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Transparent background on imported bitmaps

I have a large Picture box with a 16 colour image
I can draw ontop of the image or place my bitmaps on the image
The problem is I have 63 small black on white bitmaps i want to be able to place on the large image, however I don't want a white background i want either
1) a transparent background so the colour underneath becomes the background
or
2) a way or changing the background colour at runtime so that it matches the image below
(the image will be placed on a solid single colour)

I am happy to change the images to a different format if that will help
i have paint shop pro
I hope i have explained what i want enough. if not request more.
Can you help
Sue

wj7ster

If you are using VB5/6 you can create a simple Usercontrol and set the 'MaskPicture' property and 'Picture' propertiy to contain the bitmaps (you will have 63 instances of this Usercontrol and each should contain the same picture in both 'MaskPicture' and 'Picture' properties.), and the 'Backstyle' property to 'Transparent'

I do have some code somewhere that uses APIs to achieve more-a-less the same result, the only difference is that with the APIs you need to manually repaint the bitmaps if it were covered at some stage by another form. The usercontrol method's bitmaps are persistant and you don't need to worry about redrawing them.

If you are really in need of a different solution, e-mail me, and I will send you the code. It is quite long, and I don't think if will be appropriate to put such long answers in here.

Good luck.

e-mail: willem@sevenster.co.nz

SueBond

ASKER

Sorry I forgot to mention i only have VB4 enterprise edition

SueBond

ASKER

I only have VB4 so the answer is no use
wj7ster-If you e-mail me the code and it works i will give you the points
in the meantime can anyone else help
Thanks
Sue

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wj7ster

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