Storing an Image
Many applications store images permanently as files. For example, drawing applications store pictures, spreadsheet applications store charts, CAD applications store drawings, and so on.  
 
If you are writing an application that stores a bitmap image in a file, you should use the bitmap file format described in Bitmap Storage. To store a bitmap in this format, you must use a BITMAPINFOHEADER, a BITMAPV4HEADER, or a BITMAPV5HEADER structure and an array of RGBQUAD structures, as well as an array of palette indexes.  
 
The following example code defines a function that uses a BITMAPINFO structure and allocates memory for and initializes members within a BITMAPINFOHEADER structure. Note that the BITMAPINFO structure cannot be used with either a BITMAPV4HEADER or a BITMAPV5HEADER structure.
 
PBITMAPINFO CreateBitmapInfoStruct(HWND hwnd, HBITMAP hBmp)
{  
    BITMAP bmp;  
    PBITMAPINFO pbmi;  
    WORD    cClrBits;  
 
    // Retrieve the bitmap color format, width, and height.  
    if (!GetObject(hBmp, sizeof(BITMAP), (LPSTR)&bmp))  
        errhandler("GetObject", hwnd);  
 
    // Convert the color format to a count of bits.  
    cClrBits = (WORD)(bmp.bmPlanes * bmp.bmBitsPixel);  
    if (cClrBits == 1)  
        cClrBits = 1;  
    else if (cClrBits <= 4)  
        cClrBits = 4;  
    else if (cClrBits <= 8)  
        cClrBits = 8;  
    else if (cClrBits <= 16)  
        cClrBits = 16;  
    else if (cClrBits <= 24)  
        cClrBits = 24;  
    else cClrBits = 32;  
 
    // Allocate memory for the BITMAPINFO structure. (This structure  
    // contains a BITMAPINFOHEADER structure and an array of RGBQUAD  
    // data structures.)  
 
     if (cClrBits != 24)  
         pbmi = (PBITMAPINFO) LocalAlloc(LPTR,  
                    sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER) +  
                    sizeof(RGBQUAD) * (1<< cClrBits));  
 
     // There is no RGBQUAD array for the 24-bit-per-pixel format.  
 
     else  
         pbmi = (PBITMAPINFO) LocalAlloc(LPTR,  
                    sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER));  
 
    // Initialize the fields in the BITMAPINFO structure.  
 
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biSize = sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER);  
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biWidth = bmp.bmWidth;  
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biHeight = bmp.bmHeight;  
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biPlanes = bmp.bmPlanes;  
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biBitCount = bmp.bmBitsPixel;  
    if (cClrBits < 24)  
        pbmi->bmiHeader.biClrUsed = (1<<cClrBits);  
 
    // If the bitmap is not compressed, set the BI_RGB flag.  
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biCompression = BI_RGB;  
 
    // Compute the number of bytes in the array of color  
    // indices and store the result in biSizeImage.  
    // For Windows NT, the width must be DWORD aligned unless  
    // the bitmap is RLE compressed. This example shows this.  
    // For Windows 95/98/Me, the width must be WORD aligned unless the  
    // bitmap is RLE compressed.
    pbmi->bmiHeader.biSizeImage = ((pbmi->bmiHeader.biWidth * cClrBits +31) & ~31) /8
                                  * pbmi->bmiHeader.biHeight;  
    // Set biClrImportant to 0, indicating that all of the  
    // device colors are important.  
     pbmi->bmiHeader.biClrImportant = 0;  
     return pbmi;  
 }  
The following example code defines a function that initializes the remaining structures, retrieves the array of palette indices, opens the file, copies the data, and closes the file.  
 
void CreateBMPFile(HWND hwnd, LPTSTR pszFile, PBITMAPINFO pbi,  
                  HBITMAP hBMP, HDC hDC)  
 {  
     HANDLE hf;                 // file handle  
    BITMAPFILEHEADER hdr;       // bitmap file-header  
    PBITMAPINFOHEADER pbih;     // bitmap info-header  
    LPBYTE lpBits;              // memory pointer  
    DWORD dwTotal;              // total count of bytes  
    DWORD cb;                   // incremental count of bytes  
    BYTE *hp;                   // byte pointer  
    DWORD dwTmp;  
 
    pbih = (PBITMAPINFOHEADER) pbi;  
    lpBits = (LPBYTE) GlobalAlloc(GMEM_FIXED, pbih->biSizeImage);
 
    if (!lpBits)  
         errhandler("GlobalAlloc", hwnd);  
 
    // Retrieve the color table (RGBQUAD array) and the bits  
    // (array of palette indices) from the DIB.  
    if (!GetDIBits(hDC, hBMP, 0, (WORD) pbih->biHeight, lpBits, pbi,  
        DIB_RGB_COLORS))  
    {
        errhandler("GetDIBits", hwnd);  
    }
 
    // Create the .BMP file.  
    hf = CreateFile(pszFile,  
                   GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE,  
                   (DWORD) 0,  
                    NULL,  
                   CREATE_ALWAYS,  
                   FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,  
                   (HANDLE) NULL);  
    if (hf == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)  
        errhandler("CreateFile", hwnd);  
    hdr.bfType = 0x4d42;        // 0x42 = "B" 0x4d = "M"  
    // Compute the size of the entire file.  
    hdr.bfSize = (DWORD) (sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER) +  
                 pbih->biSize + pbih->biClrUsed  
                 * sizeof(RGBQUAD) + pbih->biSizeImage);  
    hdr.bfReserved1 = 0;  
    hdr.bfReserved2 = 0;  
 
    // Compute the offset to the array of color indices.  
    hdr.bfOffBits = (DWORD) sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER) +  
                    pbih->biSize + pbih->biClrUsed  
                    * sizeof (RGBQUAD);  
 
    // Copy the BITMAPFILEHEADER into the .BMP file.  
    if (!WriteFile(hf, (LPVOID) &hdr, sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER),  
        (LPDWORD) &dwTmp,  NULL))  
    {
       errhandler("WriteFile", hwnd);  
    }
 
    // Copy the BITMAPINFOHEADER and RGBQUAD array into the file.  
    if (!WriteFile(hf, (LPVOID) pbih, sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER)  
                  + pbih->biClrUsed * sizeof (RGBQUAD),  
                  (LPDWORD) &dwTmp, ( NULL))  
        errhandler("WriteFile", hwnd);  
 
    // Copy the array of color indices into the .BMP file.  
    dwTotal = cb = pbih->biSizeImage;  
    hp = lpBits;  
    if (!WriteFile(hf, (LPSTR) hp, (int) cb, (LPDWORD) &dwTmp,NULL))  
           errhandler("WriteFile", hwnd);  
 
    // Close the .BMP file.  
     if (!CloseHandle(hf))  
           errhandler("CloseHandle", hwnd);  
 
    // Free memory.  
    GlobalFree((HGLOBAL)lpBits);
}