How to: Access the Built-in Fonts and Color Scheme

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

The Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) has a scheme of fonts and colors that is associated with the editor window. You can access this scheme through the IVsTextView interface.

To use the built-in fonts and colors scheme, a VSPackage must:

• Define a category to use with the default fonts and colors service.

• Register the category with the default fonts and colors server.

• Advise the IDE that a specific window uses the built-in display items and categories by using the T:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextEditorPropertyCategoryContainer and T:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextEditorPropertyContainer interfaces.

  The IDE uses the resulting category as a handle to the window. The category's name is displayed in the Show settings for: drop-down box in the Fonts and Colors property page.

To define a category using built-in fonts and colors

1. Create an arbitrary GUID.

   This GUID is used to uniquely identify a category. This category reuses the IDE's default fonts and colors specification.

   Note

   When retrieving font and color data with the IVsFontAndColorEvents or other interfaces, VSPackages use this GUID to reference built-in information.

2. The category's name must be added to a string table inside the VSPackage's resources (.rc) file, so that it can be localized as needed when displayed in the IDE.

   For more information, see Adding or Deleting a String.

To register a category using built-in fonts and colors

1. Construct a special type of category registry entry in the following location:

   [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \Visual Studio\<Visual Studio version>\FontAndColors\<Category>]

   <Category> is the non-localized name of the category.

2. Populate the registry to use the stock fonts and color scheme with four values:

   Name	Type	Data	Description
   Category	REG_SZ	GUID	An arbitrary GUID that identifies a category that contains the stock font and color scheme.
   Package	REG_SZ	GUID	{F5E7E71D-1401-11D1-883B-0000F87579D2} This GUID is used by all VSPackages that use the default font and color configurations.
   NameID	REG_DWORD	ID	The resource ID of a localizable category name in the VSPackage.
   ToolWindowPackage	REG_SZ	GUID	The GUID of the VSPackage implementing the IVsTextView interface.

To initiate the use of system-provided fonts and colors

1. Create an instance of the T:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextEditorPropertyCategoryContainer interface as part of the window's implementation and initialization.

2. Call the GetPropertyCategory method to obtain an instance of the T:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextEditorPropertyContainer interface corresponding to the current IVsTextView instance.

3. Call SetProperty twice.

   • Call once with VSEDITPROPID_ViewGeneral_ColorCategoryas an argument.

   • Call once with VSEDITPROPID_ViewGeneral_FontCategory as an argument.

     This sets and exposes the default fonts and colors services as a property of the window.

Example

The following example initiates the use of built-in fonts and colors.

CComVariant vt;  
CComQIPtr<IVsTextEditorPropertyCategoryContainer> spPropCatContainer(m_spView);  
if (spPropCatContainer != NULL){  
    CComPtr<IVsTextEditorPropertyContainer> spPropContainer;  
    if (SUCCEEDED(spPropCatContainer->GetPropertyCategory(GUID_EditPropCategory_View_MasterSettings,   
                                                          &spPropContainer))){  
        CComVariant vt;CComVariant VariantGUID(bstrGuidText);  
        spPropContainer->SetProperty(VSEDITPROPID_ViewGeneral_FontCategory, VariantGUID);  
        spPropContainer->SetProperty(VSEDITPROPID_ViewGeneral_ColorCategory, VariantGUID);  
    }  
}  

See Also

Using Fonts and Colors
Getting Font and Color Information for Text Colorization
Accessing Stored Font and Color Settings
Font and Color Overview