How to capture the background to STDPicture

to make a button transparent I want to capture the background image of a form or picturebox (actually the region on which that button is placed) and keep it in a stdpicture varaible then I want to paint this object on the button

I tried the PaintPicture but paintpicture doesnt store its output in a stdpicture
then I thought to use stdpicture render function but still dont know how to copy the source image to destination and set an stdpicture variable to the output of these fucntions


please please help me

See if this is helpful. This uses a Picture Box (Picture1) as the background
but you could also just assign a picture to the form & substitute Form1
for Picture1 in the code.

Code:

---

Option Explicit
'Picture1 is the background picture (has a picture)
'Picture2 is the work picture to get the picture
'  behind the command button--may set Visible=False
'Command1 is contained in Picture1, though not necessary
Private Sub Command1_Click()
 'paint the portion behind the button onto Picture2
 Picture2.PaintPicture Picture1.Picture, 0, 0, Command1.Width, Command1.Height, _
  Command1.Left, Command1.Top, Command1.Width, Command1.Height, vbSrcCopy
 Picture2.Refresh
 Command1.Picture = Picture2.Image
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
 Me.ScaleMode = vbPixels 'can set all these at design time
 Picture1.ScaleMode = vbPixels
 Picture2.ScaleMode = vbPixels
 Picture2.AutoRedraw = True
 Picture2.Width = Command1.Width
 Picture2.Height = Command1.Height
End Sub

---

Thank you very much
it works, just if one wants to not change the ScaleMode if the form and picture1
can use the code below

vb Code:

Private Sub Command1_Click()
 Picture2.PaintPicture Picture1.Picture, 0, 0, , , _
 ScaleX(Command1.Left, Picture1.ScaleMode, vbPixels), ScaleY(Command1.Top, Picture1.ScaleMode, vbPixels), Command1.Width, Command1.Height, vbSrcCopy
 Picture2.Refresh
 Command1.Picture = Picture2.Image
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Load()
 Picture2.ScaleMode = vbPixels
 Picture2.AutoRedraw = True
 Picture2.Width = Command1.Width
 Picture2.Height = Command1.Height
End Sub

But I noticed I got a problem!!!!!!!!!!

I used this techniq for a user control for a custom button with a transparent background so that everytime I change the background of a from it adopts itself
but since the buttons are a lot
I noticed loading the form takes too much time, then I noticed actually the whole picture of the form is stored in the picturebg property of my user control

so it seems paintpicture doesnt suit
I dont want the whole picture to be stored there just a techniq that cuts the area I need for the button, do you know any method

See my post here:

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=600847

thank you but actually my problem differ, I dont want the transparency that mask color suggests because I think its not smooth and also doesn't support semi-transparency

I have a user control for my buttons, and I use a function which draw a semi-transparent 32 bit bmp on a background, till now my trick was that I made a background by selecting part of the form where the button is supposed to be placed with a graphic software (frireworks) and then use that for the background property of the button, then I could draw any semi-transparent picture on it till I reach a staisfiying result,
since I should test different styles and backgrounds ... providing a background for the button became tedious, so I thought the VB automatically capture part of the background and set the picture needed for background of the button

the above code you mentioned is helpful but now the problem is actually the whole image of the form is stored in the picture property and therefor makes opening the form very slow,
now I am working on the BitBlt function to reach a result (to cut a specific part of the background and store it) but yet its in process
if you have a sugestion please help me, cause it took much time of me

I know there are many people here who are very expert on graphics,
why you dont help me on this simple problem?