---
name: "XDrawString"
section: "3x"
platform: "linux"
package: "libx11-dev"
version: "4.3.0.dfsg.1-14sarge7"
release: "Debian 3.1 (Sarge)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/XDrawString/3x"
---

# XDrawString(3x)

draw text characters

## NAME

XDrawString, XDrawString16 - draw text characters

## SYNTAX

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

int XDrawString16(Display \**display*, Drawable *d*, GC *gc*, int *x*, int *y*, 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. and define the origin of the first character

- *x*

  - *y*

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

## DESCRIPTION

Each character image, as defined by the font in the GC, is treated as an additional mask for a fill operation on the drawable. The drawable is modified only where the font character has a bit set to 1. For fonts defined with 2-byte matrix indexing and used with *XDrawString16*, each byte is used as a byte2 with a byte1 of zero.

Both functions use these GC components:  function, plane-mask, fill-style, font, subwindow-mode, clip-x-origin,  clip-y-origin, and clip-mask. They also use these GC mode-dependent components:  foreground, background, tile, stipple, tile-stipple-x-origin,  and tile-stipple-y-origin.

*XDrawString* and *XDrawString16* 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.

## SEE ALSO

XDrawImageString(3X11), XDrawText(3X11), XLoadFont(3X11)\
 *Xlib - C Language X Interface*