GDI - Can I use the new Windows 10 Segoe UI Emoji colored font with DrawText?

Question

I'm creating a c++ project using Embarcadero RAD Studio (10.2 Tokyo starter) and the Windows GDI to draw text, via the DrawText() function.

I recently saw that Windows 10 provides a new "Segoe UI Emoji" font, that potentially allows text functions to draw colored emojis. I found several examples using Direct2D, but none with pure GDI functions.

I also tried a simple code, like this:

HDC hDC = ::GetDC(Handle);

std::auto_ptr<TCanvas> pCanvas(new TCanvas());
pCanvas->Handle = hDC;

pCanvas->Brush->Color = clWhite;
pCanvas->Brush->Style = bsSolid;
pCanvas->FillRect(TRect(0, 0, ClientWidth, ClientHeight));

const std::wstring text = L"Test ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ????";

TRect textRect(10, 10, ClientWidth - 10, ClientHeight - 10);

hFont = ::CreateFont(-40,
                      0, 
                      0,
                      0,
                      FW_DONTCARE,
                      FALSE,
                      FALSE,
                      FALSE,
                      DEFAULT_CHARSET,
                      OUT_OUTLINE_PRECIS,
                      CLIP_DEFAULT_PRECIS,
                      CLEARTYPE_QUALITY,
                      VARIABLE_PITCH,
                      L"Segoe UI Emoji");

::SelectObject(hDC, hFont);

::DrawTextW(hDC,
            text.c_str(),
            text.length(),
            &textRect,
            DT_LEFT | DT_TOP | DT_SINGLELINE);

::DeleteObject(hFont);

The output result sounds good in terms of symbols, but they are drawn in black&white, without colors, as you can see on the screenshot below:

I could not find any additional options that may allow the text to be drawn using colored symbols instead of black&white. Is there a way to activate the support of the color in GDI DrawText() function, and if yes, how to do that? Or only Direct2D may draw colored emojis?

EDITED on 30.10.2017

As the GDI cannot do the job (unfortunately, and as I thought) I publish here the Direct2D version of the above code, that worked for me.

const std::wstring text = L"Test ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ????";

HDC hDC = ::GetDC(Handle);

std::auto_ptr<TCanvas> pGDICanvas(new TCanvas());
pGDICanvas->Handle = hDC;

pGDICanvas->Brush->Color = clWhite;
pGDICanvas->Brush->Style = bsSolid;
pGDICanvas->FillRect(TRect(0, 0, ClientWidth, ClientHeight));

::D2D1_RECT_F textRect;
textRect.left   = 10;
textRect.top    = 10;
textRect.right  = ClientWidth  - 10;
textRect.bottom = ClientHeight - 10;

std::auto_ptr<TDirect2DCanvas> pCanvas(new TDirect2DCanvas(hDC, TRect(0, 0, ClientWidth, ClientHeight)));

// configure Direct2D font
pCanvas->Font->Size        = 40;
pCanvas->Font->Name        = L"Segoe UI Emoji";
pCanvas->Font->Orientation = 0;
pCanvas->Font->Pitch       = System::Uitypes::TFontPitch::fpVariable;
pCanvas->Font->Style       = TFontStyles();

// get DirectWrite text format object
_di_IDWriteTextFormat pFormat = pCanvas->Font->Handle;

if (!pFormat)
    return;

pCanvas->RenderTarget->SetTextAntialiasMode(D2D1_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_MODE_CLEARTYPE);

::D2D1_COLOR_F color;
color.r = 0.0f;
color.g = 0.0f;
color.b = 0.0f;
color.a = 1.0f;

::ID2D1SolidColorBrush* pBrush = NULL;

// create solid color brush, use pen color if rect is completely filled with outline
pCanvas->RenderTarget->CreateSolidColorBrush(color, &pBrush);

if (!pBrush)
    return;

// set horiz alignment
pFormat->SetTextAlignment(DWRITE_TEXT_ALIGNMENT_LEADING);

// set vert alignment
pFormat->SetParagraphAlignment(DWRITE_PARAGRAPH_ALIGNMENT_NEAR);

// set reading direction
pFormat->SetReadingDirection(DWRITE_READING_DIRECTION_LEFT_TO_RIGHT);

// set word wrapping mode
pFormat->SetWordWrapping(DWRITE_WORD_WRAPPING_NO_WRAP);

IDWriteInlineObject* pInlineObject = NULL;

::DWRITE_TRIMMING trimming;
trimming.delimiter      = 0;
trimming.delimiterCount = 0;
trimming.granularity    = DWRITE_TRIMMING_GRANULARITY_NONE;

// set text trimming
pFormat->SetTrimming(&trimming, pInlineObject);

pCanvas->BeginDraw();

pCanvas->RenderTarget->DrawText(text.c_str(), text.length(), pFormat, textRect, pBrush,
            D2D1_DRAW_TEXT_OPTIONS_ENABLE_COLOR_FONT);

pCanvas->EndDraw();

Of course this code will draw colored emojis only on the currently most recent versions of Windows 10, and above. On previous versions the text will be drawn as above (and the code may not compile).

Bonus Reading

• MSDN: Color Fonts with DirectWrite, Direct2D, and Win2D

Answer 1

GDI does not support color fonts (even if you go the full Uniscribe route), you have to use Direct2D if you want color font support. It makes sense that the simpler GDI APIs don't support color fonts as color fonts require using OpenType tags and none of DrawText/TextOut provide that level of control, Uniscribe allows for such tags but has simply not been extended to support color fonts.

Answer 2

You can use DirectWrite to draw colored emojis onto a bitmap in memory DC, then BitBlt() to your destination DC. Basically you need to implement a custom IDWriteTextRenderer class and call IDWriteTextLayout::Draw() with your renderer, then copy the result. In your class, you retrieve IDWriteGdiInterop from IDWriteFactory and call IDWriteGdiInterop::CreateBitmapRenderTarget() to get the bitmap render target; call IDWriteFactory::CreateMonitorRenderingParams() to get the rendering parameters, and call IDWriteFactory::CreateTextFormat() to setup your text format. The only significant method is DrawGlyphRun(), where you get IDWriteColorGlyphRunEnumerator with IDWriteFactory2::TranslateColorGlyphRun() and with each color run, call IDWriteBitmapRenderTarget::DrawGlyphRun() to do the work for you. Just remember to update the render target/parameters when the window size/position changes. You may reference this MSDN documentation:

Render to a GDI Surface https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff485856(v=vs.85).aspx