Question

GDI Paint question

Asked by: superchief

I am looking at creating a particular effect on a form, yes in some way i am taking some ideas from the old winamp skin but i am just starting with GDI. What i am aiming to do is create a coloured border around the form with some effects on it to make it look 3d. However i'm not bothered on the 3d effect for the moment. I have done it but i feel this is inefficient and a bit long winded and i am sure there is another way around this. I have attached the code below so you can see what i m doing.
I have also attached a random screenshot i grabbed from google images of winamp so you can see what i am trying to sort of achieve (it is the really thin border around the outside.

Currently i am drawing 4 rectangles around the outside of the form, which obviously gives it the border effect i am looking for but there must be another way to do this?

public frmMain()
		{
			InitializeComponent();
			this.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(56, 55, 87);
		}
 
		#region Paint Stuff
 
		protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
		{
			PaintFormBorder(e.Graphics);
		}
 
		private void PaintFormBorder(Graphics e)
		{
			// Before i work out how to draw this properly, lets do it this way.
			// Create the brush
			SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(25, 20, 26));
			e.FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle(0, 0, 8, this.Height));
			e.FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle(0, 0, this.Width, 8));
			e.FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle(this.Width - 8, 0, 8, this.Height));
			e.FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle(0, this.Height - 8, this.Width, 8));
		}
 
		protected override void OnResize(EventArgs e)
		{
			this.Invalidate();
		}
 
		#endregion

                                  
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Asked On
2009-05-08 at 01:45:49ID24391719
Tags

c#

,

GDI

,

Windows Forms

Topics

C# Programming Language

,

.NET

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: superchiefPosted on 2009-05-08 at 03:49:08ID: 24334725

I have now updated the paint to this (in total):

private Int32 _titleBarHeight = 0;
		private Int32 _borderHeight = 8;
		private Int32 _borderWidth = 8;
 
		public frmMain()
		{
			InitializeComponent();
			this.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(56, 55, 87);
		}
 
		#region Paint Stuff
 
		protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
		{
			PaintFormBorder(e.Graphics);
		}
 
		private void PaintFormBorder(Graphics e)
		{
			// Before i work out how to draw this properly, lets do it this way.
			// Create the brush
			SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(25, 20, 26));
			e.FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle(0, 0, this._borderWidth, this.Height));
			e.FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle(0, 0, this.Width, this._borderHeight));
			e.FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle(this.Width - 8, 0, 8, this.Height));
			e.FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle(0, this.Height - 8, this.Width, 8));
			// draw 3d lines
 
 
 
			brush.Color = Color.FromArgb(94, 92, 103);
			e.DrawLine(new Pen(brush), 8, 8, this.Width - 8, 8);
			e.DrawLine(new Pen(brush), 8, 8, 8, this.Height - 8);
			brush.Color = Color.FromArgb(99, 99, 111);
			e.DrawLine(new Pen(brush), 8, this.Height - 8, this.Width - 8, this.Height - 8);
			e.DrawLine(new Pen(brush), this.Width - 8, 8, this.Width - 8, this.Height - 8);
		}
 
		protected override void OnResize(EventArgs e)
		{
			this.Invalidate();
		}
 
		#endregion

                                              
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by: CuteBugPosted on 2009-05-08 at 04:14:32ID: 24334874

What you can do instead is set the background color of the form to your border color. (In Line 8)

Now you can fill the rectangle which is inside your border with your actual background color.

 

by: kaufmedPosted on 2009-05-08 at 04:33:13ID: 24334980

Not sure if you are aware, but Winamp uses graphics for its skins. Even the borders are part of some graphic.

 

by: superchiefPosted on 2009-05-08 at 04:58:10ID: 24335121

@kaufmed:

I do know that winamp uses graphics, however for me this is more a self training thing for GDI. I find the best way to teach myself something is to start a project that needs the particular thing i want to learn and then jump in. I know this is not the best method but working through examples doesn't really help me for real world situations. So in this instance, i am going to draw an app with everything drawn through GDI

 

by: superchiefPosted on 2009-05-08 at 07:18:07ID: 31579450

Strange i didn't see this option before, cheers

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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