Making controls transparent inorder to see a gradient

[jray-taf]

Hi,
I put a metallic looking gradient on a form. The problem is that all my controls, lables, groupboxes etc still show as ugly grey squares. I want to make them transparent so the gradient on the form shows through them. I tried
lblMyLabel.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(0, lblMyLabel.BackColor)
and
lblMyLabel.BackColor = Color.FromArg(0,System.Drawing.Color.Transparent).
But with no success.

Can anyone help me make these items completely transparent so the gradient shows through.

Thanks,

Josh

 

[kulrom]

If you want to see the gradient canvas (form's background) through the controls added on it then you have to set property "parent" to "Me" i.e. lblMylabel.Parent = Me
now u can set up the transparency i.e. lblMylabel.backColor = Color.Transparent

Regards

 

[jray-taf]

Thank you for your reply.

I tried this:
lblMyLabel.Parent = Me
lblMyLabel.BackColor = Color.Transparent

I still could not see the gradient through the label.

I then tried:
lblMyLabel.Parent = Me.Parent

with or without the next line(lblMyLabel.backcolor...) I can see the gradient where the label was but then could not see the text. It looked the the entire label was transparent, including the text.

I seem to be getting somewhere but not quite there yet.

Thank you for your help,
Josh

 

[kulrom]

But why you would refer to Me.Parent .. is it MDI form? btw, what you have made with gradient background ? You have painted the form or say PictureBox?

 

[jray-taf]

I'm not too sure what MDI form is?? But when lblMyLable.Parent = Me didn't work I just tried messing around.

I am not using a background Image I used the drawing class to make the gradient.

Dim g As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics

Dim x As Integer = Me.width
Dim y As Integer = Me.Height

Dim lgBrush As New------
g.fillRectangle(lgBrush----)

you get the idea.
I got this code out of a book but it doesn't go any further in depth.
Thanks for your help,
josh

 

[jmcilhinney]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...tskgivingyourcontroltransparentbackground.asp

 

[kulrom]

http://www.vbdotnetforums.com/showthread.php?t=4760&highlight=transparent

 

[kulrom]

Namely i wanted to say that you don't need anything of these (setStyle, Parent ...) if we talk about the same thing (moreover, if you have painted the form's background properly)

Regards

 

[jray-taf]

I am going to try a different approach

Thank you all for your help. I am still having problems though. I've learned that my controls are transparent if you just set the backcolor to transparent. The problem: they show the forms backcolor and apparently when I draw the gradient on the form it doesn't effect the backcolor so it is what is showing through to the control.
I either need to find a way to paint the gradient as the backcolor or simply just create a gradient as a jpeg,etc in an image editor and use it as the background(this last method does work by the way)
Thanks again for all the input,
josh

 

[kulrom]

Jraf,
If you follow the way how i painted the background (the link above) then your controls will support transparency without problem.
However, post the code how you draw the gradient and i'll give u my suggestion (correction if it's needed) ...

 

[jray-taf]

Code used to paint gradient

Here is the code I use to paint the gradient:

'Private Sub frmMain_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Paint
Dim g As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
coordinates for both the gradient and the fillRectangle routine:
Dim x As Integer = Me.Width
Dim y As Integer = Me.Height

Dim lgBrush As New LinearGradientBrush(New Point(0, 0), New Point (x,y), Color.White, Color.FromArgb(190, 190, 190))

g.FillRectangle(lgBrush, 0, 0, x, y)

'End Sub

However, I took the easy way out and just created the gradient in an image editor and used it as the backgroud with the controls set to transparent and it works.
I would still like to be able to do it the other way but dont really have a lot of time to waste on this.
Thanks for all your help,
Josh

 

[kulrom]

Ok, if you have no time that's it ... Regards