Home/ Questions/Q 3348196
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-18T01:30:48+00:00

I have a question about the Bitmap class. If you want to set a

  • 0

I have a question about the Bitmap class. If you want to set a lot of pixels on the bitmap, then you can use the SetPixel method, but it’s very slow. There is a lot of documentation on how you can speed it up with the LockBits methodes etc, so i’ve created a method: SetFastPixelto speed it up a bit.

However, and I’m really confused by it: Why doesn’t microsoft change the implementation of SetPixel() to an implementation that’s faster? In other words, is there and advantage for using SetPixel instead of the LockBits method?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Cases where SetFastPixel probably doesn’t work:

    • Monochrome devices (eight pixels packed into one byte)
    • Planar devices (16-color VGA cards have a strange memory layout and require hardware assistance)
    • Indexed palette devices (SetPixel handles the RGB to palette index mapping)
    • Printers (I’ve no idea how this would work via LockBits)
    • Multi-monitor configurations where each card has a different pixel format

    SetPixel is designed to handle all of the above, at the expense of being slow. If you’re willing to sacrifice some of the above points, or if you’re happy to handle them in your application, then you have the ability to draw images via LockBits.

    • 0