The Windows message EM_FORMATRANGE make a RichTextBox format text for display on a device. This program uses the SendMessage API function to send this message to a RichTextBox, telling it to display its contents on a PictureBox.

Subroutine OverlayText does all the work. It initializes a FORMATRANGE structure that identifies the PictureBox and the area where the text should be drawn. It sets the char_before and char_after values to 0 and -1 to indicate that all of the text should be drawn.

After drawing the text, the routine calls SendMessage again with a NULL final parameter to make the RichTextBox free resources it has allocated.

Option Explicit

Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias _
    "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, _
    ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
Private Const WM_USER = &H400
Private Const EM_FORMATRANGE = (WM_USER + 57)

Private Type RECT
    Left As Long
    Top As Long
    Right As Long
    Bottom As Long
End Type

Private Type CHARRANGE
    char_before As Long
    char_after As Long
End Type

Private Type FORMATRANGE
    hdc As Long
    target_hdc As Long
    target_area As RECT
    entire_area As RECT
    char_range As CHARRANGE
End Type

' Overlay the text on the PictureBox inside
' the specified rectangle (in twips).
Private Sub OverlayText(ByVal pic As PictureBox, ByVal rch _
    As RichTextBox, ByVal xmin As Single, ByVal xmax As _
    Single, ByVal ymin As Single, ByVal ymax As Single)
Dim format_range As FORMATRANGE

    ' Prepare the FORMATRANGE structure.
    With format_range
        .hdc = pic.hdc
        .target_hdc = pic.hdc
        With .entire_area
            .Left = 0
            .Right = pic.ScaleX(pic.ScaleWidth, _
                pic.ScaleMode, vbTwips)
            .Top = 0
            .Bottom = pic.ScaleY(pic.ScaleHeight, _
                pic.ScaleMode, vbTwips)
        End With
        With .target_area
            .Left = xmin
            .Right = xmax
            .Top = ymin
            .Bottom = ymax
        End With
        With .char_range
            .char_before = 0
            .char_after = -1
        End With
    End With

    ' Display as much text as will fit.
    ' Setting wParam = True makes the RichTextBox
    ' display the text instead of just measuring it.
    SendMessage rch.hwnd, _
        EM_FORMATRANGE, True, format_range

    ' Clear resources allocated by the RichTextBox.
    SendMessage rch.hwnd, EM_FORMATRANGE, False, ByVal 0&
End Sub