text of question

Adjusted points to 80

Hi Kamall,

I have found something strange:

As you said, your code (the same as my code :-)) may copy the whole desktop of 256 color picture and save it to a file under a 24bit color display (Thanks). I also did the job successfully when the display setted to 16bit. Unfortunately, in the display setting in my own computer, there are only 16 color and 256 color in the list. Do you think it can not work if the disply is setted to 256 color?

Best wishes.

Hi username1
As I can understand, you have tested the code on another computer under 24Bit/16Bit color settings and it worked just fine. In fact, I haven't tested the code under 256 color setting, but I  doubt that the code can only work in 24/16Bit settings; I cann't see some logical explaination. Can't you try to test the code on the other machine using 256 colors?. If you can't, inform me and I will try to do the test.

Best regards

Hi Kamall,

Sorry, I got no chance to read your comment.

Please try to set your PC to 256 color and do the savepicture!

I have just tried the following in another PC:
1) Setted the PC to 256 color.
2) Opened Paint, the color balette was displaied.
3) Copied the screen to a picture in a picture box and then copied the picture to a bmp file. (Note, that was down by an exe file created by VB3 and the file uses a tiny form so that the screen wont be covered by the form.)
4) Opened the bmp file in Paint and found only 16 colors in the balette in the picture. The rest colres became black.
5) Setted the PC to 24bit color.
6) Repeated 1)-4) but found all colors were OK.

What you can say??!!

Ok username1,
It seems strange!
I'll try it and will inform you the results.

Regards

Hi username1,
Sorry for the delay in commenting to you.
I have just tested the functionality of SavePicture after setting the graphics adaptor to 256 colors, but unfortunately, I got the same results you stated!. I tried it with both 256 color as well as true color pictures on this mode (256), but I got the same results. I also tried it with various picturers dithered to 256 colors using different paletts and optimizations, but also failed!.
It seems very strange to me, and my only conclusion is that the function does not support (can not correctly handle) this color mode.

Best regards

Kamall,

That is a bug? Can work in 16, 16it and 24bit color mode but only 256 color mode fail?

I would publish my Q again to let other expert confirm this strange beharior.....but also grade your answer for your work:-)

Cheers.

You are right username1. That is a bug.
Probably, another expert can give an explanation for this.
Regards.