How to: Custom Paint the Control's Background

• Aug 01, 2019
• 2 minutes to read

The following sample code handles the NavBarControl.CustomDrawBackground event to fill the XtraNavBarControl’s background with a linear gradient brush and draw a string at the bottom.

The image below shows the result.

C#

using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
using DevExpress.XtraNavBar.ViewInfo;

private void navBarControl1_CustomDrawBackground(object sender, CustomDrawObjectEventArgs e) {

   Rectangle rect = e.RealBounds;
   Graphics gr = e.ObjectInfo.Graphics;

   // creating a brush and filling the background with it
   LinearGradientBrush backBrush = new LinearGradientBrush(rect, Color.Pink, 
     Color.LightSkyBlue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal);
   gr.FillRectangle(backBrush, rect);

   // creating a new font for the string
   Font stringFont = new Font("Verdana", 8);
   // creating a brush used to draw the string
   LinearGradientBrush stringBrush = new LinearGradientBrush(rect, Color.Blue, 
     Color.Red, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal);
   // calculating string rectangle 
   int stringHeight = Convert.ToInt16(gr.MeasureString("www.devexpress.com", 
     stringFont).Height);
   Rectangle stringRect = new Rectangle(rect.Left, rect.Bottom - stringHeight, 
     rect.Width, stringHeight);
   // formatting string output
   StringFormat outStringFormat = new StringFormat();
   outStringFormat.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center;

   // drawing the string
   gr.DrawString("www.devexpress.com", stringFont, stringBrush, stringRect, outStringFormat);

   // prohibiting default background painting
   e.Handled = true; 
}

VB.NET

Imports System.Drawing.Drawing2D
Imports DevExpress.XtraNavBar.ViewInfo

Private Sub NavBarControl1_CustomDrawBackground(ByVal sender As Object, _
  ByVal e As CustomDrawObjectEventArgs) Handles NavBarControl1.CustomDrawBackground

   Dim Rect As Rectangle = e.RealBounds
   Dim Gr As Graphics = e.ObjectInfo.Graphics

   ' creating a brush and filling the background with it
   Dim BackBrush As New LinearGradientBrush(Rect, Color.Pink, Color.LightSkyBlue, _
     LinearGradientMode.Horizontal)
   Gr.FillRectangle(BackBrush, Rect)

   ' creating a new font for the string
   Dim StringFont As New Font("Verdana", 8)
   ' creating a brush used to draw the string
   Dim StringBrush As New LinearGradientBrush(Rect, Color.Blue, Color.Red, _
     LinearGradientMode.Horizontal)
   ' calculating string rectangle 
   Dim StringHeight = Gr.MeasureString("www.devexpress.com", StringFont).Height
   Dim StringRect As New RectangleF(Rect.Left, Rect.Bottom - StringHeight, Rect.Width, _
     StringHeight)
   ' formatting string output
   Dim OutStringFormat As New StringFormat()
   OutStringFormat.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center

   ' drawing the string
   Gr.DrawString("www.devexpress.com", StringFont, StringBrush, StringRect, OutStringFormat)

   ' prohibiting default background painting
   e.Handled = True
End Sub