ljlevend2 wrote:
> I've noticed that Drawing.Graphics.TextRenderingHint = ClearTypeGridFit does
> not seem to be used when StringFormat.FormatFlags = DirectionVertical. This
> is best seen by running the following example:
>
>
> Public Class Form1
> Inherits Windows.Forms.Form
>
> Protected Overrides Sub OnSizeChanged(ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
> MyBase.OnSizeChanged(e)
> Me.Invalidate()
> End Sub
>
> Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As
> System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs)
> MyBase.OnPaint(e)
>
> Const text As String = "VWXYZ"
> Dim color As Drawing.Color = color.Black
> Dim bounds1 As New Drawing.Rectangle(0, 0, (Me.ClientSize.Width \ 3),
> Me.ClientSize.Height)
> Dim bounds2 As New Drawing.Rectangle(bounds1.Right, 0, bounds1.Width,
> Me.ClientSize.Height)
> Dim bounds3 As New Drawing.Rectangle(bounds2.Right, 0, bounds1.Width,
> Me.ClientSize.Height)
> Dim font As New Drawing.Font("Arial", 12, Drawing.FontStyle.Regular,
> Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point) 'Use a font that supports ClearType.
>
> 'Technique #1: Draw directly.
> Using brush As New Drawing.SolidBrush(color)
> Dim stringFormat As New Drawing.StringFormat()
> stringFormat.Alignment = Drawing.StringAlignment.Center
> stringFormat.LineAlignment = Drawing.StringAlignment.Center
> stringFormat.FormatFlags = Drawing.StringFormatFlags.DirectionVertical
> Dim temp As Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint =
> e.Graphics.TextRenderingHint
> e.Graphics.TextRenderingHint =
> Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.ClearTypeGridFit 'Make sure that we are using
> ClearType.
> e.Graphics.DrawString(text, font, brush, bounds1, stringFormat)
> e.Graphics.TextRenderingHint = temp
> End Using
>
> 'Technique #2: Draw to an image, rotate the image and then draw the image.
> Dim imgBounds2 As New Drawing.Rectangle(0, 0, bounds2.Height,
> bounds2.Width)
> Using img As New Drawing.Bitmap(imgBounds2.Width, imgBounds2.Height,
> Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb)
> Using gImg As Drawing.Graphics = Drawing.Graphics.FromImage(img)
> gImg.TextRenderingHint =
> Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.ClearTypeGridFit 'Make sure that we are using
> ClearType.
> 'gImg.Clear(Me.BackColor)
> Using brush As New Drawing.SolidBrush(color)
> Dim stringFormat As New Drawing.StringFormat()
> stringFormat.Alignment = Drawing.StringAlignment.Center
> stringFormat.LineAlignment = Drawing.StringAlignment.Center
> gImg.DrawString(text, font, brush, imgBounds2, stringFormat)
> End Using
> End Using
> img.RotateFlip(Drawing.RotateFlipType.Rotate90FlipNone)
> e.Graphics.DrawImageUnscaled(img, bounds2.Location)
> End Using
>
> 'Technique #3: Create an image of the background, draw to the image,
> rotate the image and then draw the image.
> 'NOTE: The problem with this technique is that we often don't know what
> the background is when the text is drawn.
> Dim imgBounds3 As New Drawing.Rectangle(0, 0, bounds3.Height,
> bounds3.Width)
> Using img As New Drawing.Bitmap(imgBounds3.Width, imgBounds3.Height,
> Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb)
> Using gImg As Drawing.Graphics = Drawing.Graphics.FromImage(img)
> gImg.TextRenderingHint =
> Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.ClearTypeGridFit 'Make sure that we are using
> ClearType.
> gImg.Clear(Me.BackColor) 'This effectively draws the background.
> Using brush As New Drawing.SolidBrush(color)
> Dim stringFormat As New Drawing.StringFormat()
> stringFormat.Alignment = Drawing.StringAlignment.Center
> stringFormat.LineAlignment = Drawing.StringAlignment.Center
> gImg.DrawString(text, font, brush, imgBounds3, stringFormat)
> End Using
> End Using
> img.RotateFlip(Drawing.RotateFlipType.Rotate90FlipNone)
> e.Graphics.DrawImageUnscaled(img, bounds3.Location)
> End Using
> End Sub
> End Class
>
>
> When you show the form you will see three vertically drawn strings. The
> left string is drawn using Technique1 which is the technique that I want, but
> ClearType does not seem to be used. The middle string is drawn using
> Technique2 which is to draw horizontally to a bitmap and then rotate the
> bitmap. Technique2 would also be acceptable except that the resulting text
> looks poor. The right string is drawn using Technique3 which is the same as
> Technique2 except that the background of the control is drawn to the bitmap
> first. The text looks good when Technique3 is used, but the technique
> requires us to know what the background should look like which is often
> difficult or impossible to determine.
>
> A good example of when it would be difficult to implement Technique3 is if
> we inherit from Windows.Forms.ToolStripProfessionalRenderer in order to
> custom draw menu items. That class provides the OnRenderMenuItemBackground
> and OnRenderItemText for drawing the background and text, respectively.
> Drawing text in OnRenderMenuItemBackground would be difficult because the
> TextRectangle is not specified to that method. On the otherhand, drawing the
> background in OnRenderItemText might cause problems because there is the
> chance that we would draw over the image (if OnRenderItemText is called after
> OnRenderItemImage).
>
> So, what I am looking for is a way to have vertically drawn text use
> ClearType without any knowledge of what the background should look like.
>
> Thanks for any help!
> Lance