diff --git a/windows/tablemetrics.cpp b/windows/tablemetrics.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..76c879c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/windows/tablemetrics.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+// 14 june 2018
+#include "uipriv_windows.hpp"
+#include "table.hpp"
+
+struct uiprivTableMetrics {
+	uiTable *t;
+	uiTableModel *m;
+	uiprivTableColumnParams *p;
+
+	int iItem;
+	int iSubItem;
+	BOOL hasText;
+	BOOL hasImage;
+	BOOL focused;
+	BOOL selected;
+
+	RECT itemBounds;
+	RECT itemIcon;
+	RECT itemLabel;
+	RECT subitemBounds;
+	RECT subitemIcon;
+	RECT subitemLabel;
+
+	LRESULT bitmapMargin;
+	int cxIcon;
+	int cyIcon;
+
+	RECT realTextBackground;
+	RECT realTextRect;
+};
+
+static HRESULT itemRect(HRESULT hr, uiTable *t, UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, LONG left, LONG top, LRESULT bad, RECT *r)
+{
+	if (hr != S_OK)
+		return hr;
+	ZeroMemory(r, sizeof (RECT));
+	r->left = left;
+	r->top = top;
+	if (SendMessageW(t->hwnd, uMsg, wParam, (LPARAM) r) == bad) {
+		logLastError(L"itemRect() message");
+		return E_FAIL;
+	}
+	return S_OK;
+}
+
+HRESULT uiprivTableGetMetrics(uiTable *t, int iItem, int iSubItem, uiprivTableMetrics **mout)
+{
+	uiprivTableMetrics *m;
+	LRESULT state;
+	HWND header;
+	RECT r;
+	HRESULT hr;
+
+	if (mout == NULL)
+		return E_POINTER;
+
+	m = uiprivNew(uiprivTableMetrics);
+	m->t = t;
+	m->m = t->model;
+	m->p = (*(t->columns))[iSubItem];
+
+	m->iItem = iItem;
+	m->iSubItem = iSubItem;
+	m->hasText = m->p->textModelColumn != -1;
+	m->hasImage = (m->p->imageModelColumn != -1) || (m->p->checkboxModelColumn != -1);
+	state = SendMessageW(t->hwnd, LVM_GETITEMSTATE, iItem, LVIS_FOCUSED | LVIS_SELECTED);
+	m->focused = (state & LVIS_FOCUSED) != 0;
+	m->selected = (state & LVIS_SELECTED) != 0;
+
+	// TODO check LRESULT bad parameters here
+	hr = itemRect(S_OK, t, LVM_GETITEMRECT, s->iItem,
+		LVIR_BOUNDS, 0, FALSE, &(m->itemBounds));
+	hr = itemRect(hr, t, LVM_GETITEMRECT, s->iItem,
+		LVIR_ICON, 0, FALSE, &(m->itemIcon));
+	hr = itemRect(hr, t, LVM_GETITEMRECT, s->iItem,
+		LVIR_LABEL, 0, FALSE, &(m->itemLabel));
+	hr = itemRect(hr, t, LVM_GETSUBITEMRECT, s->iItem,
+		LVIR_BOUNDS, s->iSubItem, 0, &(m->subitemBounds));
+	hr = itemRect(hr, t, LVM_GETSUBITEMRECT, s->iItem,
+		LVIR_ICON, s->iSubItem, 0, &(m->subitemIcon));
+	if (hr != S_OK)
+		goto fail;
+	// LVM_GETSUBITEMRECT treats LVIR_LABEL as the same as
+	// LVIR_BOUNDS, so we can't use that directly. Instead, let's
+	// assume the text is immediately after the icon. The correct
+	// rect will be determined by
+	// computeOtherRectsAndDrawBackgrounds() above.
+	m->subitemLabel = m->subitemBounds;
+	m->subitemLabel.left = m->subitemIcon.right;
+	// And on iSubItem == 0, LVIF_GETSUBITEMRECT still includes
+	// all the subitems, which we don't want.
+	if (iSubItem == 0) {
+		m->subitemBounds.right = m->itemLabel.right;
+		m->subitemLabel.right = m->itemLabel.right;
+	}
+
+	header = (HWND) SendMessageW(t->hwnd, LVM_GETHEADER, 0, 0);
+	m->bitmapMargin = SendMessageW(header, HDM_GETBITMAPMARGIN, 0, 0);
+	if (ImageList_GetIconSize(t->imagelist, &(m->cxIcon), &(m->cyIcon)) == 0) {
+		logLastError(L"ImageList_GetIconSize()");
+		hr = E_FAIL;
+		goto fail;
+	}
+
+	r = m->subitemLabel;
+	if (!m->hasText && !m->hasImage)
+		r = s->subitemBounds;
+	else if (!m->hasImage && iSubItem != 0)
+		// By default, this will include images; we're not drawing
+		// images, so we will manually draw over the image area.
+		// There's a second part to this; see below.
+		r.left = m->subitemBounds.left;
+	m->realTextBackground = r;
+
+	m->realTextRect = r;
+	// TODO confirm whether this really happens on column 0 as well
+	if (m->hasImage && iSubItem != 0)
+		// Normally there's this many hard-coded logical units
+		// of blank space, followed by the background, followed
+		// by a bitmap margin's worth of space. This looks bad,
+		// so we overrule that to start the background immediately
+		// and the text after the hard-coded amount.
+		m->realTextRect.left += 2;
+	else if (iSubItem != 0)
+		// In the case of subitem text without an image, we draw
+		// text one bitmap margin away from the left edge.
+		m->realTextRect.left += m->bitmapMargin;
+
+	*mout = m;
+	return S_OK;
+fail:
+	uiprivFree(m);
+	*mout = NULL;
+	return hr;
+}