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# QPicture Class Reference
[QtGui module]

The QPicture class is a paint device that records and replays QPainter commands. More...

     #include <QPicture>

Inherits QPaintDevice.

Inherited by Q3Picture.

- List of all members, including inherited members
- Obsolete members
- Qt 3 support members

### Public Functions

- QPicture ( int formatVersion = -1 )
- QPicture ( const QPicture & pic )
- ~QPicture ()
- QRect boundingRect () const
- const char * data () const
- bool isNull () const
- bool load ( const QString & fileName, const char * format = 0 )
- bool load ( QIODevice * dev, const char * format = 0 )
- bool play ( QPainter * painter )
- bool save ( const QString & fileName, const char * format = 0 )
- bool save ( QIODevice * dev, const char * format = 0 )
- void setBoundingRect ( const QRect & r )
- virtual void setData ( const char * data, uint size )
- uint size () const
- QPicture & operator= ( const QPicture & p )

- 12 public functions inherited from QPaintDevice

### Protected Functions

- virtual int metric ( PaintDeviceMetric m ) const

- 1 protected function inherited from QPaintDevice

### Related Non-Members

- QDataStream & operator<< ( QDataStream & s, const QPicture & r )
- QDataStream & operator>> ( QDataStream & s, QPicture & r )

## Detailed Description

The QPicture class is a paint device that records and replays QPainter commands.

A picture serializes painter commands to an IO device in a platform-independent format. They are sometimes referred to as meta-files.

Qt pictures use a proprietary binary format. Unlike native picture (meta-file) formats on many window systems, Qt pictures have no limitations regarding their contents. Everything that can be painted on a widget or pixmap (e.g., fonts, pixmaps, regions, transformed graphics, etc.) can also be stored in a picture.

QPicture is resolution independent, i.e. a QPicture can be displayed on different devices (for example svg, pdf, ps, printer and screen) looking the same. This is, for instance, needed for WYSIWYG print preview. QPicture runs in the default system dpi, and scales the painter to match differences in resolution depending on the window system.

Example of how to record a picture:

             QPicture picture;
             QPainter painter;
             painter.begin(&picture);           // paint in picture
             painter.drawEllipse(10,20, 80,70); // draw an ellipse
             painter.end();                     // painting done
             picture.save("drawing.pic");       // save picture

Note that the list of painter commands is reset on each call to the QPainter::begin() function.

Example of how to replay a picture:

             QPicture picture;
             picture.load("drawing.pic");           // load picture
             QPainter painter;
             painter.begin(&myWidget);              // paint in myWidget
             painter.drawPicture(0, 0, picture);    // draw the picture at (0,0)
             painter.end();                         // painting done

Pictures can also be drawn using play(). Some basic data about a picture is available, for example, size(), isNull() and boundingRect().

See also QMovie.

## Member Function Documentation

### QPicture::QPicture ( int formatVersion = -1 )

Constructs an empty picture.

The formatVersion parameter may be used to create a QPicture that can be read by applications that are compiled with earlier versions of Qt.

Note that the default formatVersion is -1 which signifies the current release, i.e. for Qt 4.0 a formatVersion of 7 is the same as the default formatVersion of -1.

Reading pictures generated by earlier versions of Qt is not supported in Qt 4.0.

### QPicture::QPicture ( const QPicture & pic )

Constructs a copy of pic.

This constructor is fast thanks to implicit sharing.

### QPicture::~QPicture ()

Destroys the picture.

### QRect QPicture::boundingRect () const

Returns the picture's bounding rectangle or an invalid rectangle if the picture contains no data.

See also setBoundingRect().

### const char * QPicture::data () const

Returns a pointer to the picture data. The pointer is only valid until the next non-const function is called on this picture. The returned pointer is 0 if the picture contains no data.

See also setData(), size(), and isNull().

### bool QPicture::isNull () const

Returns true if the picture contains no data; otherwise returns false.

### bool QPicture::load ( const QString & fileName, const char * format = 0 )

Loads a picture from the file specified by fileName and returns true if successful; otherwise returns false.

Please note that the format parameter has been deprecated and will have no effect.

See also save().

### bool QPicture::load ( QIODevice * dev, const char * format = 0 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

dev is the device to use for loading.

### int QPicture::metric ( PaintDeviceMetric m ) const `[virtual protected]`

Internal implementation of the virtual QPaintDevice::metric() function.

A picture has the following hard-coded values: numcolors=16777216 and depth=24.

m is the metric to get.

Reimplemented from QPaintDevice.

### bool QPicture::play ( QPainter * painter )

Replays the picture using painter, and returns true if successful; otherwise returns false.

This function does exactly the same as QPainter::drawPicture() with (x, y) = (0, 0).

### bool QPicture::save ( const QString & fileName, const char * format = 0 )

Saves a picture to the file specified by fileName and returns true if successful; otherwise returns false.

Please note that the format parameter has been deprecated and will have no effect.

See also load().

### bool QPicture::save ( QIODevice * dev, const char * format = 0 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

dev is the device to use for saving.

### void QPicture::setBoundingRect ( const QRect & r )

Sets the picture's bounding rectangle to r. The automatically calculated value is overridden.

See also boundingRect().

### void QPicture::setData ( const char * data, uint size ) `[virtual]`

Sets the picture data directly from data and size. This function copies the input data.

See also data() and size().

### uint QPicture::size () const

Returns the size of the picture data.

See also data().

### QPicture & QPicture::operator= ( const QPicture & p )

Assigns picture p to this picture and returns a reference to this picture.

## Related Non-Members

### QDataStream & operator<< ( QDataStream & s, const QPicture & r )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

Writes picture r to the stream s and returns a reference to the stream.

### QDataStream & operator>> ( QDataStream & s, QPicture & r )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

Reads a picture from the stream s into picture r and returns a reference to the stream.

## Member Function Documentation

### QPicture QPicture::copy () const `[protected]`

Use simple assignment instead.