Hello ljlevend2,

[quoted text, click to view]

I don't think there are any samples as such, but there's a guideline that
Microsoft makes available to those programmers wishing to reproduce any
part of the Office 2007 UI in their applications. This comes with a
license that you have to agree to (AFAIK there's no way around that, note
I'm not a lawyer). Of course you still have to write the code, but they
tell you pretty precisely what the result has to be.

[quoted text, click to view]

Having said all the above, if you're actually looking at an application
you're writing (as opposed to creating your own Office 2007 UI library),
you should probably use one of the 3rd party libraries that already have
all this functionality. Even the drawing code for that button alone is
pretty complex, and it won't make your application look anything like
Office 2007 without all the other elements of the Ribbon UI.

I work for Developer Express, so it may not surprise you that I would
recommend XtraBars as a 3rd party product that provides this functionality
(http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/WinForms/XtraBars/Index.xml). But
my more general recommendation is to look for any such 3rd party product
instead of writing all that code yourself.


Oliver Sturm
--

I've created a routine to draw GelDrops which you may be able to modify to
suit your needs.

The routine is VB.net and I've not translated to C# as I don't need it in
C#.

It would be nice to add a Glass distortion routine for a Background Image,
but that's something I've not tried to implement as yet.

\\\
Public Shared Sub DrawGelDrop(ByVal g As Graphics, _
ByVal bounds As RectangleF, _
ByVal colorIn As Drawing.Color, _
ByVal shadow As Boolean)

Dim scale As New SizeF(bounds.Width / 100, bounds.Height / 100)

g.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias

Dim gelPath As New Drawing2D.GraphicsPath

If shadow Then
gelPath.AddEllipse(bounds)
bounds.Width -= 3 * scale.Width
bounds.Height -= 3 * scale.Height
gelPath.AddEllipse(bounds)

Dim shadowBrush As New SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(64, Color.Black))
g.FillPath(shadowBrush, gelPath)
shadowBrush.Dispose()
Else
gelPath.AddEllipse(bounds)
End If

Dim gelBrush As New Drawing2D.PathGradientBrush(gelPath)
gelBrush.CenterPoint = New PointF(bounds.Left + (bounds.Width / 2), _
bounds.Bottom + (33 * scale.Height))
gelBrush.CenterColor = LightenColor(colorIn, 60)
gelBrush.SetSigmaBellShape(0.96)

Dim gelColor As Color = colorIn
If gelColor.GetBrightness >= 0.8 Then
gelColor = ExtendedDrawing.DarkenColor(gelColor, 16)
End If

gelBrush.SurroundColors = New Color() {gelColor}
g.FillEllipse(gelBrush, bounds)
gelBrush.Dispose()
gelPath.Dispose()

Dim hiliteBounds As RectangleF = bounds
hiliteBounds.Height -= bounds.Height / 2
hiliteBounds.Inflate(-16 * scale.Width, -3 * scale.Height)

Dim hiliteBrush As New Drawing2D.LinearGradientBrush(hiliteBounds, _
LightenColor(gelColor, 80), color.Empty, _
Drawing2D.LinearGradientMode.Vertical)

hiliteBounds.Height -= 1 * scale.Height

Dim b As New Drawing2D.Blend(2)
b.Positions = New Single() {0, 0.9, 1}
b.Factors = New Single() {0, 1, 1}
hiliteBrush.Blend = b

g.FillEllipse(hiliteBrush, hiliteBounds)
hiliteBrush.Dispose()

Dim linePen As New Pen(ExtendedDrawing.DarkenColor(colorIn, 8))
g.DrawEllipse(linePen, bounds)
linePen.Dispose()

End Sub
////

.... and the two helper methods in ExtendedDrawing which Lighten/Darken the
color whilst preserving Alpha.

\\\
Public Shared Function LightenColor(ByVal colorIn As Color, _
ByVal percent As Single) As Color
'This method returns White if you lighten by 100%
If percent < 0 OrElse percent > 100 Then
Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException("percent")
End If

Dim a, r, g, b As Int32

a = colorIn.A
r = colorIn.R + CInt(((255 - colorIn.R) / 100) * percent)
g = colorIn.G + CInt(((255 - colorIn.G) / 100) * percent)
b = colorIn.B + CInt(((255 - colorIn.B) / 100) * percent)

Return Color.FromArgb(a, r, g, b)
End Function

Public Shared Function DarkenColor(ByVal colorIn As Color, _
ByVal percent As Single) As Color
'This method returns Black if you Darken by 100%

If percent < 0 OrElse percent > 100 Then
Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException("percent")
End If

Dim a, r, g, b As Int32

a = colorIn.A
r = colorIn.R - CInt((colorIn.R / 100) * percent)
g = colorIn.G - CInt((colorIn.G / 100) * percent)
b = colorIn.B - CInt((colorIn.B / 100) * percent)

Return Color.FromArgb(a, r, g, b)
End Function
///

--
Mick Doherty
http://dotnetrix.co.uk/nothing.html


"Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]" <Jay_Harlow_MVP@tsbradley.net> wrote in
message news:008F6F33-8DA2-4BBE-9338-4D6BA4D6B8B4@microsoft.com...
[quoted text, click to view]

Thank you all so much for your feedback. I worked on it a bit and figured
out a solution that looks almost identical to the Office Button. Jay, you
were right that it requires a multi-layer approach.

Special thanks to Mick for sharing your code. That was very generous.

Best regards,
Lance