Transperant Form

[moeur]

Here's an example that gets rid of the label background that I copied from
Karl E. Peterson http://www.mvps.org/vb
Anything you want yo make transparent, set color to vbGreen
Make a project with a form and put a label in the form

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" ( _
    ByVal hWnd As Long, _
    ByVal nIndex As Long _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" ( _
    ByVal hWnd As Long, _
    ByVal nIndex As Long, _
    ByVal dwNewLong As Long _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Sub SetWindowPos Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal hWnd As Long, _
    ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Long, _
    ByVal x As Long, _
    ByVal y As Long, _
    ByVal cx As Long, _
    ByVal cy As Long, _
    ByVal wFlags As Long _
)
 
Private Declare Function SetLayeredWindowAttributes Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal hWnd As Long, _
    ByVal crKey As Long, _
    ByVal bAlpha As Long, _
    ByVal dwFlags As Long _
) As Long
 
Private Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Private Const WS_EX_LAYERED = &H80000
Private Const LWA_COLORKEY = &H1&
Private Const LWA_ALPHA = &H2&
Private Const LWA_OPAQUE = &HFF&
 
Private Const GWL_STYLE = (-16)
Private Const WS_CAPTION = &HC00000
Private Const WS_THICKFRAME = &H40000
 
Private Const HWND_TOPMOST = -1
Private Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
Private Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Private Const SWP_NOACTIVATE = &H10
Private Const SWP_SHOWWINDOW = &H40
Private Const SWP_NOZORDER = &H4
Private Const SWP_FRAMECHANGED = &H20
 
Private m_ColorKey As OLE_COLOR
 
Private Declare Function GetSysColor Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal nIndex As Long _
) As Long
 
Private Function CheckSysColor(ByVal ColorRef As OLE_COLOR) As Long
   Const HighBit = &H80000000
   If ColorRef And HighBit Then
      CheckSysColor = GetSysColor(ColorRef And Not HighBit)
   Else
      CheckSysColor = ColorRef
   End If
End Function
 
Private Function MakeTransparent(ByVal hWnd As Long) As Boolean
   Dim nStyle As Long
   If hWnd Then
      nStyle = GetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE) And Not WS_EX_LAYERED
         If SetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, nStyle) Then
            nStyle = nStyle Or WS_EX_LAYERED
            If SetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, nStyle) Then
                     MakeTransparent = CBool(SetLayeredWindowAttributes( _
                     hWnd, CheckSysColor(m_ColorKey), _
                     0, _
                     LWA_COLORKEY))
            End If
         End If
   End If
End Sub
 
Private Function ToggleCaption(ByVal Value As Boolean) As Boolean
   Dim nStyle As Long
   
   ' Retrieve current style bits.
   nStyle = GetWindowLong(Me.hWnd, GWL_STYLE)
   ' Set WS_SYSMENU On or Off as requested.
   If Value Then
      nStyle = nStyle Or WS_CAPTION Or WS_THICKFRAME
   Else
      nStyle = nStyle And Not WS_CAPTION
      nStyle = nStyle And Not WS_THICKFRAME
   End If
   
   ' Try to set new style.
   If SetWindowLong(Me.hWnd, GWL_STYLE, nStyle) Then
      If nStyle = GetWindowLong(Me.hWnd, GWL_STYLE) Then
         ToggleCaption = True
      End If
   End If
   ' Redraw window with new style.
   SetWindowPos hWnd, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_FRAMECHANGED Or SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOZORDER Or SWP_NOSIZE
End Function
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Unload Me
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
'setup label
    Label1.AutoSize = True
    Label1.Caption = "Click Me"
 
'make transparent
     'Toggle titlebar off.
      Call ToggleCaption(False)
            
      m_ColorKey = vbGreen
      MakeTransparent Me.hWnd
      
      ' Set backgrounds to green so they
      ' become transparent too.
      Me.BackColor = vbGreen
      Label1.BackColor = vbGreen
      
End Sub
 
Private Sub Label1_Click()
  Unload Me
End Sub