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WinForm: How to implement button with correct background colors

I'm developing winform app with C#. And I created custom button inherent from UserControl as shown below:
public partial class UserButton : UserControl
{
public UserButton(string UserID)
{
this.Size = new Size(32, 50);
this.BackColor = Color.Transparent;
}
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
g.InterpolationMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;
Img = WaseelaMonitoring.Properties.Resources.T;
g.DrawImage(Img, 0, 0, this.Size.Width, this.Size.Height);
}
}
Note: this is button png image (Click here)
Now, I want to show some buttons on picture box using this code:
UserButton TagButton1 = new UserButton("Button1");
TagButton1.Location = Points[0];
UserButton TagButton2 = new UserButton("Button2");
TagButton2.Location = Points[1];
UserButton TagButton3 = new UserButton("Button3");
TagButton1.Location = Points[2];
Picturebox1.Controls.Add(TagButton1);
Picturebox1.Controls.Add(TagButton2);
Picturebox1.Controls.Add(TagButton2);
Picturebox1.Invalidate();
Okay, when show only one button on the picture box, the background button is transparent(as I want) like this:
But if I want to show two or more buttons beside together the background button is white not transparent like this:
I'm using invalidate picture box and trying invalidate button also, but is not solve that problem.

WinForms does not support true Z-ordering of components; windowed controls (such as Button and UserControl) cannot have true alpha-channel support, and the this.Background - Color.Transparent trick is actually a special-case where the control will re-paint its parent's Background image or color to itself first.
If you are after a more flexible user-experience, I suggest switching to WPF, or doing all of your painting within a single WinForms Control.

I solved this problem by added this line to initializing constructor:
SetStyle(ControlStyles.Opaque, true);
And overridden this function:
protected override CreateParams CreateParams
{
get
{
const int WS_EX_TRANSPARENT = 0x00000020;
CreateParams cp = base.CreateParams;
cp.ExStyle |= WS_EX_TRANSPARENT;
return cp;
}
}

Customizing default inputs?

I wonder if it's possible to customize my C# application (winforms) to get a better design, I made a PSD (photoshop document) so I can generate png jpeg... pictures if I need them.
Example of a form like the one I want :

Indeed as it was pointed out in the comments, it is easy to use WPF (indows Presentation Foundation) to achieve that result, but if you really need that it must be made in windows forms I can help you with that...
ControlBox and Border
It seens that your form does not have a control box (minimize, maximize and close buttons)
to achieve that you can set
form.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None
I'm not sure if that galaxy behind your form is part of the application so i'll be considering that it is not
To achieve that irregular shape of the form we have to do a workaround here
Irregular Shape of the Form
we are going to set a Color to TransparentKey, so everything in the form in that specific color will be transparent, like it does not exists (if you click in that part it will go into de desktop or whatever application you have behind in your form)
So let's use a specific color which we will probably dont use in the form
form.TransparencyKey = Color.FromArgb(111, 111, 111); //You can do it by the editor
So in order to make that white part we are going to use an Panel and a PictureBox outsite of the Panel trying to copy the shape of your image
Stylized Inputs
To make it easier and reusable I'm going to make a userControl in this one
the usercontrol will have
a Panel called HighLightPanel, its dock property will be set to Fill
a Panel called BackColorPanel, it will be inside the HighLightPanel
a PictureBox called InputPicture, its dock property will be set to Left, it will be inside BackColorPanel and its acessor will be public
a TextBox called TextBox, its dock property wil be set to fill, it will be inside BackColorPanel, the BorderStyle Property set to None, you should set the size and font you most desize in this one, I'm going to use Segoe UI; 15,75pt and its acessor will be public
Now we have to make some properties in our UserControl to make it work without work in other controls
First in the SizeChanged event of the HighLightPanel we will make the BackColorPanel be exacly two points smaller in every direction and its position to 1;1 so we can see the HighLightPanel
private void HighlightPanel_SizeChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.BackColorPanel.Size = new Size(
HighlightPanel.Width - 2,
HighlightPanel.Height - 2);
}
Now we will create two propertys to handle the Highlight Color
public Color HighlightBorderColor { get; set; }
public Color NonHighlightBorderColor { get; set; }
And in the Enter and Leave Property of our TextBox we are going to change the HighlightPanel
private void TextBox_Enter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
HighlightPanel.BackColor = HighlightBorderColor;
}
private void TextBox_Leave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
HighlightPanel.BackColor = NonHighlightBorderColor;
}
So now every time the user enter the Input it will appear that the Input has an Border in the specified Color
Now to enhance its usability to developers we will make some wrappers in its controls to be easier change property of child controls in the editor
public Image InputImage
{
get { return InputPicture.Image; }
set { InputPicture.Image = value; }
}
public PictureBoxSizeMode InputImageLayout
{
get { return InputPicture.SizeMode; }
set { InputPicture.SizeMode = value; }
}
public char PasswordCharacter
{
get { return TextBox.PasswordChar; }
set { TextBox.PasswordChar = value; }
}
public bool ShowInputImage
{
get { return InputPicture.Visible; }
set { InputPicture.Visible = value; }
}
In the InputImage set the picture you want for the User and the Key
Insert the two controls in the position you like
Position of the Form
if you want your form to be moveable without the border you will have to use this snippet, it is more easy in WPF
#region MoveForm
Point LastPoint;
bool ShouldMove;
private void form_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
LastPoint = e.Location;
ShouldMove = true;
this.TransparencyKey = Color.FromArgb(111, 111, 111);
}
private void form_MouseUp(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
ShouldMove = false;
}
private void form_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if (ShouldMove)
{
this.Location = new Point(
this.Location.X - LastPoint.X + e.X,
this.Location.Y - LastPoint.Y + e.Y);
}
}
#endregion

If you need a lot of special graphics effects learning WPF will indeed be a sound investement.
If all you want is that login screen, it is trivial in Winforms and doesn't take any horrible hacks as you've been told..
this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None;
this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.LavenderBlush;
this.TransparencyKey = System.Drawing.Color.LavenderBlush;
this.ControlBox = false;
this.MaximizeBox = false;
this.MinimizeBox = false;
this.Text= "";
These seven lines are all it takes for a form to be transparent. I copied them from the Designer code; you can simply set the 7 Properties in the property grid.
Now add a panel, dock it to the bottom and give it the right color; add a picturebox and your other controls and you are set.
To create the two input groups you also need just a few regular controls and only a few simple lines of code:
You place one Panel, BorderStyle = FixedSingle; and add a Label and a TextBox to it. The Label has AutoSize = False; and both ImageAlign and TextAlign are set to MiddleLeft. You assign an image to the Label's Image and prefix the Text with enough blanks to not overlap. Obviously you should define a PasswordChar for the 2nd TextBox. Now all you need is to script the Enter and Leave events to change the BackColor of the respective Panels between, say SystemColors.Control and SystemColors.MenuHighlight. Size the Labels to almost fill the Panels and you are done. Less code than the WPF version, I'd bet.
If you need such input an controls again and again, simply create Usercontrols for each type you need!
Here is an example of the limits you will hit: Wouldn't it be nice to add a dropshadow effect to the image? It is doable in Winforms. But it would involve painting that effect; this would take at least 15 or 20 lines of involved code instead of simply turning the effect on with (estimated) 1-3 simple lines.
Do you need any nice hover effects? Not easy, to say the least..
These limits will be all over the place, so it really depends on how fancy your requirements will get.
Maybe you should use this example as a starter to compare the two techniques and to warm you up to WPF?

Enable a button to be clicked at design-time in Visual Studio?

My setting:
I've got a C# application (.NET 3.5) in Visual Studio 2008. No chance to switch to WPF or whatsoever :).
My app contains a custom control (a button class derived from Windows.Forms.Button) that acts as a replacement for the Windows.Forms.TabControl. I can associate these buttons with one another and each button can be associated with one control that it is dealing with (usually some sort of Windows.Forms.Panel). It looks something like this:
public class TabButton : System.Windows.Forms.Button
{
// ...
protected override void OnClick(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnClick(e);
this.myAssociatedControl.Visible = true;
this.tellMyBuddiesToHideTheirControls();
}
// ...
}
Basically it is just about clicking a button, showing its bound control and having the controls bound to the associated buttons disappear - just like the TabControl, but the approach is easily designable and I can place the buttons far from their content panels.
The problem:
This works pretty well at runtime, but the usage at design time is arguably odd: With the mouse, find a control that´s belonging to the group and run a series of <Send To Back>s until the desired control is visible.
The question:
Is there a way to tell the VS designer to evaluate the clicks on the buttons at design time like it does with the TabControl so that I can switch the tabs just by clicking them like I would at runtime?
I've been searching for quite a while now. There are some articles here at SO but they only seem to cover adding additional attributes to the properties designer.

Edith says:
By request, an answer to my own question ...
This is the solution that is suitable to my application. It is basically an example from the msdn with some twists to get the custom designer to use a callback on click. Hope it helps anyone :-).
[System.Security.Permissions.PermissionSet(System.Security.Permissions.SecurityAction.Demand, Name = "FullTrust")]
public class TabButtonDesigner : System.Windows.Forms.Design.ControlDesigner
{
ShowTabGlyph myGlyph = null;
Adorner myAdorner;
public TabButtonDesigner()
{
}
public override void Initialize(IComponent component)
{
base.Initialize(component);
// Add the custom set of glyphs using the BehaviorService.
// Glyphs live on adornders.
myAdorner = new Adorner();
BehaviorService.Adorners.Add(myAdorner);
myGlyph = new ShowTabGlyph(BehaviorService, Control);
myGlyph.Callback = () =>
{
((MyCustomTabButton)this.Control).ShowMyTab();
};
myAdorner.Glyphs.Add(myGlyph);
}
class ShowTabGlyph : Glyph
{
Control control;
BehaviorService behaviorSvc;
public Action Callback
{
get;
set;
}
public ShowTabGlyph(BehaviorService behaviorSvc, Control control) :
base(new ShowTabBehavior())
{
this.behaviorSvc = behaviorSvc;
this.control = control;
}
public override Rectangle Bounds
{
get
{
// Create a glyph that is 10x10 and sitting
// in the middle of the control. Glyph coordinates
// are in adorner window coordinates, so we must map
// using the behavior service.
Point edge = behaviorSvc.ControlToAdornerWindow(control);
Size size = control.Size;
Point center = new Point(edge.X + (size.Width / 2),
edge.Y + (size.Height / 2));
Rectangle bounds = new Rectangle(
center.X - 5,
center.Y - 5,
10,
10);
return bounds;
}
}
public override Cursor GetHitTest(Point p)
{
// GetHitTest is called to see if the point is
// within this glyph. This gives us a chance to decide
// what cursor to show. Returning null from here means
// the mouse pointer is not currently inside of the glyph.
// Returning a valid cursor here indicates the pointer is
// inside the glyph, and also enables our Behavior property
// as the active behavior.
if (Bounds.Contains(p))
{
return Cursors.Hand;
}
return null;
}
public override void Paint(PaintEventArgs pe)
{
// Draw our glyph. It is simply a blue ellipse.
pe.Graphics.DrawEllipse(Pens.Blue, Bounds);
}
// By providing our own behavior we can do something interesting
// when the user clicks or manipulates our glyph.
class ShowTabBehavior : Behavior
{
public override bool OnMouseUp(Glyph g, MouseButtons button)
{
//MessageBox.Show("Hey, you clicked the mouse here");
//this.
ShowTabGlyph myG = (ShowTabGlyph)g;
if (myG.Callback != null)
{
myG.Callback();
}
return true; // indicating we processed this event.
}
}
}
}
[DesignerAttribute(typeof(TabButtonDesigner))]
public class MyCustomTabButton : System.Windows.Forms.Button
{
// The attribute will assign the custom designer to the TabButton
// and after a rebuild the button contains a centered blue circle
// that acts at design time like the button in runtime does ...
// ...
}

C# transparent PNG for buttons, panels...how?

I have being searching a lot, seen a few examples but they don't work at least for me. This is what I need: in my application I need to use transparent PNG icons for the toolbars and also for draggable visual objects representations, ie, 72x72 "page" icon which can be dragged around and possibly over all elements in the client area. For the first I was thinking about using a button, set its BackImage to the transparent PNG and put BackColor as "transparent": it won't work, the button always show a solid color behind. As for the panel, the same problem: I can put a transparent PNG as background image but the control never looks "transparent" where the PNG has transparent areas. I think the same with a picturebox and any other control allowing image backgrounds. So I guess, it is really about making a control's background transparent...Any ideas?
I don't care if I need to create some sort of custom "image button" or "image panel" --whatever-- to have truely PNG transparent buttons, panels, etc! Also, please note, it is about PNG transparency, using the alpha channel, not transparent pixels, which at this ages, sucks IMHO for decent GUIs.
Cheers
litium

Ok I found the following code whith works not only for panels but also for buttons and I guess other controls --except PictureBox:
public class TransparentPanel : Panel <==change to Button for instance, and works
{
Timer Wriggler = new Timer();
public TransparentPanel()
{
Wriggler.Tick += new EventHandler(TickHandler);
this.Wriggler.Interval = 500;
this.Wriggler.Enabled = true;
}
protected void TickHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.InvalidateEx();
}
protected override CreateParams CreateParams
{
get
{
CreateParams cp = base.CreateParams;
cp.ExStyle |= 0x00000020; //WS_EX_TRANSPARENT
return cp;
}
}
protected void InvalidateEx()
{
if (Parent == null)
{
return;
}
Rectangle rc = new Rectangle(this.Location, this.Size);
Parent.Invalidate(rc, true);
}
protected override void OnPaintBackground(PaintEventArgs pevent)
{
// Do not allow the background to be painted
}
}
Works for me 100%! Doesn't seems to work for PictureBoxes.

c# WinForm: Remove or Customize the 'Focus Rectangle' for Buttons

Is there a way to disable or better yet draw your own focus rectangle for a regular button control! (that dotted line seems so Windowss 95ish)
I've noticed that the control properties (FOR BUTTONS) does not have a ownerdrawfixed setting (which I don't know if that's even the route to use for the solution, although i've seen it used for customizing other controls).

Getting this right is trickier than it sounds. No doubt one of the reasons that custom button painting isn't overridable. This worked as expected:
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles;
class MyButton : Button {
private VisualStyleRenderer renderer;
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e) {
base.OnPaint(e);
if (this.Focused && Application.RenderWithVisualStyles && this.FlatStyle == FlatStyle.Standard) {
if (renderer == null) {
VisualStyleElement elem = VisualStyleElement.Button.PushButton.Normal;
renderer = new VisualStyleRenderer(elem.ClassName, elem.Part, (int)PushButtonState.Normal);
}
Rectangle rc = renderer.GetBackgroundContentRectangle(e.Graphics, new Rectangle(0, 0, this.Width, this.Height));
rc.Height--;
rc.Width--;
using (Pen p = new Pen(Brushes.DarkGray)) {
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(p, rc);
}
}
}
}

A quick and easy way to disable the focus rectangle all together is to subclass the control and include this code:
public class CustomButton : Button
{
protected override bool ShowFocusCues
{
get
{
return false;
}
}
}

Just simple way.
Set
button.FlatStyle = Flat;
button.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = Color.FromArgb(0, 255, 255, 255);
button.FlatAppearance.BorderSize = 0;
button.TabStop = false;
FlatAppearance.BorderColor
set on code cause could not transparent color set in design mode.

Subclass the Button class and override OnPaint. If your override does not call base.OnPaint, nothing will be drawn for the button and you will have complete control (including the focus rectangle).

One quick/dirty solution that I found (for removing the focus rectangle only) was explicitly defining the background color. For the default control color, for ex:
this._dropDownButton.BackColor = System.Drawing.ColorTranslator.FromHtml("#F0F0F0");
EDIT: Apparently this doesn't work. It was being fixed in my case for an unrelated reason. Apologies.

I had the same issue when using BackgroundImage to set an image on the button. When the user pressed 'Tab', my image button got a black rectangle.
The solution that worked for me is:
Call for NotifyDefault(false) for every button I used.
Set the TabStop property to false for every button I used.
Tested on .NET Framework 4.6.2.
Before:
After:

In my case, I have to use both solutions above to make it work.
public class ButtonNoFocus : Button
{
protected override bool ShowFocusCues
{
get
{
return false;
}
}
public override void NotifyDefault(bool value)
{
base.NotifyDefault(false);
}
}

A simple solution to hide the focus frame would be to switch the focus from buttons to a dummy control as soon as the button has been clicked:
public frmMain()
{
...
RemoveControlFocusFrame(this);
}
private void RemoveControlFocusFrame(Control c)
{
if (c.Controls.Count == 0)
{
if (c is Button || c is CheckBox)
c.GotFocus += (o, e) => lblFocusDump.Focus();
return;
}
foreach (Control sub in c.Controls)
RemoveControlFocusFrame(sub);
}
The dummy lblFocusDump label has its Visible set to true and can be hidden in Designer by pushing it to background behind any other control.