How to: Change Cell Font and Background Color

• Sep 19, 2019
• 2 minutes to read

You can change cell font color and cell background.

To specify these attributes for an individual cell, modify the Cell object’s Formatting.Font and Formatting.Fill properties, which are inherited form the Formatting interface.

To change color characteristics for a range of cells, call the CellRange.BeginUpdateFormatting method for this range, modify the Font and Fill properties of the returned Formatting object and call the CellRange.EndUpdateFormatting method to finalize the modification.

• Cell Font Color

  The Formatting.Font property returns the SpreadsheetFont object. Set this object’s SpreadsheetFont.Color property to the required Color value to change cell font color.

• Cell Background

  The Formatting.Fill property returns the Fill object. Use the following properties of this object to set cell background.

  • Fill.BackgroundColor - sets the cell background color. It is also available via the CellRange.FillColor property of the cell or cell range object.
  • Fill.PatternType - sets the type of cell background pattern. The available pattern types are accessed via the PatternType enumeration members.
  • Fill.PatternColor - sets the shading color for a cell.

To share font color and background settings with multiple cells in a single step, create or modify a style with the Formatting.Font and Formatting.Fill properties specified as required, and assign this style to CellRange.Style for the desired cells.

The following example specifies font and background colors for an individual cell and cell range:

View Example: WinForms Spreadsheet API

FormattingActions.cs

using DevExpress.Spreadsheet;
using System.Drawing;
// ...

// Format an individual cell.
worksheet.Cells["A1"].Font.Color = Color.Red;
worksheet.Cells["A1"].FillColor = Color.Yellow;

// Format a cell range.
CellRange range = worksheet.Range["C3:D4"];
Formatting rangeFormatting = range.BeginUpdateFormatting();
rangeFormatting.Font.Color = Color.Blue;
rangeFormatting.Fill.BackgroundColor = Color.LightBlue;
rangeFormatting.Fill.PatternType = PatternType.LightHorizontal;
rangeFormatting.Fill.PatternColor = Color.Violet;
range.EndUpdateFormatting(rangeFormatting);

FormattingActions.vb

Imports DevExpress.Spreadsheet
Imports System.Drawing
' ...

' Format an individual cell.
worksheet.Cells("A1").Font.Color = Color.Red
worksheet.Cells("A1").FillColor = Color.Yellow

' Format a cell range.
Dim range As CellRange = worksheet.Range("C3:D4")
Dim rangeFormatting As Formatting = range.BeginUpdateFormatting()
rangeFormatting.Font.Color = Color.Blue
rangeFormatting.Fill.BackgroundColor = Color.LightBlue
rangeFormatting.Fill.PatternType = PatternType.LightHorizontal
rangeFormatting.Fill.PatternColor = Color.Violet
range.EndUpdateFormatting(rangeFormatting)

The image below shows colored cells (the workbook is opened in Microsoft® Excel®).