DrawToBitmap makes a blurry image - vb.net

I am using GDI+ to draw the initial image on PictureBox - which renders a clean image. I am trying to then capture that drawing and draw it on a PDF using PDFSharp which works, but comes out blurry. I am sure it has something to do with the fact I have changed the destination Rectangle's size. What do i need to do to clean it up?
Code:
Dim bmp As New Bitmap(pb.Width, pb.Height)
Dim pdf As New PdfDocument
Dim page As PdfPage = pdf.AddPage
Dim g As XGraphics = XGraphics.FromPdfPage(page)
pb.DrawToBitmap(bmp, New Rectangle(pb.ClientRectangle.X, pb.ClientRectangle.Y, pb.Width, pb.Height + 20))
g.SmoothingMode = XSmoothingMode.AntiAlias
g.DrawImage(bmp, New XRect(New RectangleF(20, 0, 600, 800)))
pdf.Save(_path)

It's the anti-aliasing that makes images blurry.
AFAIK Adobe Reader draws images with anti-aliasing when used with PDFsharp.
With PDFsharp create an XImage from your BMP and then set
image.Interpolate = false;
for that XImage. This will give a hint to Adobe Reader that anti-aliasing is not wanted for that image.
With respect to screen shots, anti-aliasing is useful when scaling down (e.g. when taking a 400x300 bitmap from an 800x600 screen), but not when scaling up (like Adobe Reader will do with images embedded in PDF files).
See also:
http://forum.pdfsharp.net/viewtopic.php?p=5370#p5370

If you scale an image up, it will come out blurred. There is no other way since there are no additional information in the image and it will just be interpolated in some way. There is no "Zoom in and ENHANCE"-button. :-)
What I did in one of my programs where I wanted to save a controls current look to a file, was to first scale the control to the desired size, then draw it to the bitmap, then resize it down again.
If this works depends on the content of the control of course, wether it's scalable or not and so on.
e.g.
In the example below I have a Chart control that I work with in my export dialog called workingChart.
The steps that are used are:
Save old size
Resize chart to the desired size
Draw control to bitmap
Resize chart back to the old size
This works well and the image comes out crisp, since you do not resize the image itself.
Private Function GetChartScaledImage(wantsize As Size) As Bitmap
Dim oldsize As Size = workingChart.Size
Dim bmp As New Bitmap(wantsize.Width, wantsize.Height)
workingChart.Size = wantsize
workingChart.DrawToBitmap(bmp, New Rectangle(0, 0, wantsize.Width, wantsize.Height))
workingChart.Size = oldsize
Return bmp
End Function

Related

Display a Bitmap in OpenGL

I am trying to display a bitmap image to an OpenGL control called GL (I am using SharpGL as the wrapper). In practice, a text string is written to a GDI+ Picture box from which the Bitmap is obtained.
The GLBitmap function requires a Byte() array as input; I convert the Bitmap to a Byte() array. Does not seem to work as I get a bunch of dots on screen. I have also saved the PictureBox image to a Bmp file on disk and cross-checked that it had the desired content. So, the Bmp image does not appear to be the issue here.
Actual OpenGL display
Bmp file created from the code below
Wondering what I am doing wrong. Anybody would have a suggestion ? Thanks in advance.
The VB.Net code appears below.
' Create Bitmap & Graphics context for string
'
' iWidth and iHeight are the dimensions of the bitmap;
' they are a power of 2.
Dim SharpBMap As Bitmap = New Bitmap(iWidth, iHeight)
Dim SharpGraf As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(SharpBMap)
' Draw text string to SharpGraf PictureBox
'
SharpGraf.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.HighQuality
SharpGraf.Clear(Color.White)
SharpGraf.DrawString(TxtStr, CurrFont, CurrBrush, 0, 0, CurrFormat)
' OutSharpGL is the Picture box to which the text string is sent
OutSharpGL.Image = SharpBMap
' Save the bitmap to disk: when the file is viewed, the image is Ok.
SharpBMap.Save(FilNameStr)
' Set the color
Gl.Color(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f)
' Set the Raster position
Gl.RasterPos(0, 0)
' Transfer the Bitmap
Gl.Bitmap(iWidth, iHeight, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, BitmapToByte(SharpBMap))
' Function to convert a Bitmap to a Byte() array
Friend Function BitmapToByte(ByRef Bmp As Bitmap) As Byte()
Dim converter As New ImageConverter()
Return DirectCast(converter.ConvertTo(Bmp, GetType(Byte())), Byte())
End Function
OpenGL requires raw pixel data ... BMP has encoding ...
In order to make this work you need to extract the raw pixel data from your BMP. That might be a bit too much to do correctly as there are a lot of format configurations out there ...
So make sure you change your bitmap to format that is easily handled like:
uncompressed
24 or 32 bpp
Now bitmap has a BMP header at its start describing the file is BMP and stuff like resolution, encoding, organization etc ... The header also usually holds the start address of the pixels... So extract that and pass the RAW pixels to your GL texture...
Beware BMP pixels are aligned on ScanLine basis so each line of image has some gap BYTE to align to certain multiple of size (usually 1..4 Bytes) you need to skip it and then process another line. Here related QA (but solved easily by VCL which is not your case)
How to get a pixel array from TBitmap?
However you need to do this on your own so you need:
dive into BMP fileformat
obtain resolution and pixel data start address from the header
construct your raw pixel data by copying the lines into yours memory array
skipping header and the align bytes
pass that as OpenGL texture
its faster to pass whole image than do it on per line basis. Beware you need to set the pixel format so it matches your raw data copied from bmp. So bpp must match and also the R,G,B order.
render textured quad
btw. much easier would be to print the texts directly in OpenGl. There are libs for that like FreeType but you can use textures instead like this:
GLSL debug prints
Of coarse CPU side GL text rendering using such texture is much easier than in GLSL. You just handle the texture as Texture Atlas where the Texture coordinates are computed from ASCII code and Texture font organisation.

MigraDoc Rotate Image (vb.net)

I am trying to create a PDF using MigraDoc Library. I can add an image, but unable to rotate images. I am creating a MigraDoc.DocumentObjectModel.Shapes.Image object to add the image to a section. Is it possible to rotate the image or do I have to add the image another way?
Public Sub AddImageToPDFFile(sec As Section)
Dim image As Image
Dim strImagePath = "image.jpg"
image = sec.AddImage(strImagePath)
image.Height = "10cm"
image.LockAspectRatio = True
image.RelativeVertical = RelativeVertical.Line
image.RelativeHorizontal = RelativeHorizontal.Margin
image.Top = ShapePosition.Top
image.Left = ShapePosition.Left
image.WrapFormat.Style = WrapStyle.Through
End Sub
I'm afraid MigraDoc cannot rotate the image.
Maybe rotate the image with code before adding it to MigraDoc.
It might also be possible, depending on your requirements, to add the image later using PDFsharp. MigraDoc uses PDFsharp to create the PDF and thus you can use PDFsharp for modifications without adding an additional tool to the process.

VB.NET Textboxes come out fuzzy upon converting to a Bitmap image

My application acts as a document template with textboxes for users to fill in. Once they've completed, they can "print" the document to a PDF using PDFsharp. This is done by converting the panel on which the textboxes are on to a bitmap image using the code below;
ConditionReportConfig.PG1.Panel2.DrawToBitmap(Bitmap, New Rectangle(0, 0, Bitmap.Width, Bitmap.Height))
frm_MsgPrint.lbl_Page.Text = "Page: 1" : frm_MsgPrint.lbl_Page.Refresh()
frm_MsgPrint.PictureBox1.Image = Bitmap
frm_MsgPrint.PictureBox1.Refresh()
BXImage = Bitmap
GFX.ScaleTransform(0.82)
GFX.DrawImage(BXImage, 25, 0)
GFX.Dispose()
CDR1 = Nothing
Unfortunately, when the PDF pops up with the image the entire image, more so the text in the textboxes, are fuzzy. They aren't fuzzy to the point you can't read, but they do make reading the text incredibly stressful on your eyes.
I've tried adding various settings in such as;
Dim Bitmap2 = New Bitmap(894, 1367)
Using G As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(Bitmap2)
G.InterpolationMode = Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.Bicubic
G.DrawImage(Bitmap, 0, 0, 120, 150)
End Using
I've even tried changing the font, size, even saving the bitmap as a TIFF, PNG and it still appears fuzzy. I would change printing methods, but the whole point of the panel is to be printed. Not only that but the panel contains images so I can't just print the text on the PDF.
Edit:
I've tried changing some of the interpolation settings, and it is slightly clearer but still a strain on your eyes.
Below is a snippet of the Bitmap image as a TIFF. Notice how the text in the textboxes is "Fuzzy" but the vertical text alongside is perfect. Is there really no way of getting textbox contents to be as sharp as the vertical text?
Blurry image with crystal clear vertical text:
Create an XImage from your bitmap and set
image.Interpolate = false;
for that image. This is a hint for Adobe Reader not to smooth the image.
Also check that ClearType does not make your image blurry before adding it to the PDF.

Place a picture box inside another: VS2008

hope i can get some help here.
For a VB app, I try to place one picturebox over GDI+ drawn image (or another picturebox) in visual studio 2008, and the picturebox includes transparent areas which don't come up transparent.
I have looked through many methods but they don't suit my situation:
a background is drawn using GDI, and for my app I need a picturebox stationary upon it. (the stationary image cant be GDI+ drawn too, because the background updates every while, which causes it to disappear. tried to redraw image also but it makes an ugly flickering effect).
when i try to use picturebox as background, and assign it as parent for the overlaying image for transparency effect, the above image doesn't show at all. here is the VB code:
Dim back As PictureBox
Dim silhouetteAs PictureBox
Dim img As Bitmap = New Bitmap(imgPath)
img.MakeTransparent(Color.White)
back = New PictureBox()
silhouette= New PictureBox()
silhouette.Parent = back
silhouette.Size = New Point(width, height)
silhouette.Location = New Point(xpos, ypos)
silhouette.Image = img
silhouette.BackColor = Color.Transparent
back.Parent = MAIN
back.Size = New Point(width, height)
back.Location = New Point(xpos, ypos)
back.BackColor = Color.Blue
where back is the background and silhouette is the on-top image.
can someone please provide an example of how transparency achieved through parenting pictureboxes? or any other solution to this situation?
Never mind, found out what was wrong - when I assigned another picturebox as a parent, I didn't update the location of the overlaying picturebox relatively. the correction would be to
add:
silhouette.location=new point(0,0)
forgot that the coordinates are relative to the parent and not the form anymore.

Clear Part of Bitmap to Transparent

I am creating program with multileyered picturebox, the image of picturebox is update dynamically from bitmap in memory, and i want to clear the selected part on bitmap to transparent color so i can see image of picturebox behind it.
Here is my code
Dim gBmp As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(GraphLayer(LayerArray))
Dim TileSrcCrop As New Rectangle(nVal(xTile), nVal(yTile), TileSize, TileSize)
Dim TileDrawSize As New Rectangle(nVal(H), nVal(V), TileSize, TileSize)
gBmp.DrawImage(GraphImage(LayerArray), TileDrawSize, TileSrcCrop, GraphicsUnit.Pixel)
PicMap(LayerArray).Image = GraphLayer(LayerArray)
Thanks
What I'm about to say may only be for Windows icons, but IIRC, the top left pixel must be assigned the color that you want to designate as the color for transparency. You'll usually see MS use Magenta (255, 0, 255). This is called a transparency mask. Then, anywhere you want the color to be transparent, you use the color you placed in the top left pixel.
HTH -- and let me know if it's only for icons, but I think it's for Windows bitmap files, too.