Create a screenshot of a WPF control in a background thread - c#

we need to create WPF controls (say, a canvas with some Images on it) in a background thread and then take a screenshot of them. The controls must not be displayed.
I managed to create the control on a thread by making it an STA thread. Then I used the code from here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/swick/archive/2007/12/02/rendering-ink-and-image-to-a-bitmap-using-wpf.aspx to create the screenshot.
This doesn't work though: the control always has a size of 0 and therefore this crashes. Even if I specify a width and height manually it won't work, the saved image is always black.
Here's my code:
private void CreateScreenshotThread()
{
var image = CreateImage();
TakeScreenshot(image , #"e:\1.bmp");
}
I also tried to UpdateLayout() but without success. Do you have any idea how I can enforce a layout update and rendering of the control? I played around with PresentationSource but without success (don't fully understand the purpose of that class).

It is possible, the bit you are missing is possibly the measure and arrange of the control:
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
var thread = new Thread(CreateScreenshot);
thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
thread.Start();
}
private void CreateScreenshot()
{
Canvas c = new Canvas { Width = 100, Height = 100 };
c.Children.Add(new Rectangle { Height = 100, Width = 100, Fill = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Red) });
var bitmap = new RenderTargetBitmap((int)c.Width, (int)c.Height, 120, 120, PixelFormats.Default);
c.Measure(new Size((int)c.Width, (int)c.Height));
c.Arrange(new Rect(new Size((int)c.ActualWidth, (int)c.ActualHeight)));
bitmap.Render(c);
var png = new PngBitmapEncoder();
png.Frames.Add(BitmapFrame.Create(bitmap));
using (Stream stm = File.Create("c:\\temp\\test.png"))
{
png.Save(stm);
}
}

Related

Image is not drawn at the correct spot

Bitmap image = ReadBitmap("image.png");
Bitmap imageCopy = new Bitmap(image);
Bitmap canvas = new Bitmap(imageCopy.Width+100, imageCopy.Height);
// From this bitmap, the graphics can be obtained, because it has the right PixelFormat
using(Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(canvas))
{
// Draw the original bitmap onto the graphics of the new bitmap
g.DrawImage(image, 0, 0);
}
// Use tempBitmap as you would have used originalBmp
InputPictureBox.Image = image;
OutputPictureBox.Image = canvas;
I haven't understood the output of this c# code.
The original image is not placed at the correct position. It should have been at (0, 0).
Also, I need a black background.
So, what is going on and how to correct this?
You are loading an Image, then a copy of this source is created using:
Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap();
When you create a copy of an Image this way, you sacrifice/alter some details:
Dpi Resolution: if not otherwise specified, the resolution is set to the UI resolution. 96 Dpi, as a standard; it might be different with different screen resolutions and scaling. The System in use also affects this value (Windows 7 and Windows 10 will probably/possibly provide different values)
PixelFormat: If not directly copied from the Image source or explicitly specified, the PixelFormat is set to PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb.
From what you were saying, you probably wanted something like this:
var imageSource = Image.FromStream(new MemoryStream(File.ReadAllBytes(#"[SomeImageOfLena]"))), true, false)
var imageCopy = new Bitmap(imageSource.Width + 100, imageSource.Height, imageSource.PixelFormat))
imageCopy.SetResolution(imageSource.HorizontalResolution, imageSource.VerticalResolution);
using (var g = Graphics.FromImage(imageCopy)) {
g.Clear(Color.Black);
g.CompositingMode = CompositingMode.SourceCopy;
g.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;
g.DrawImage(imageSource, (imageCopy.Width - imageSource.Width) / 2, 0);
pictureBox1.Image?.Dispose();
pictureBox2.Image?.Dispose();
pictureBox1.Image = imageSource;
pictureBox2.Image = imageCopy;
}
This is the result:
(The upper/lower frame black color is actually the Picturebox background color)
When the original Image Dpi Resolution is different from the base Dpi Resolution used when creating an Image copy with new Bitmap(), your results may be different from what is expected.
This is what happens with a source Image of 150, 96 and 72 Dpi in the same scenario:
Another important detail is the IDisposable nature of the Image object.
When you create one, you have to Dispose() of it; explicitly, calling the Dispose method, or implicitly, enclosing the Image contructor in a Using statement.
Also, possibly, don't assign an Image object directly loaded from a FileStream.
GDI+ will lock the file, and you will not be able to copy, move or delete it.
With the file, all resources tied to the Images will also be locked.
Make a copy with new Bitmap() (if you don't care of the above mentioned details), or with Image.Clone(), which will preserve the Image Dpi Resolution and PixelFormat.
I am not completely clear on what you are actually needing to do. But anyway, here is a WPF-friendly example of how to draw an image at a specific position inside another image.
Note if all you want to do is display the image in different size and/or put a black border around it, there are much simpler ways to do simply that, without having to create a second image, such as just laying out the image inside a panel that already has the border style you want.
Notice that I am using classes from the System.Windows.Media namespace because that is what WPF uses. These don't mix easily with the older classes from System.Drawing namespace (some of the class names conflict, and Microsoft's .Net framework lacks built-in methods for converting objects between those types), so normally one needs to simply decide whether to use one or the other sets of drawing tools. I assume you have been trying to use System.Drawing. Each has its own pros and cons that would take too long to explain here.
// using System.Windows.Media;
// using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
private void DrawTwoImages()
{
// For InputPictureBox
var file = new Uri("C:\\image.png");
var inputImage = new BitmapImage(file);
// If your image is stored in a Resource Dictionary, instead use:
// var inputImage = (BitmapImage) Resources["image.png"];
InputPicture.Source = inputImage;
// imageCopy isn't actually needed for this example.
// But since you had it in yours, here is how it's done, anyway.
var imageCopy = inputImage.Clone();
// Parameters for setting up our output picture
int leftMargin = 50;
int topMargin = 5;
int rightMargin = 50;
int bottomMargin = 5;
int width = inputImage.PixelWidth + leftMargin + rightMargin;
int height = inputImage.PixelHeight + topMargin + bottomMargin;
var backgroundColor = Brushes.Black;
var borderColor = (Pen) null;
// Use a DrawingVisual and DrawingContext for drawing
DrawingVisual dv = new DrawingVisual();
using (DrawingContext dc = dv.RenderOpen())
{
// Draw the black background
dc.DrawRectangle(backgroundColor, borderColor, new Rect(0, 0, width, height));
// Copy input image onto output image at desired position
dc.DrawImage(inputImage, new Rect(leftMargin, topMargin,
inputImage.PixelWidth, inputImage.PixelHeight));
}
// For displaying output image
var rtb = new RenderTargetBitmap( width, height, 96, 96, PixelFormats.Pbgra32 );
rtb.Render(dv);
OutputPicture.Source = rtb;
}

Cannot create Drop Shadow from Image created by Screen shot (capture)

My code can make DropShadow for TextBlock but cannot create it for image if I create image from screen shot. Using normal image (Image source has been set already) problem do not occur.
I believe that problem must be in image format (somehow) I get from screen shot. Any way to convert SoftwareBitmap to other format or what to do?
(To test with TextBlock just replace Image with TextBlock in the first snippet)
Code to copy any element on the screen to image
public static async Task<Image> GetScreenShotFromElement(FrameworkElement TargetFrameworkElement)
{
Image RenderedImage = new Image();
RenderTargetBitmap renderTargetBitmap = new RenderTargetBitmap();
await renderTargetBitmap.RenderAsync(TargetFrameworkElement);
RenderedImage.Source = renderTargetBitmap;
return RenderedImage;
}
Code to make drop shadow
public static void CreateDropShadowForImage(Image SOURCE,Grid SHADOWHERE)
{
Visual SOURCE_Visual = ElementCompositionPreview.GetElementVisual(SOURCE);
Compositor SOURCE_compositor = SOURCE_Visual.Compositor;
DropShadow DROP_SHADOW = SOURCE_compositor.CreateDropShadow();
DROP_SHADOW.Mask = SOURCE.GetAlphaMask();
DROP_SHADOW.Offset = new Vector3(10, 10, 0);
SpriteVisual SPRITE_VISUAL = SOURCE_compositor.CreateSpriteVisual();
SPRITE_VISUAL.Size = SOURCE.RenderSize.ToVector2();
SPRITE_VISUAL.Shadow = DROP_SHADOW;
ElementCompositionPreview.SetElementChildVisual(SHADOWHERE, SPRITE_VISUAL);
// Make sure size of shadow host and shadow visual always stay in sync
var bindSizeAnimation = SOURCE_compositor.CreateExpressionAnimation("hostVisual.Size");
bindSizeAnimation.SetReferenceParameter("hostVisual", SOURCE_Visual);
SPRITE_VISUAL.StartAnimation("Size", bindSizeAnimation);
}

How to overlap images and store them in new image objects

I have two images,now i want to overlay the images,such that the other image appears on center or left corner of the other image,and then when finally both the images are overlayed i can store it in another new image object,and i want to all this in code behind only not xaml,how to do this?
if (((Grid)sender).Children.Count > 0)
{
gridBackground = (ImageBrush)(((Grid)sender).Background);
gridBackImage = new System.Windows.Controls.Image();
gridBackImage.Source = gridBackground.ImageSource;
}
System.Windows.Controls.Image imgRejectIcon;
if (((Grid)sender).Children.Count > 0)
{
imgRejectIcon = (System.Windows.Controls.Image)(((Grid)sender).Children[0]);
}
Now i want to merge gridBackImage and imgRejection and store it in new image object
You can arrange your two Images in any way that you want and I'll leave that code for you to do (it'd much simpler to do in XAML). In WPF, all UI controls extend the Visual class. This is very useful for making BitmapImages from UI controls, when used with the RenderTargetBitmap.Render method.
First, arrange your two Image controls into a Grid, or other container control, and then you can pass the container control to the RenderTargetBitmap.Render method and create an Image something like this:
RenderTargetBitmap renderTargetBitmap =
new RenderTargetBitmap(width, height, 96, 96, PixelFormats.Pbgra32);
renderTargetBitmap.Render(yourContainerControl);
PngBitmapEncoder pngImage = new PngBitmapEncoder();
pngImage.Frames.Add(BitmapFrame.Create(renderTargetBitmap));
using (Stream fileStream = File.Create(filePath))
{
pngImage.Save(fileStream);
}

WPF printing/xps issue

I have written the following chunk of code that prints my ListBox perfectly when being sent to a physical printer, however when trying to send it to the XPS printer driver or using the XpsDocumentWriter class (I assume they use the same code under the hood) I receive the following exception:
System.ArgumentException was unhandled by user code
Message=Width and Height must be non-negative.
Source=ReachFramework
StackTrace:
at System.Windows.Xps.Serialization.VisualSerializer.WriteTileBrush(String element, TileBrush brush, Rect bounds)
The exception obviously points to an item not having a correct width/height however I have debugged the code when sending it to the different printers (physical and XPS driver) and I haven't been able to find any differences.
Below is how I create the visual to send to the printer:
private ScrollViewer GeneratePrintableView()
{
ScrollViewer scrollView = new ScrollViewer();
Grid grid = new Grid { Background = Brushes.White, Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth, Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight };
grid.RowDefinitions.Add(new RowDefinition());
grid.RowDefinitions[0].Height = new GridLength(0, GridUnitType.Auto);
grid.RowDefinitions.Add(new RowDefinition());
grid.RowDefinitions[1].Height = new GridLength(0, GridUnitType.Auto);
// Add the title and icon to the top
VisualBrush titleClone = new VisualBrush(this.TitleBar);
var titleRectangle = new Rectangle { Fill = titleClone, Width = this.TitleBar.ActualWidth, Height = this.TitleBar.ActualHeight };
grid.Children.Add(titleRectangle);
Grid.SetRow(titleRectangle, 0);
this.myListBox.Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth;
this.myListBox.Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight;
VisualBrush clone = new VisualBrush(this.myListBox) { Stretch = Stretch.None, AutoLayoutContent = true };
var rectangle = new Rectangle { Fill = clone, Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth, Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight };
Border border = new Border { Background = Brushes.White, Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth, Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight };
border.Child = rectangle;
grid.Children.Add(border);
Grid.SetRow(border, 1);
scrollView.Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth;
scrollView.Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight;
scrollView.Content = grid;
scrollView.VerticalScrollBarVisibility = ScrollBarVisibility.Hidden;
return scrollView;
}
Here is the GetPage override in my DocumentPaginator implementation:
public override DocumentPage GetPage(int pageNumber)
{
Page page = new Page();
double z = 0.0;
this.grid = new Grid();
this.grid.RowDefinitions.Add(new RowDefinition());
this.grid.RowDefinitions[0].Height = new GridLength(0, GridUnitType.Auto);
this.grid.Children.Add(this.printViewer);
Grid.SetRow(this.printViewer, 0);
//Adjusting the vertical scroll offset depending on the page number
if (pageNumber + 1 == 1) //if First Page
{
this.printViewer.ScrollToVerticalOffset(0);
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
else if (pageNumber + 1 == _verticalPageCount) //if Last Page
{
if (this.printViewer.ScrollableHeight == 0) //If printing only single page and the contents fits only on one page
{
this.printViewer.ScrollToVerticalOffset(0);
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
else if (this.printViewer.ScrollableHeight <= this.printViewer.Height) //If scrollconentheight is less or equal than scrollheight
{
this.printViewer.Height = this.printViewer.ScrollableHeight;
this.printViewer.ScrollToEnd();
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
else //if the scrollcontentheight is greater than scrollheight then set the scrollviewer height to be the remainder between scrollcontentheight and scrollheight
{
this.printViewer.Height = (this.printViewer.ScrollableHeight % this.printViewer.Height) + 5;
this.printViewer.ScrollToEnd();
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
}
else //Other Pages
{
z = z + this.printViewer.Height;
this.printViewer.ScrollToVerticalOffset(z);
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
page.Content = this.grid; //put the grid into the page
page.Arrange(new Rect(this.originalMargin.Left, this.originalMargin.Top, this.ContentSize.Width, this.ContentSize.Height));
page.UpdateLayout();
return new DocumentPage(page);
}
Interestingly if I change the Fill of rectangle to a Brush instead of clone then I do not receive the exception and the outputted file is the correct size.
I have spent over a day trying to debug why this isn't working and I am hoping that someone out there has either seen a similar issue or is able to point out any mistakes I am making.
Thanks for any responses.
I had to give up finding a solution with VisualBrush. If there is a GroupBox in the Visual for the brush I could never get it to produce a XPS file. It always fails with
System.ArgumentException was unhandled by user code Message=Width and Height must be non-negative. Source=ReachFramework StackTrace: at System.Windows.Xps.Serialization.VisualSerializer.WriteTileBrush(String element, TileBrush brush, Rect bounds)
The workaround was to clone the content that should go in the VisualBrush (Is there an easy/built-in way to get an exact copy (clone) of a XAML element?) and use that directly in a Grid instead of an VisualBrush
Have you checked the value of ActualWidth and ActualHeight of myListBox when the VisualBrush is being created? I don't know from where myListBox comes, but if it is not rendered by the time you are generating your xps document you may run into problems. You can try to manually force the control to render and see if it makes any difference.
I was unable to rectify the problem however using this link Paginated printing of WPF visuals I was able to find a suitable solution to allow printing of complicated visuals within my WPF application.
It's 2016 now and it's still not fixed. The problem is using TileBrush or any descendant type (VisualBrush in your case). If you use absolute mapping, it works, it's the relative mapping that causes the problem. Calculate the final size yourself and set Viewport to this size, ViewportUnits to Absolute. Also make sure you don't use Stretch.

How do I resize a System.Windows.Forms.ToolBar?

I've not bothered with panels, docking, or anchors. I've simply thrown together a ToolBar control (not ToolStrip) and seem unable to size it.
System.Windows.Forms.ToolBar tb = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolBar();
// Reports 292x28 (approx) if I check width and height
// Basically the width of the form and I assume a default height
tb.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(195, 48);
// Reports 48x48, but does not actually create buttons of that size
// (It reports 48x48 because I'm retrieving 48x48 icons from a ResourceManager (resx))
tb.ButtonSize = new System.Drawing.Size(48, 48); //
The closest thing I found to making my ToolBar taller was:
http://bytes.com/topic/c-sharp/answers/241614-changing-height-toolbar-button
Although it's rather dated. And I didn't understand it. ToolBarButtons don't have Height, Width, or Size properties.
I'm using SharpDevelop, coding completely by hand on Vista, with all the .NET frameworks.
EDIT:
Here is the EXACT code that I am currently using.
#region ImageList/Toolbar
ImageList toolbarImages = new ImageList();
Image wizardToolbarImage = (Bitmap) rm.GetObject("wizard");
Image optionsToolbarImage = (Bitmap) rm.GetObject("configure");
toolbarImages.Images.Add(wizardToolbarImage);
toolbarImages.Images.Add(optionsToolbarImage);
ToolBar toolbarMain = new ToolBar();
toolbarMain.Size = new Size(195, 25); // no effect
ToolBarButton wizardToolbarButton = new ToolBarButton();
ToolBarButton optionsToolbarButton = new ToolBarButton();
wizardToolbarButton.ImageIndex = 0;
wizardToolbarButton.ToolTipText = "Wizard!";
optionsToolbarButton.ImageIndex = 1;
optionsToolbarButton.ToolTipText = "Options!";
toolbarMain.Buttons.Add(wizardToolbarButton);
toolbarMain.Buttons.Add(optionsToolbarButton);
toolbarMain.Appearance = ToolBarAppearance.Normal;
toolbarMain.ButtonSize = new System.Drawing.Size(48, 48); // no effect
toolbarMain.ImageList = toolbarImages;
toolbarMain.ButtonClick += new ToolBarButtonClickEventHandler(toolbarMain_Click);
Controls.Add(toolbarMain);
#endregion
In just about every winforms application I've written, regardless of language or framework, the toolbar could only be made taller by using larger icons.
You can also put the toolstrip inside a Panel and set the Dock property of the tool strip to Fill. And then you can size the Panel to whatever size you need.

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