Visual Basic Graphics Programming

This Wrox Blox shows you how to add graphics to Visual Basic 2008 applications by explaining fundamental graphics techniques such as: drawing shapes with different colors and line styles; filling areas with colors, gradients, and patterns; drawing text that is properly aligned, sized, and clipped exactly where you want it; manipulating images and saving results in bitmap, JPEG, and other types of files. Also covered are instructions for how to greatly increase your graphics capabilities using transformations, which allow you to move, stretch, or rotate graphics. They also let you work in coordinate systems that make sense for your application.  The author also describes techniques for using the above in printouts, describing the sequence of events that produce a printout and show how to generate and preview printouts, with examples which show how to wrap long chunks of text across multiple pages, if necessary.

In addition, you will learn about two powerful new graphic tools that were introduced with .NET Framework 3.0: WPF graphics and FlowDocuments.   XAML graphic commands allow a WPF application to draw and fill the same kinds of shapes that a program can draw by using graphics objects.

Finally, a discussion on the FlowDocument object shows you how to define items that should be flowed across multiple pages as space permits. This lets you display text, graphics, controls, and other items that automatically flow across page breaks. FlowDocument viewers make displaying these documents easy for you, and simplifies the user's reading of the documents. 

This Wrox Blox also contains 35 example programs written in Visual Basic 2008, although most of the code works in previous versions of Visual Basic .NET as well. The most notable exceptions are WPF graphics and FlowDocuments, both of which require WPF provided in .NET Framework 3.0 and later. 

Table of Contents

Section 1: Using Graphics, Pens, and Brushes 2

Getting a Graphics Object 3

Using a Graphics Object 5

Creating Pens 8

Creating Brushes 11

Section 1 Wrap-up 13

Section 2: Using Advanced Pens and Brushes 14

Custom Dash Patterns 14

Longitudinal Stripes 16

Custom End Caps 17

Linear Gradient Brushes 18

Path Gradient Brushes 20

Section 2 Wrap-up 21

Section 3: Drawing Text 22

Drawing Simple Text 22

Using Layout Rectangles 23

Section 3 Wrap-up 27

Section 4: Manipulating Images 27

Creating and Loading Bitmaps 27

Manipulating Bitmaps 29

Saving Image Files 32

Section 4 Wrap-Up 33

Section 5: Using Transformations 33

Basic Transformations 33

World Coordinate Mapping 36

Section 5 Wrap-up 40

Section 6: Printing 40

Using PrintPage 41

Using Other Event Handlers 44

Printing Transformations 45

Section 6 Wrap-up 48

Section 7: Using WPF Graphics 48

Decorative Controls 49

Shape Controls 49

Brushes 53

ImageBrush 56

Section 7 Wrap-up 57

Section 8: Building FlowDocuments 57

BlockUIContainer 58

List 58

Paragraph 58

Section 58

Table 58

Section 8 Wrap-up 60

Conclusion 61

About Rod Stephens 62

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ROD STEPHENS is a contract software engineer specializing in graphical user interface design, algorithms, and database systems. He writes a column on Visual Basic algorithms for the professional newsletter Visual Basic Developer. Previously a senior member of the technical staff at GTE Laboratories, he has developed several large systems for GTE and other clients using components.