[RESOLVED] ComboBox DrawItem...

I'm struggleing a bit with this one, I'm just messing about trying to broaden my knowledge and one of the things I'm trying to do is work out the custom drawing of controls.

If I add an item to the combo box I'd expect the DrawItem event to be fired then but it doesn't seem to be the case.

For example if I say want to populate a combo box with the fonts I have installed on my system I setup a For Each loop to go through the collection and then add the font family to the combo box 'cbInstalledFonts.Items.Add(fntFamily)' , at this point I'd expect the DrawItem event to fire but the loop just continues :confused:

When exaclty is the drawItem event called ? On MSDN it really doesn't make it clear, well to me anyway :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tinbeard

I'm struggleing a bit with this one, I'm just messing about trying to broaden my knowledge and one of the things I'm trying to do is work out the custom drawing of controls.

If I add an item to the combo box I'd expect the DrawItem event to be fired then but it doesn't seem to be the case.

For example if I say want to populate a combo box with the fonts I have installed on my system I setup a For Each loop to go through the collection and then add the font family to the combo box 'cbInstalledFonts.Items.Add(fntFamily)' , at this point I'd expect the DrawItem event to fire but the loop just continues :confused:

When exaclty is the drawItem event called ? On MSDN it really doesn't make it clear, well to me anyway :)

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Hi,

You could try this code to retrieve a list of all the fonts on the current computer. And use the InstalledFontCollection Class.

VB Code:

Dim FontFamilies As New System.Drawing.Text.InstalledFontCollection()
Dim Family As FontFamily
ForEach Family In FontFamily.Families
ComboBox1.Items.Add(Family.Name)
Next

Add this code into your Formload and your Combox will have all the Fonts installed on your Computer.

Sparrow1

Thanks Sparrow, I'm ok with populating the combo box with the fonts installed.
What I was trying to do is control the drawitem event so I could draw each font name in it's own font.
I've got this figured out now, it was just a matter of getting the code within the drawitem event right, I'd got my self confused about when this event is triggered and as such the code I wrote to handle it was wrong.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tinbeard

Thanks Sparrow, I'm ok with populating the combo box with the fonts installed.
What I was trying to do is control the drawitem event so I could draw each font name in it's own font.
I've got this figured out now, it was just a matter of getting the code within the drawitem event right, I'd got my self confused about when this event is
triggered and as such the code I wrote to handle it was wrong.

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I'm interested in that too, can you let me see that specificcode.

Thanks in advance,

sparrow1

Sure Sparrow here it is (I'm still learning so it's not perfect :D )

VB Code:

Imports System.Drawing.Text
 
Public Class FontPractice
 
    'members
    Public fntFamilyName As String
    Public fnt As Font
 
    Private Sub FontPractice_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim installedFonts As New InstalledFontCollection()
        Dim fntFamily As FontFamily
        'go through the installed font collection and add each family to our combo box
        For Each fntFamily In installedFonts.Families
            fntFamilyName = fntFamily.Name
            cboSelectFont.Items.Add(fntFamilyName)
        Next
    End Sub
    'this function takes the font family we created and checks what style we can use
    'it then returns the new font to be used
    Public Function fntToUse(ByVal fontFamily) As Font
        'check which styles are available for us to use with this font.
        If fontFamily.IsStyleAvailable(FontStyle.Regular) Then
            fntToUse = New Font(fntFamilyName, 10, FontStyle.Regular, GraphicsUnit.Point)
        Else
            If fontFamily.IsStyleAvailable(FontStyle.Bold) Then
                fntToUse = New Font(fntFamilyName, 10, FontStyle.Bold, GraphicsUnit.Point)
            Else
                fntToUse = New Font(fntFamilyName, 10, FontStyle.Italic, GraphicsUnit.Point)
            End If
        End If
        'return our font object
        Return fntToUse
    End Function
 
 
    Private Sub cboSelectFont_DrawItem(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DrawItemEventArgs) Handles cboSelectFont.DrawItem
        'get the graphics object
        Dim grfx As Graphics = e.Graphics
        Dim fontFamily As FontFamily
 
 
        If e.Index > -1 Then
            'get the font family name of the current item
            fntFamilyName = cboSelectFont.Items(e.Index)
            fontFamily = New FontFamily(fntFamilyName)
            'call our function to check the styles of the font to make sure
            'we don't try to use a style thats not supported
            fnt = fntToUse(fontFamily)
        End If
        Try
            'draw the item to the control, but catch any exceptions
            grfx.DrawString(cboSelectFont.Items(e.Index), fnt, Brushes.Black, New RectangleF(e.Bounds.X, e.Bounds.Y, e.Bounds.Width, e.Bounds.Height))
        Catch ex As Exception
        End Try
 
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub cboSelectFont_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cboSelectFont.SelectedIndexChanged
        Dim fnt As Font
        Dim fontFamily As FontFamily
        Dim fntName As String
 
        'get the name of the font family selected
        fntName = cboSelectFont.SelectedItem.ToString()
        'create an instance of the font family class with the font name
        fontFamily = New FontFamily(fntName)
        'pass the fontfamily to the function and get our font back
        fnt = fntToUse(fontFamily)
        lblSample.Font = fnt
 
    End Sub
End Class

I do the same still learning!
I'll tryed and let you know!

Thanks,

sparrow1

By the way, you need to set your combo box DrawMode to OwnerDrawFixed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tinbeard

By the way, you need to set your combo box DrawMode to OwnerDrawFixed.

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That was the thing I needed, because It gave me always an Error.
Now everything is working fine!

Found something more!
If you select a Font in the ComboBox, then just Add this code after lblSample.Font = fnt and the selected Font will be shown in your ComboBox.

VB Code:

cboSelectFont.Font = fnt

just a thought.

anuway thanks for your code,

sparrow1