Turbo C graphics programming

To start with graphics programming, Turbo C is a good choice. Even though DOS has its own limitations,  it is having a large number of  useful functions and is easy to program. To implement graphics algorithms,  To give graphical display of statistics, To view signals from any source, we can use C graphics. Here  is  a article to start programming  with  Turbo  C. ‘Run and Learn’ is  our   method.   We  have  used source codes throughout the explanations. Just  execute  them to understand what is happening.

Turbo C has a good collection of graphics libraries. If you know the basics of C, you can easily learn graphics programming. To start programming, let us write a small program that displays a circle on the screen.

/* simple.c
example 1.0
*/
#include<graphics.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int gd=DETECT, gm;

initgraph(&gd, &gm, “c:\\turboc3\\bgi ” );
circle(200,100,150);

getch();
closegraph();
}

To run this program, you need graphics.h header file, graphics.lib library file and Graphics driver (BGI file) in the program folder. These files are part of Turbo C package. In all our programs we used 640×480 VGA monitor. So all the programs are according to that specification. You need to make necessary changes to your programs according to your screen resolution. For VGA monitor, graphics driver used is EGAVGA.BGI.

Here, initgraph() function initializes the graphics mode and clears the screen. We will study the difference between text mode and graphics mode in detail latter.

InitGraph: Initializes the graphics system.

Declaration:  void far initgraph(int far *graphdriver, int far *graphmode, char far *pathtodriver);

Remarks: To start the graphics system, you must first call initgraph.

initgraph initializes the graphics system by loading a graphics driver from disk (or validating a registered driver) then putting the system into graphics mode.

initgraph also resets all graphics settings (color, palette, current position, viewport, etc.) to their defaults, then resets graphresult to 0.
Arguments:

*graphdriver: Integer that specifies the graphics driver to be used. You can give graphdriver a value using a constant of the graphics drivers enumeration type.

*graphmode : Integer that specifies the initial graphics mode (unless *graphdriver = DETECT). If *graphdriver = DETECT, initgraph sets *graphmode to the highest resolution available for the detected driver. You can give *graphmode a value using a constant of the graphics_modes enumeration type.

pathtodriver : Specifies the directory path where initgraph looks for graphics drivers (*.BGI) first.  If they’re not there, initgraph looks in the current directory.  If pathtodriver is null, the driver files must be in the current directory.  This is also the path settextstyle searches for the stroked character font files (*.CHR).

closegraph() function switches back the screen from graphcs mode to text mode. It clears the screen also. A graphics program should have a closegraph function at the end of graphics. Otherwise DOS screen will not go to text mode after running the program. Here, closegraph() is called after getch() since screen should not clear until user hits a key.

If you have the BGI file in the same folder of your program, you can just leave it as “” only. you need not mention *graphmode if you give *graphdriver as DETECT.

In graphics mode, all the screen co-ordinates are mentioned in terms of pixels. Number of pixels in the screen decides resolution of the screen. In the example 1.0,  circle is drawn with x-coordinate of the center 200, y-coordinate 100 and radius 150 pixels. All the coordinates are mentioned with respect to top-left corner of the screen.

Basic Shapes and Colors:

Now let us write a program to draw some basic shapes.

/*
shapes.c
example 1.1
*/

#include<graphics.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int gd=DETECT, gm;
int poly[12]={350,450, 350,410, 430,400, 350,350, 300,430, 350,450 };
initgraph(&gd, &gm, “”);

circle(100,100,50);
outtextxy(75,170, “Circle”);
rectangle(200,50,350,150);
outtextxy(240, 170, “Rectangle”);
ellipse(500, 100,0,360, 100,50);
outtextxy(480, 170, “Ellipse”);
line(100,250,540,250);
outtextxy(300,260,”Line”);

sector(150, 400, 30, 300, 100,50);
outtextxy(120, 460, “Sector”);
drawpoly(6, poly);
outtextxy(340, 460, “Polygon”);
getch();
closegraph();
}

Here is the screenshot of output:

Output of above program
Output of above program

Here, circle() function takes x, y coordinates of the circle with respect to left top of the screen and radius of the circle in terms of pixels as arguments. Not that, in graphics, almost all the screen parameters are measured in terms of pixels.

Function outtextxy() displays a string in graphical mode. You can use different fonts, text sizes, alignments, colors and directions of the text that we will study later. Parameters passed are x and y coordinates of the position on the screen where text is to be displayed. There is another function outtext() that displays a text in the current position. Current position is the place where last drawing is ended. These functions are declared as follows:

void far outtextxy(int x, int y, char *text);
void far outtext(char *text);

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40 thoughts on “Turbo C graphics programming

  1. when i run the followed program, i have got error msg.

    program
    /* simple.c
    example 1.0
    */
    #include
    #include

    void main()
    {
    int gd=DETECT, gm;

    initgraph(&gd, &gm, “c:\\turboc3\\bgi ” );
    circle(200,100,150);

    getch();
    closegraph();
    }

    error
    1.undefined symbol _closegraph
    2.undefined symbol _circle
    3.undefined symbol _initgraph.

    and also i cant run any graphic program successfully. these types of errors are showing.

    plz help me to solve this problem.

  2. shabeeb ahamed ,just you try this one once.

    #include
    #include

    void main()
    {
    int gd=DETECT, gm;

    initgraph(&gd, &gm, “” );
    circle(200,100,150);

    getch();
    closegraph();
    }

  3. dis was pretty useful… but i have this project to implement the dijkstra’s algorithm for directed graphs and we were required to draw the graph in c. i have this problem in making the arrows for the directed edges as well as placing the edges witout criss crossing

  4. i need a program to draw all d figures present in car digital display… like indicators, petrol sign,etc.. can u help me in dis..

  5. Can anyone of you that could help me for the fulfilment of my requirement? I need the program that output like this..

    describing figure
    *it is any polygon figure that contain with string on it.
    *it is combination color with shadow…

    I highly expected your kindness……

  6. can you help us…?????
    what is the reason why when i run the program that have a graphics…
    the message is only “watch”

  7. those who are receiving the message
    linking error
    1.undefined symbol _closegraph
    2.undefined symbol _circle
    3.undefined symbol _initgraph.

    they are needed change some turobo c ide settings as
    1 goto “option” menu of the menu bar
    2 next to linker sub menu
    3 and then to Libraries
    3 put a [X] on graphics library

    and the program would work perfectly fine

  8. could any 1 tell me how to get to know wat address is to be specified in initgraph declaration i.e. like”c:\\tc\\bgi” my compiler cant include graphics.h. wher as i have graphics .h installed.

  9. @shray
    just try this
    in the bgi folder in tc ,copy a file named egavga.bgi
    and paste it in the bin folder ( from where we start c++)
    then u no longer need to put any path in the initgraph function.

  10. hi 2 all…
    i have some doubt…

    m working in graphical mode…

    in my program i need to clear screen again and again in graphical mode only thats y i cant use closegraph() again and again

    and if i use clrscr() then the page become white..

    so can any1 tell me that how can i clear my screen….

    most probably there is some function for this can any1 tell me that function name or can help me in any way…

    m very thankful 2 u;;

    with regardsss

  11. I’m definitely with you on this one.
    at the moment i am studying multimedia design at a little college in Melbourne and am constantly on the pursuit for new concepts and fresh perspectives on this topic. I thank you for putting up your “Turbo C graphics programming | studentprojects.in” page! it delivered some really top shelf information.

  12. Sehr interessant. Kommt hier noch ein weiterer Beitrag? Würde gern einiges mehr darüber erfahren. Kannst du mir per E-Mail weiterhelfen?

  13. hello
    In turbo c how can i run a message around the edges of the screen???
    please help me..
    may you can give the code plzzz.,
    thank you…
    Morepower!!!!

  14. I’m trying to search examples of graphics using Turbo C, but i found out that it’s not easy. Can anyone help me make any graphics using Turbo C? It’s a part of our project..I’m new to this thing. Thanks

  15. hi, i m pradip .can you help me understand the c++ programming.but i m interest graphics so help me……….

  16. For run time error of “bgi not initialized ‘use initgraph’ ”

    Ans: simple, just change ‘\’ to ‘/’ that’s it..
    Ex: initgraph( &gd, &gm, “c:/tc/bgi”);
    thats it friends…

  17. I installed turbo c on an i5 processor-DDR3 RAM-Intel H51 chipset(OEM-model:acer veriton M200-H61)computer.No errors while compiling,but, when i execute the program i get a scrambled screen with different colours, whereas in the old CPU(acer-veriton M200) no such error occurs. I enabled Graphics directory@Options>>Linker>>Library menu. Still not working. I have not installed Video & Chipset driver for this new computer. Does that has anything to do with this ?. On another computer(Intel 945GVSR) also i have not installed VGA driver, but still, i get the desired output. What am i doing wrong ? kindly help me. Any tangible help is appreciated.

  18. Hi, thanks for the examples above. I have been working for the past month getting VirtualBox running on my Win 8.1 machine and then installed DOS 6.22, Ubuntu Linux and openSUSE Linux. DOS was the most challenging, but it was fun. Little by little I got things working. I found and installed a copy of Turbo C 2.01, but IDE is too dif. to use. Then I found Borland C++ 3.1 (I actually bought that new years ago) and installed that. It is truly the best environment for doing old DOS graphics programming! Like others said, make sure you #include and make sure you write your: initgraph( &gd, &gm, “c:\\tc\\bgi”); like so. Notice the THIRD PARAMETER! It must point to the directory that has the BGI files and it MUST have two slashes (backslashes for DOS, forward slashes for Linux). Have fun!

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