CreateIcon function (winuser.h)

Article
01/26/2024

Creates an icon that has the specified size, colors, and bit patterns.

To create a colored icon at run time you can use the CreateIconIndirect function, which creates a icon based on the content of an ICONINFO structure.

Syntax

HICON CreateIcon(
  [in, optional] HINSTANCE  hInstance,
  [in]           int        nWidth,
  [in]           int        nHeight,
  [in]           BYTE       cPlanes,
  [in]           BYTE       cBitsPixel,
  [in]           const BYTE *lpbANDbits,
  [in]           const BYTE *lpbXORbits
);

Parameters

[in, optional] hInstance

Type: HINSTANCE

A handle to the instance of the module creating the icon.

[in] nWidth

Type: int

The width, in pixels, of the icon. See remarks.

[in] nHeight

Type: int

The height, in pixels, of the icon. See remarks.

[in] cPlanes

Type: BYTE

The number of planes in the XOR bitmask of the icon. See remarks.

[in] cBitsPixel

Type: BYTE

The number of bits-per-pixel in the XOR bitmask of the icon.

[in] lpbANDbits

Type: const BYTE*

An array of bytes that contains the bit values for the AND bitmask of the icon. This bitmask describes a monochrome bitmap. See remarks.

[in] lpbXORbits

Type: const BYTE*

An array of bytes that contains the bit values for the XOR bitmask of the icon. This bitmask describes a monochrome or color bitmap. See remarks.

Return value

Type: HICON

If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to an icon.

If the function fails, the return value is NULL. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

To determine the nominal size of the icon, use the GetSystemMetrics function, specifying the SM_CXICON or SM_CYICON value. Also, you can use the DPI-aware version of this API, see (GetSystemMetricsForDpi)(/windows/win32/api/winuser/nf-winuser-getsystemmetricsfordpi). For more information see Icon Sizes and High DPI Desktop Application Development on Windows.

For more information about lpbANDbits and lpbXORbits parameters see description of lpBits parameter of CreateBitmap function.

In case of monochrome icon CreateIcon applies the following truth table to the AND and XOR bitmasks:

AND bitmask	XOR bitmask	Display
0	0	Black
0	1	White
1	0	Screen
1	1	Reverse screen

When you are finished using the icon, destroy it using the DestroyIcon function.

Examples

For an example, see Creating an Icon.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	winuser.h (include Windows.h)
Library	User32.lib
DLL	User32.dll

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