Is it possible to draw a custom shaped window in Qt which inherits color and transparency (glass) effects from current system theme. Ultimately I need it to look & feel just like user's taskbar adjusting to his theme. Like in this concept. I realize that it might not be possible to achieve such perfect integration, but at least make a custom shaped background which look the same as the taskbar (glass look&feel) I believe is achievable.
Partially it is answered in similar questoin - Displaying translucent / irregular-shaped windows with Qt. But still not sure how to read system theme information and apply it to QPainter.
The tricky part is that slope on the left. I'd wager you could get a title bar on a window to be taller and have the rest of the window be 0 height so the window was entirely a title bar but that slope would require rendering functions that just won't exist on Windows.
Also, you're wanting your window hide the taskbar's bevel under where your window appears. That will probably not be possible either as your window will be semi-transparent so it won't be able to block the rendered bevel of the normal taskbar.
Sorry. Might have to go back to the drawing board on your design.
Related
We need to overlay a target window with a custom shape and tracks the position of the target window such that the overlay drawing always appears above it. Also, the overlay drawing should appear in screenshots taken using BitBlt or PrintClient by screen-capturing tools like Camtasia, Debut, etc. Also, moving the target window around should not leave traces of the drawing at earlier location. The target window is not made using our code.
So far we've tried several ways but each method has its problems:
1) Layered Window:
Using a layered window as the child/owned window of the target window is the easiest thing and it works. But the problem is on Windows 7 and XP, layered windows do not appear in a BitBlt done without the CAPTUREBLT flag and the screen-capturing tools may call BitBlt without the flag, thereby skipping our window from the capture.
2) Region Window:
The crude approach to support all Windows versions then is to use a region window using SetWindowRgn and make the target window its owner. However, region windows are generally very slow in rendering complex shapes and also impact the performance of other windows, sometimes to the point of freezing the application. Region window also leaves traces on dragging the application window.
3) Subclassing and Drawing on HDC:
Another approach is to sub-class the target window and draw the shape on its HDC on the OnPaint() event inside the window procedure hook. The shape can be drawn on the desktop window instead too. The problem is that applications may draw without a paint event, like when some text is selected using the cursor, and such drawing may erase a part of the custom drawing. Tracking all possible paint events is not a good way to do this.
4) Drawing continuously in a timer:
The last resort is to draw the custom shape on the target window in a timer continuously so the drawing is always above the target, even on text selection. But this may show a bit of flicker when the text is selected. Not to mention, it is very performance heavy to draw constantly.
Question
What is the best way to achieve an overlay drawing which works on all Windows versions (since XP) at the same time appearing in screen-captures. We've exhausted all approaches. Is there some method I'm missing? Can the above mentioned ways be used with some improvement? Is DirectX an option? I'm looking for methods with fast rendering capacity to achieve this. Appreciate any help!
I think the best solution to draw an overlay window, is to use a double-buffered technique GDI, just like in this example:
Overlay Drawing in CScrollView
I have myself the same task, and the only solution was that one. Hope it help you.
I made a flyout window in the notification area using WinAPI and my goal was to make it similar to the flyout windows that show up when you click some of the icons in the notification area, like the Volume icon.
I already succeeded in making it look and behave similar to the other ones, but there is one thing I can't seem to figure out. The link area of the flyout windows has a darker blueish background and there is a subtle difference in the look between Windows 7 and Windows 8. A picture of it in Windows 7 can be seen here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa511448.aspx#flyouts
I achieved this by painting this link area of my flyout window manually in the right colors (including the gradient at the topmost part of the section) using the WM_PAINT message, but I just feel like it's too much of a hack, especially because it's not affected by changing themes in Windows. For example, if I set the "Windows Classic" theme this area should be grey and not blue.
So, my question is, am I missing something in how this can be achieved without painting the window manually. I noticed that the details pane in Explorer windows in Win 7 has the same look. I've searched quite a bit for answers but I haven't found anything yet. This is my first time doing a GUI using the WinAPI so I have very little experience, and therefore I'm assuming there is something that I just don't know about.
UPDATE:
I did manage to figure out how to draw this area without painting it manually. It can be drawn by using the OpenThemeData and DrawThemeBackground functions
HTHEME aeroTheme = OpenThemeData(hWnd, L"FLYOUT");
DrawThemeBackground(aeroTheme, hdc, FLYOUT_LINKAREA, 0, &rect, &rect);
This obviously only works when themes are enabled, so for non-themed cases I draw a normal rectangle with the appropriate color.
I'm not an expert in WinAPI so I can't offer any advice on achieving the look you want without manual painting.
However, if you're successfully achieving the appearance for a particular color theme, I'd suggest you look at the GetSysColor function and use this when creating your brushes for painting. This should allow you to get the correct colors based on the theme that has been set. More info (including a swatch table) can be found here.
Hope this helps.
The context menu from dock items is not only translucent but also blurs the contents behind it, Is this effect availible for translucent floating panels? This is the same effect used in Sheet Alert dialogs (e.g. quit with unsaved changes) but in that case the transparency is different, and the background is light rather than dark
Some background, we have a pro app that is frequently used full screen, and our floating palettes have some transparency, but obviously the more transparency we have the harder it is to read the text on them when the background is very active/noisy, if we could have a slight blur we would be able to greatly improve the readability on the text while still allowing some context of "whats behind the palette"
I think this is what you want: Using Core Image Filters On/Under a NSWindow
Beware that this is private API though, so if you're developing for the Mac App Store, this would be a problem.
I want to build a custom control that would work like this:
You have a kind of NSButton with an image.
You click the button and than appears a big square with a grid of photos.
You click one of the photos and it is set up as new image for the button. (square dissapears)
Now, how to draw this big square with photos if I want it not to be limited to window frame?
I mean, if the button was close to window border the square is going to be partially outside window. I would also like to add some shadow to the square and an animation for opening/closing.
One important thing: I want to be able to draw not only a square but any other simple shape (circle)!
This isn't really a drawing question so much as a general custom views question. It's important to make that distinction.
I'll describe this in terms of rectangles to give you the general idea*. You should make sure you understand the view hierarchy and view geometry in Cocoa. Without this important requisite knowledge, you'll remain dead in the water.
It's easy to set an NSButton's image, so I'll leave that to you. Your button's action, however, would tell some controller to show the "image picker" for the given button. Your image picker would be some type of borderless window with an image list inside. The image picker could be an IKImageBrowserView (you'll have to enable Image Kit in Interface Builder for this control to appear), which gives you an iPhoto-like grid of images (with/without titles, different border types, etc.).
An explanation of the operation of this controller and how it creates the window, manages the selection, and sets the button's image is very broad so if you get hung up on any of those steps, you'll need to create a separate question for each problem, otherwise this answer would have to be an instruction manual for writing your app for you.
* Your problem is a little more difficult because of your desire to have differently-shaped "popup windows" ... you'd have to make sure your available photos fit neatly within the shape so none of them are cut off. Armed with the basic knowledge of view geometry, I'll leave this to you as an exercise. A hint: you can use a borderless, transparent window to host a view that draws itself in any shape you please.
I'm using a VB6 PictureBox on my User Control. I set the PictureBox's picture, I set the BorderStyle to 0, and I set the BackColor to the User Control's BackColor. The idea is that I want a "floating" icon. However, I want that icon to appear clickable when the mouse hovers over it.
Two questions:
Which events do I use? MouseMove seems to be the closest to a "MouseOver" event. Are there any cleaner alternatives?
How should I change the style? I've tried a few things, but none of them quite look right.
MouseMove is the correct event in VB6. You'll have to do some work to manually detect when the mouse leaves the client area cleanly. (My experiments in this world, lo those many years ago, always found implementing this behavior to be tricky.)
For changing the style, I'd recommend using GDI to: (a) shift the image one pixel up and to the left; (b) draw a single pixel line in the ButtonHighlightColor along the top and left edges; and (c) draw a single pixel line in the ButtonShadowColor along the bottom and right edges. This is trickier than it sounds, particularly in VB6, so ultimately I'd recommend ...
That you look at vbAccelerator's toolbar controls. They're free, and they'll probably get you most of where you want to be. (And yes, they're "classic" VB -- that is, VB6.)