Skinization tool

[Sleeper_in_Hood]

I have got my application almost done and want it to look nice, is there any skinization engine for VB.NET which I can use?
Any information or suggestion will be highly appreciated, TIA

[Pirate]

There is a link somewhere here , do a search you should find it .

[Sleeper_in_Hood]

But all what I found were just the posts with no valuable information...

Doing the search in the web I found a good library which supports .NET applications. That's SkinCrafter control

http://skincrafter.com

Hope this information will be useful for those who is still seeking or will need it in future...

Best regards

[Sheppe]

Check out Skin Express. It's still under development, but it could be what you're looking for.

http://www.code-express.com/skinexpress/

EDIT: Skin Express is also a lot more affordable than Skin Crafter.

[Sleeper_in_Hood]

Thanks for your suggestion, but having checked the Skinexpres out I found this:

I totally agree with idea that this is too raw to be used in a serious project... Please do not judge me as a rude person, but there are the reasons (maybe you should take them under consideration):

1. If I have my app already developed, with too many controls, lets say accounting one, I would just be unable to create the skin... (as a skin needs to link all my controls to a skin form image)
2. The major inconvinience is that I need to Add ALL of my controls to skin... that's terrible =0...
3. How about all other controls besides buttons, checks, radios, panels, groupings and image boxes??? List boxes, edit fields and scroll bars, toolbars and menus are most interactive controls, what should be done with them???
4 With such a help file and no demonstration applications I can hardly imagine who will buy your control (even with such a low price)

I prefer a good quality for a resonable price to an absence of it, even free of charge...

Best regards.

[Sheppe]

Yup, I understand what you're saying. I wouldn't purchase it right now either. The reason I'm started off with a price on it is because I didn't want to have people using it off the bat for free and then have to go ahead and pay for it.

I actually appreciate the feedback, as it gives me further ideas as to what people are looking for. Unfortunately, other obligations have sidelined me from being able to do more work on it. I will continue development on it, though, and I'll definitely include the features you mention.

Just as a comment on your feedback: You don't have to add every control to the skin definition. Any controls not added to the definition will simply remain in their design-time positions with a standard look and feel.

[Pirate]

Moreoever , this might eats up some of memory resources and the application may lose its gracefulness on slow systems.

[Sheppe]

Nope, not really. It uses built-in .NET routines to do the skinning, so all you have to deal with is an extra 24 Kb assembly.

[Pirate]

Well , I was talking about skinning in general that uses images and cliping some regions . I've tried some of these projs in VB6 days but not with .NET .

[Sleeper_in_Hood]

Just as a comment on your feedback: You don't have to add every control to the skin definition. Any controls not added to the definition will simply remain in their design-time positions with a standard look and feel

That is a problem, I want all my controls to be of the same style

I will continue development on it, though, and I'll definitely include the features you mention.

One more thing I like in SkinCrafter that it does not require the changes in my app code. Just by adding a reference and calling initializing code I got whole my app skinned.

Pirate: Well , I was talking about skinning in general that uses images and cliping some regions . I've tried some of these projs in VB6 days but not with .NET .

I agree, using skins make the app slower, but it will do anyway ('cause images require more resources then just color drawing).
Try to run XP WindowsBlinds on Pentium I or II that will show you the real slowness

[gtim108]

Yeah, I run XP on Pentium 450 MHz, and the only way I can improve its work is to set a standard Windows appearence =)