---
name: "XDrawImageString"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "libx11"
version: "1.8.14-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/XDrawImageString"
---

# XDrawImageString(3)

draw image text

## NAME

XDrawImageString, XDrawImageString16 - draw image text

## SYNTAX

int XDrawImageString(Display \**display*, Drawable *d*, GC *gc*, int *x*, int *y*, \_Xconst char \**string*, int *length*);

int XDrawImageString16(Display \**display*, Drawable *d*, GC *gc*, int *x*, int *y*, \_Xconst XChar2b \**string*, int *length*);

## ARGUMENTS

- *d*

  Specifies the drawable.

- *display*

  Specifies the connection to the X server.

- *gc*

  Specifies the GC.

- *length*

  Specifies the number of characters in the string argument.

- *string*

  Specifies the character string.

- *x*

  - *y*

  Specify the x and y coordinates, which are relative to the origin of the specified drawable and define the origin of the first character.

## DESCRIPTION

The **XDrawImageString16** function is similar to **XDrawImageString** except that it uses 2-byte or 16-bit characters. Both functions also use both the foreground and background pixels of the GC in the destination.

The effect is first to fill a destination rectangle with the background pixel defined in the GC and then to paint the text with the foreground pixel. The upper-left corner of the filled rectangle is at:

```
[x, y - font-ascent]
```

The width is:

```
overall-width
```

The height is:

```
font-ascent + font-descent
```

The overall-width, font-ascent, and font-descent are as would be returned by **XQueryTextExtents** using gc and string. The function and fill-style defined in the GC are ignored for these functions. The effective function is **GXcopy**, and the effective fill-style is **FillSolid**.

For fonts defined with 2-byte matrix indexing and used with **XDrawImageString**, each byte is used as a byte2 with a byte1 of zero.

Both functions use these GC components: plane-mask, foreground, background, font, subwindow-mode, clip-x-origin, clip-y-origin, and clip-mask.

**XDrawImageString** and **XDrawImageString16** can generate **BadDrawable**, **BadGC**, and **BadMatch** errors.

## DIAGNOSTICS

- **BadDrawable**

  A value for a Drawable argument does not name a defined Window or Pixmap.

- **BadGC**

  A value for a GContext argument does not name a defined GContext.

- **BadMatch**

  An **InputOnly** window is used as a Drawable.

- **BadMatch**

  Some argument or pair of arguments has the correct type and range but fails to match in some other way required by the request.

## NOTES

Unlike XDrawString and XDrawString16, these functions send no more than 255 characters at a time to the server. When the total number of characters to be sent is larger than 255, these functions split the string into chunks up to 255 characters. After sending each chunk, these functions query the server to determine the actual text extent.

## SEE ALSO

[**XDrawString**(3)](/XDrawString/3.md), [**XDrawText**(3)](/XDrawText/3.md), [**XLoadFont**(3)](/XLoadFont/3.md), [**XTextExtents**(3)](/XTextExtents/3.md)\
 *Xlib - C Language X Interface*