Question

I’m writing a WinForms user control. My plan is to allow the caller to modify the control’s font but enforce that the font is always a fixed-width font.

I then need to position a caret horizontally within the control. When I did this in C++, I used GetTextMetrics() and TEXTMETRIC.tmAveCharWidth. But after spending a bunch of time this weekend, I’ve been unable to duplicate this in C#/WinForms.

I know there is a way to declare it so I can call GetTextMetrics() directly. But I was hoping for a .NET way to do this. (And, if not, does someone have the correct syntax to declare this API function in .NET)

Answer 1

This works from a Windows Form:

 TextMetrics metrics;
 var renderer = new VisualStyleRenderer(VisualStyleElement.Window.Dialog.Normal);

 using (var context = this.CreateGraphics() as IDeviceContext)
 {
     var metrics = renderer.GetTextMetrics(context);
 }

 var averageWidth = metrics.AverageCharWidth;