CHAR_INFO

main | structures | win32 structures
The CHAR_INFO structure specifies the Unicode or ANSI character and the colour attributes of the screen character cell. This structure is used by console functions to read from and write to a console screen buffer. 
typedef struct _CHAR_INFO {
  // Unicode or ANSI character
  union {
      WCHAR UnicodeChar;
      CHAR AsciiChar;
  } Char;

  // Text and background colors
  WORD Attributes;
} CHAR_INFO, *PCHAR_INFO;

Members

Char
Unicode (wide-character) or ANSI character of a screen buffer character cell, depending on whether it is used with the Unicode or ANSI version of a function.
Attributes
Character attributes. There are two classes of the attributes - colour and DBCS. This member can be zero or any combination of the following attributes: (all of them are defined in Wincon.h).
AttributeDescription
FOREGROUND_BLUE Text color contains blue.
FOREGROUND_GREEN Text color contains green.
FOREGROUND_RED Text color contains red.
FOREGROUND_INTENSITY Text color is intensified.
BACKGROUND_BLUE Background color contains blue.
BACKGROUND_GREEN Background color contains green.
BACKGROUND_RED Background color contains red.
BACKGROUND_INTENSITY Background color is intensified.
COMMON_LVB_LEADING_BYTE DBCS: Leading byte.
COMMON_LVB_TRAILING_BYTE DBCS: Trailing byte.
COMMON_LVB_GRID_HORIZONTAL DBCS: Grid attribute: top horizontal.
COMMON_LVB_GRID_LVERTICAL DBCS: Grid attribute: left vertical.
COMMON_LVB_GRID_RVERTICAL DBCS: Grid attribute: right vertical.
COMMON_LVB_REVERSE_VIDEO DBCS: Reverse foreground and background attributes.
COMMON_LVB_UNDERSCORE DBCS: Underscore.
The foreground attributes (FOREGROUND_*) define the colour of the text symbols. The background attributes (BACKGROUND_*) define the colour of the background of the text cell. Other attributes (COMMON_LVB_*) are used with DBCS.

Remarks

See also:
ReadConsoleOutput, ScrollConsoleScreenBuffer, WriteConsoleOutput