The QPicture class is a paint device that records and replays QPainter commands.
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A picture serializes painter commands to an IO device in a platform-independent format. For example, a picture created under Windows can be read on a Sun SPARC.
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Pictures are called meta-files on some platforms.
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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 can also be stored in a picture, e.g. fonts, pixmaps, regions, transformed graphics, etc.
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QPicture is an implicitly shared class.
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Example of how to record a picture:
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QPicture pic;
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QPainter p;
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p.begin( &pic ); // paint in picture
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p.drawEllipse( 10,20, 80,70 ); // draw an ellipse
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p.end(); // painting done
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pic.save( "drawing.pic" ); // save picture
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.fi
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Example of how to replay a picture:
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QPicture pic;
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pic.load( "drawing.pic" ); // load picture
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QPainter p;
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p.begin( &myWidget ); // paint in myWidget
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p.drawPicture( pic ); // draw the picture
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p.end(); // painting done
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.fi
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Pictures can also be drawn using play(). Some basic data about a picture is available, for example, size(), isNull() and boundingRect().
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See also Graphics Classes, Image Processing Classes, and Implicitly and Explicitly Shared Classes.
.SH MEMBER FUNCTION DOCUMENTATION
.SH "QPicture::QPicture ( int formatVersion = -1 )"
Constructs an empty picture.
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The \fIformatVersion\fR parameter may be used to \fIcreate\fR a QPicture that can be read by applications that are compiled with earlier versions of Qt.
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\fIformatVersion\fR == 1 is binary compatible with Qt 1.x and later.
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\fIformatVersion\fR == 2 is binary compatible with Qt 2.0.x and later.
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\fIformatVersion\fR == 3 is binary compatible with Qt 2.1.x and later.
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\fIformatVersion\fR == 4 is binary compatible with Qt 3.0.x and later.
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\fIformatVersion\fR == 5 is binary compatible with Qt 3.1.
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Note that the default formatVersion is -1 which signifies the current release, i.e. for Qt 3.1 a formatVersion of 5 is the same as the default formatVersion of -1.
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Reading pictures generated by earlier versions of Qt is supported and needs no special coding; the format is automatically detected.
.SH "QPicture::QPicture ( const QPicture & pic )"
Constructs a shallow copy of \fIpic\fR.
.SH "QPicture::~QPicture ()"
Destroys the picture.
.SH "QRect QPicture::boundingRect () const"
Returns the picture's bounding rectangle or an invalid rectangle if the picture contains no data.
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.
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See also size() and isNull().
.SH "void QPicture::detach ()\fC [protected]\fR"
Detaches from shared picture data and makes sure that this picture is the only one referring to the data.
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If multiple pictures share common data, this picture makes a copy of the data and detaches itself from the sharing mechanism. Nothing is done if there is just a single reference.
.SH "bool QPicture::isNull () const"
Returns TRUE if the picture contains no data; otherwise returns FALSE.
Loads a picture from the file specified by \fIfileName\fR and returns TRUE if successful; otherwise returns FALSE.
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By default, the file will be interpreted as being in the native QPicture format. Specifying the \fIformat\fR string is optional and is only needed for importing picture data stored in a different format.
Saves a picture to the file specified by \fIfileName\fR and returns TRUE if successful; otherwise returns FALSE.
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Specifying the file \fIformat\fR string is optional. It's not recommended unless you intend to export the picture data for use by a third party reader. By default the data will be saved in the native QPicture file format.
