OK, as the resident graphics boffin ...

1. Its dead easy to draw a paragraph of text onto a picturebox (assuming it doesn't spill over onto another control. Just take a look at the Graphics.DrawString(...) overrides and you will find one that lets you specify a rectangle to draw the text inside. You can work out the rest.

2. Transparency of controls can be accomplished but it is pretty low level. You may have to resort to blitting from a graphics object. I hate using bitblt because it is not framework.