How to place a transparent picture box above a web browser control - vb.net

I want a webbrowser control on the background and a picturebox above it where I can draw and then it will appear above the webbrowser control. It's like I am writing on some paper which already has something written on it. I have placed a webbrowser control and a picture box above it both with same dimensions.
I know similar question has been asked a lot of time on this website in different forms but none of the solutions mentioned are working for me.
The solutions mentioned are usually for picturebox over picturebox not picturebox over webbrowser control. simply putting webbrowser control instead of picture does not work. Here is the code I used. The square that should have been formed was not formed.
Public Class Form1
Dim BMP As New Drawing.Bitmap(640, 480)
Dim GFX As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(BMP)
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
PictureBox1.Controls.Add(WebBrowser1)
PictureBox1.Location = New Point(0, 0)
PictureBox1.BackColor = Color.Transparent
Dim blackPen As New Pen(Color.Black, 3)
Dim point1 As New Point(100, 100)
Dim point2 As New Point(100, 200)
Dim point3 As New Point(200, 200)
Dim point4 As New Point(200, 100)
Dim curvePoints As Point() = {point1, point2, point3, point4}
GFX.FillRectangle(Brushes.White, 0, 0, PictureBox1.Width, PictureBox1.Height)
GFX.DrawPolygon(blackPen, curvePoints)
PictureBox1.Image = BMP
End Sub
End Class
It did not work the other way around either, I mean drawing first and than making the picturebox transparent.

Related

Circular Hitbox in Visual Basic WinForm

How can I change the hitbox of a PictureBox where the image is circular? By hitbox, I mean where the ClickEvent registers.
You can use the Control.Region property, to create a Region using a circular GraphicsPath. This Region is used for the Click event, as well as the MouseEnter, MouseHover, and MouseLeave events.
Example with a PictureBox:
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim path As New Drawing2D.GraphicsPath()
path.AddArc(0, 0, PictureBox1.Width, PictureBox1.Height, 0, 360) 'A circle at 0,0 relative to the PictureBox, sharing its Width and Height
PictureBox1.Region = New Region(path)
End Sub
If you want a circle in the middle (instead of an oval), then use something like:
Dim path As New Drawing2D.GraphicsPath()
Dim radius As Integer = Math.Min(PictureBox1.Width - 1, PictureBox1.Height - 1) / 2
Dim rc As New Rectangle(New Point(PictureBox1.Width / 2, PictureBox1.Height / 2), New Size(1, 1))
rc.Inflate(radius, radius)
path.AddEllipse(rc)
PictureBox1.Region = New Region(path)

Tabcontrol and Text Placement using VB.net Form

I am trying to build out an application that has tabs on the left, but I want the text to be horizontal and not vertical. I have seen many forum posts for WPF and C#, but nothing specific to VB.net.
Is there a specific property I can use to have the text change from vertical to horizontal? How do I implement this type of change? I know this seems novice like to be asking, but I feel I have hit a brick wall. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I was able to find the following on the .Net Resource page for Microsoft.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/winforms/controls/how-to-display-side-aligned-tabs-with-tabcontrol
The only item I now want to be able to do is add in padding to the text so that its not right against the dialog box. If anyone has any ideas, please advise.
Private Sub TabControl1_DrawItem(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DrawItemEventArgs) Handles TabControl1.DrawItem
Dim g As Graphics = e.Graphics
Dim _TextBrush As Brush
' Get the item from the collection.
Dim _TabPage As TabPage = TabControl1.TabPages(e.Index)
' Get the real bounds for the tab rectangle.
Dim _TabBounds As Rectangle = TabControl1.GetTabRect(e.Index)
If (e.State = DrawItemState.Selected) Then
' Draw a different background color, and don't paint a focus rectangle.
_TextBrush = New SolidBrush(Color.Red)
g.FillRectangle(Brushes.Gray, e.Bounds)
Else
_TextBrush = New System.Drawing.SolidBrush(e.ForeColor)
e.DrawBackground()
End If
' Use our own font.
Dim _TabFont As New Font("Arial", 10.0, FontStyle.Bold, GraphicsUnit.Pixel)
' Draw string. Center the text.
Dim _StringFlags As New StringFormat()
_StringFlags.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center
_StringFlags.LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center
g.DrawString(_TabPage.Text, _TabFont, _TextBrush, _TabBounds, New StringFormat(_StringFlags))
End Sub

My code only works when I insert a random MsgBox

I've encountered a very bizarre problem when trying to get a screenshot of a TableLayoutPanel in my form.
I have this code (taken from another question (How to get a screenshot, only for a picturebox); code courtesy of user "Chase Rocker"):
Dim s As Size = TableLayoutPanel1.Size
Dim memoryImage = New Bitmap(s.Width, s.Height)
Dim memoryGraphics As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(memoryImage)
Dim ScreenPos As Point = Me.TableLayoutPanel1.PointToScreen(New Point(0, 0))
memoryGraphics.CopyFromScreen(ScreenPos.X, ScreenPos.Y, 0, 0, s)
Form3.PictureBox1.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.AutoSize
Form3.PictureBox1.BringToFront()
Form3.PictureBox1.Image = memoryImage
Now, here comes my problem. This code gives me a blank picture. It takes the screenshot apparently, but all I can see is white. Now, I was trying to see if the size was correct, so I was messing with MsgBox. I add this line to the code:
MsgBox("Random Message")
Getting
Dim s As Size = TableLayoutPanel1.Size
MsgBox("Random Message")
Dim memoryImage = New Bitmap(s.Width, s.Height)
Dim memoryGraphics As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(memoryImage)
Dim ScreenPos As Point = Me.TableLayoutPanel1.PointToScreen(New Point(0, 0))
memoryGraphics.CopyFromScreen(ScreenPos.X, ScreenPos.Y, 0, 0, s)
Form3.PictureBox1.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.AutoSize
Form3.PictureBox1.BringToFront()
Form3.PictureBox1.Image = memoryImage
By some reason I don't know, the screenshot now works. I don't see white anymore, but the actual screenshot of the TableLayoutPanel. For me is very weird that the code only works with a MsgBox. Maybe I'm missing something. Does anyone know why this happens? Thank you!
How about if you try to make the TableLayoutPanel draw itself to a bitmap instead? This can be done using the Control.DrawToBitmap() method.
Dim s As Size = TableLayoutPanel1.Size
Dim memoryImage As New Bitmap(s.Width, s.Height)
TableLayoutPanel1.DrawToBitmap(memoryImage, New Rectangle(New Point(0, 0), s))
Form3.PictureBox1.Image = memoryImage
If the TableLayoutPanel fill happens in the same event handler where you grab the image then Windows has not draw the UI for the elements added to the TableLayoutPanel. Only when you exit from the event handler, the winforms engine has the opportunity to draw everything.
Adding a MessageBox changes everything because calling Show (a modal call that interrupts your code and pass control back to window) allows the Winform engine to draw the pending updates and your code works.
You can add a Timer control and put the code that execute the ScreenShoot in the Timer event.
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
......
' code that fills the TableLayoutPanel
......
Dim tim1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer()
tim1.Interval = 1
AddHandler tim1.Tick, AddressOf tim1Ticked
tim1.Start()
End Sub
Private Sub tim1Ticked(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
......
' Code that execute the screenshoot.
......
Dim t = DirectCast(sender, System.Windows.Forms.Timer)
t.Stop()
End Sub

Capture Image of Entire Panel Control In Vb.net

I have added some richtextboxes and some picture boxes in a panel control with scrolling option enabled. I want to capture image of Panel control along with all its child controls. I tried various solutions available on net but still not able to find perfect solution to do my job. The best one available (which dose not capture what is off the scroll bars) is given below. Please help me to do this.
Dim bmp As New Bitmap(Panel1.Width, Panel1.Height)
Using gr As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)
gr.CopyFromScreen(Panel1.PointToScreen(Point.Empty), Point.Empty, Panel1.Size)
End Using
Private Function TakeScreenShot(ByVal Control As Control) As Bitmap
Dim tmpImg As New Bitmap(Control.Width, Control.Height)
Using g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(tmpImg)
G.CopyFromScreen(Panel1.PointToScreen(New Point(0, 0)), New Point(0, 0), New Size(Panel1.Width, Panel1.Height))
End Using
Return tmpImg
End Function
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
TakeScreenShot(Panel1).Save("D:\Screenshot.png", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png)
End Sub

High Quality Full Screenshots VB.Net

I'm trying to add a feature to my program to take a full screenshot of the users screen when they click a button. I got the program to take the screenshot and open a file dialog box to save it, the saving works. The issue is that no matter how I save the screenshot, the saved image has significant quality loss and pixelates around text and stuff. This is a massive issue because I need the image to save exactly as it is seen on the users screen, I cannot have ANY quality loss at all. I tried to save the image as a jpg and a png and both gave me quality loss. I was wondering if anyone could point me towards some code or a method that would allow me to save the screenshots at the same quality as the users screen. I would like to save the image as a JPG or a PNG if possible. Any help would greatly be appreciated!
Get the image in Bitmap format and save it as bmp.
Private Function TakeScreenShot() As Bitmap
Dim screenSize As Size = New Size(My.Computer.Screen.Bounds.Width, My.Computer.Screen.Bounds.Height)
Dim screenGrab As New Bitmap(My.Computer.Screen.Bounds.Width, My.Computer.Screen.Bounds.Height)
Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(screenGrab)
g.CopyFromScreen(New Point(0, 0), New Point(0, 0), screenSize)
Return screenGrab
End Function
For starters, JPEG images use a lossy compression algorithm so you tend to lose quality when you save in that format. It is preferable to save as Bitmap (BMP), which is uncompressed, or PNG, which uses a lossless compression.
Here is code to copy the working area of the screen to a PNG Image.
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
'the working area excludes all docked toolbars like taskbar, etc.
Dim currentScreen = Screen.FromHandle(Me.Handle).WorkingArea
'create a bitmap of the working area
Using bmp As New Bitmap(currentScreen.Width, currentScreen.Height)
'copy the screen to the image
Using g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)
g.CopyFromScreen(New Point(0, 0), New Point(0, 0), currentScreen.Size)
End Using
'save the image
Using sfd As New SaveFileDialog() With {.Filter = "PNG Image|*.png",
.InitialDirectory = My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.Desktop}
If sfd.ShowDialog() = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
bmp.Save(sfd.FileName, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png)
End If
End Using
End Using
End Sub
.Net usually saves the file in 96dpi, so using following code you can save the file in higher resolution with Jpeg or other format.
'Create a new bitmap
Using Bmp As New Bitmap(800, 1000, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppPArgb)
'Set the resolution to 300 DPI
Bmp.SetResolution(300, 300)
'Create a graphics object from the bitmap
Using G = Graphics.FromImage(Bmp)
'Paint the canvas white
G.Clear(Color.White)
'Set various modes to higher quality
G.InterpolationMode = Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic
G.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias
G.TextRenderingHint = Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.AntiAlias
'Create a font
Using F As New Font("Arial", 12)
'Create a brush
Using B As New SolidBrush(Color.Black)
'Draw some text
G.DrawString("Hello world", F, B, 20, 20)
End Using
End Using
End Using
'Save the file as a TIFF
Bmp.Save("c:\\test.Jpeg", Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
End Using
I've found that adding 3 lines to the above code significantly improves the quality of the image
var graphics = Graphics.FromImage(theRequestedAllocatedImage);
graphics.CompositingQuality = CompositingQuality.HighQuality;
graphics.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;
graphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.HighQuality;
// Then call
graphics.CopyFromScreen(..)
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim screenSize As Size = New Size(My.Computer.Screen.Bounds.Width, My.Computer.Screen.Bounds.Height)
Dim screenGrab As New Bitmap(My.Computer.Screen.Bounds.Width, My.Computer.Screen.Bounds.Height)
Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(screenGrab)
g.CopyFromScreen(New Point(0, 0), New Point(0, 0), screenSize)
PictureBox1.Image = screenGrab
PictureBox1.Image.Save("c:\picture.bmp")
End Sub