What is the best way to go about changing the look of a Windows Form.
P.S. I have searched but haven't found a good answer
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What is the best way to go about changing the look of a Windows Form.
P.S. I have searched but haven't found a good answer
What answers have you found?
From previous searches on this website, WPF is the general consensus. Though I've never done it myself.
I tried to use WPF but for some reason I couldnt get anything to compile so I just made my form and buttons in Photoshop. It looks alright but not as good as if it was in XAML. The only thing I need now is to change the border
As far as I understood, WPF utilizes XAML. I don't think it's a matter of what technology needs to be used. WPF should allow you to change the border.
You might want to look up some tutorials and books on it.
Skinning a windows form. Remember it's a visual trick. What you see isn't really what you think it actually is. If you look my little mp3 program's gui at www.sharpmp3.com.
There's a number of buttons, none of them of the circular nature. They look circular, but that's because the square area's blend in with the background. This was all done using the properties of the buttons themselves. I used photoshop to make the pictures of the buttons and some backgrounds but it's all pretty basic. Then I attached the pictures to the button fore and background pictures fields.
If you play around with the button settings and the control setting syou can get it to look the way you want.
Requires some finess to it.
The example you've given, jakkjakk, is of changing the button's appearance. I believe he is more focused on changing the appearance of the Form's Border. Of which, I can not assist with direct knowledge.Quote:
Originally Posted by jakkjakk
Well what you do is you set the borderstyle to borderless. Making it so that the form doesn't have a border, then you develop your own graphics to the border that you see fit. Like you could create a picture that has a border and then set that picture to the background making it look like your form has a border to it. Then you setup your own buttons and menu bar.
So what the user see's is a border, but it really is part of the background picture and whatever buttons and menu's they've setup.
Doing GUI's requires some artistic talent, some ingenuity, and a lot of patience. They can look really cool with little effort, but you have to be clever.
The method you've described, jakkjakk, will work. But that's kind of a backwards way of doing it. It will work... but it's not generally ideal.
I agree that to make a custom border, it will take time and skill. But making a custom one will look and act so much better than a "fake" one. Excuse me if that seems rude.
I'd like to reiterate that from what I've read on on this site, WPF is the best way to create a custom border and should probably be what you research more on, Tddupre.
It may not be the answer you want, because you've done a little work with it so far and have come up with nothing, but it's probably your best path.
OMG, my eyes fell out and now I can't find them. (I can type though because I know where the keys are :p)Quote:
Originally Posted by jakkjakk
I used to use an application called AppFaceIts free for awhile but I think you can buy it for like $30? Just reference the dll and they have tons of pre-made skin or you can make your own.
Wow, never mind $30 is way off. Its $149 for vb and C# but you can use it forever so it may be a good investment.