Comments on VillainousMind, Inc.: Fix backcolor for tabcontrol in .net

In case the control is resized so the tabs consume...

2011-08-19T09:14:55.723-04:00

In case the control is resized so the tabs consume all space:

Rectangle lastTabRect = GetTabRect(TabPages.Count - 1);
int width = Width - (lastTabRect.X + lastTabRect.Width);

if (width > 0)
{
RectangleF tabStripEndRectF = new RectangleF(
lastTabRect.X + lastTabRect.Width,
lastTabRect.Y - 5,
Width - (lastTabRect.X + lastTabRect.Width),
lastTabRect.Height + 5);
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(bgBrush, tabStripEndRectF);
}

I've not used a gradient background before. I...

2011-06-14T07:34:47.101-04:00

I've not used a gradient background before. I would make sure that you are using a gradient image and make sure the code is using the image and not the background color. Hope this helps!

This post is purely brilliant!!!!! Thanks man. I d...

2011-06-14T07:31:02.123-04:00

This post is purely brilliant!!!!! Thanks man. I do have a problem though, i have placed my custom tabcontrol on a panel that has a gradient painted when it is loaded, the tabcontrol however only picks up the default panel color rather than then gradient, how do i fix this issue? thansk for any help

Thanks so much for sharing this solution. Spent a...

2011-03-29T10:05:45.188-04:00

Thanks so much for sharing this solution. Spent all day yesterday banging my head against the wall trying to figure it out and stumbled across your post. Cheers!

Thanks! I was in the same boat you were in. Ther...

2011-01-28T09:12:09.084-05:00

Thanks! I was in the same boat you were in. There was code out there that got me halfway, but nothing got me all the way. Once I finished it I knew there would be others that could benefit from it. I'm glad it was helpful to you.

This is concentrated form of awesomeness. I was s...

2011-01-27T18:21:30.721-05:00

This is concentrated form of awesomeness. I was struggling for days till I found this gem of a code snippet. THANKS!

Rakesh, This was originally developed, compiled, ...

2010-09-02T07:45:22.496-04:00

Rakesh,

This was originally developed, compiled, and tested on XP. I have not heard of the issues you are having.

I wish I could be of more help but I have not seen this.

Hi, I used your code and was able to color the t...

2010-09-02T02:00:42.537-04:00

Hi,

I used your code and was able to color the tab labels to black and draw the string on them and its working fine on Vista machines. But, out client used Windows XP.
and the text which we are drawing over the tab labels is not shown.

Have you ever come across such an issue with this..
Thanks for the help..

Rakesh

First of all, sorry for your grief.. I share your ...

2010-08-06T14:50:29.586-04:00

First of all, sorry for your grief.. I share your pain.. Secondly, hats off to you for A: finding a solution & B: Posting it to the world to bring us one step closer to sanity ;) a million thanx.. and last (but DEFINATELY not least), awsome job on ur form.. looks great.. nice techique, layout, colors.....

Really very useful post, thank you very much!

2010-07-28T06:39:24.200-04:00

Really very useful post, thank you very much!

Thanks, David. This is a great start for an owner ...

2010-07-26T17:53:33.330-04:00

Thanks, David. This is a great start for an owner drawn TabControl in Windows Forms.

To follow up the anonymous post of 13 August: if I can figure out how to change the colors of the edges I'll post the solution in a comment to follow.

- Gary

Glad I could help. Just pay it forward. :)

2010-06-11T11:00:36.722-04:00

Glad I could help. Just pay it forward. :)

This is awesome, I owe you a ! ;)

2010-06-11T10:45:16.117-04:00

This is awesome, I owe you a ! ;)

Thanks so much. I had the DrawItem implemented bu...

2010-06-03T11:46:55.930-04:00

Thanks so much. I had the DrawItem implemented but I still needed the colorization from last tab to end of tabcontrol. You supplied just what I needed.
Darn Vista with that transparency issue and having to use DrawMode OwnerDrawFixed.
Anyway, thanks again.
Herbie

Excellent! Glad to know it did the trick.

2010-04-27T08:18:18.988-04:00

Excellent! Glad to know it did the trick.

i applied your codes to our project and it worked....

2010-04-26T23:07:12.803-04:00

i applied your codes to our project and it worked. i really learned a lot. thanks. it's my first time in C# so you've been a big help.

Reia

I've given my problematic image another try, t...

2010-03-27T15:02:00.021-04:00

I've given my problematic image another try, this time by increasing the size of the image (as it was an imge that could be tiled). I just tried it out and it works fine, so if the image you're trying to use is too small it won't draw over your tabcontrol :)

That's good to know! So, there is the possibi...

2010-03-24T13:09:43.208-04:00

That's good to know! So, there is the possibility that some images won't work with this process. Thanks for posting that info.

I looked into it some more and it seems the image ...

2010-03-24T12:43:31.702-04:00

I looked into it some more and it seems the image I wanted to use doesn't work (any other image works), so I'm using an alternative image now. Thanks for the great code :)

I tried out your code using a background image and...

2010-03-22T19:29:05.368-04:00

I tried out your code using a background image and a background color and both worked fine for me. Make sure that you are setting the "DrawMode" property on the TabControl to "OwnerDrawFixed". Without this property set, the DrawItem event won't fire.

this is what's in my project currently, I'...

2010-03-22T16:05:44.495-04:00

this is what's in my project currently, I've tried other methods as well, still no success

private void tabControl1_DrawItem(object sender, DrawItemEventArgs e)
{
DrawTabControlTabs(tabControl1, e, null);
}

private void DrawTabControlTabs(TabControl tabControl, DrawItemEventArgs e, ImageList images)
{
// Get the bounding end of tab strip rectangles.
Rectangle tabstripEndRect = tabControl.GetTabRect(tabControl.TabPages.Count - 1);
RectangleF tabstripEndRectF = new RectangleF(tabstripEndRect.X + tabstripEndRect.Width, tabstripEndRect.Y - 5,
tabControl.Width - (tabstripEndRect.X + tabstripEndRect.Width), tabstripEndRect.Height + 5);

// First, do the end of the tab strip.
// If we have an image use it.
if (tabControl.Parent.BackgroundImage != null)
{
RectangleF src = new RectangleF(tabstripEndRectF.X + tabControl.Left, tabstripEndRectF.Y + tabControl.Top, tabstripEndRectF.Width, tabstripEndRectF.Height);
e.Graphics.DrawImage(tabControl.Parent.BackgroundImage, tabstripEndRectF, src, GraphicsUnit.Pixel);
}
// If we have no image, use the background color.
else
{
using (Brush backBrush = new SolidBrush(tabControl.Parent.BackColor))
{
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(backBrush, tabstripEndRectF);
}
}

// Set up the page and the various pieces.
TabPage page = tabControl.TabPages[e.Index];
Brush BackBrush = new SolidBrush(page.BackColor);
Brush ForeBrush = new SolidBrush(page.ForeColor);
string TabName = page.Text;

// Set up the offset for an icon, the bounding rectangle and image size and then fill the background.
int iconOffset = 0;
Rectangle tabBackgroundRect = e.Bounds;
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(BackBrush, tabBackgroundRect);

// If we have images, process them.
if (images != null)
{
// Get sice and image.
Size size = images.ImageSize;
Image icon = null;
if (page.ImageIndex > -1)
icon = images.Images[page.ImageIndex];
else if (page.ImageKey != "")
icon = images.Images[page.ImageKey];

// If there is an image, use it.
if (icon != null)
{
Point startPoint = new Point(tabBackgroundRect.X + 2 + ((tabBackgroundRect.Height - size.Height) / 2),
tabBackgroundRect.Y + 2 + ((tabBackgroundRect.Height - size.Height) / 2));
e.Graphics.DrawImage(icon, new Rectangle(startPoint, size));
iconOffset = size.Width + 4;
}
}

// Draw out the label.
Rectangle labelRect = new Rectangle(tabBackgroundRect.X + iconOffset, tabBackgroundRect.Y + 3,
tabBackgroundRect.Width - iconOffset, tabBackgroundRect.Height - 3);
StringFormat sf = new StringFormat();
sf.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center;
e.Graphics.DrawString(TabName, e.Font, ForeBrush, labelRect, sf);

//Dispose objects
sf.Dispose();
BackBrush.Dispose();
ForeBrush.Dispose();
}

If you want to post your code I'll take a look...

2010-03-19T07:46:59.423-04:00

If you want to post your code I'll take a look.

For some reason I can't draw over the tabcontr...

2010-03-18T23:23:46.462-04:00

For some reason I can't draw over the tabcontrol (neither color nor image). I've put your method in tabControl1_DrawItem method (changed variables to fit the control), the code do run but nothing gets drawn that I can see...

hehe. Welcome to Microsoft's development fram...

2009-10-13T07:32:39.146-04:00

hehe. Welcome to Microsoft's development framework that is "by design". ;)

Thank you very much for providing a workaround for...

2009-10-13T06:02:16.364-04:00

Thank you very much for providing a workaround for yet another annoying Microsoft "feature". Seems every week I stumble upon a new one.. sometimes it makes me wonder if the MS staff is made up of thousands of (poorly) trained monkeys, actually. Last week, it was the fact that Labels can be set to transparent background in the IDE, but of course it won't work runtime until you realise you have to explicitly set their parents (and that TextBoxes can't be transparent at all). The most disturbing bug I've found so far though is the fact that the Calendar.GetWeekOfYear function does NOT (contrary to what its documentation states) follow the ISO standard. Oh, and the one where you HAVE to set the current culture to en-US, or your Excel automation code will break during runtime. And don't forget about the fact that MS provide all sorts of fancy localisation and culture-specific stuff and pride themselves in following standards, yet they insist on Sunday being the first day of the week in the DayOfWeek struct. >:|

Well, enough ranting. Thanks again! :)