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Getting the Office 2010 button like Gradient

5.00/5 (4 votes)
17 Jun 2011CPOL 24K  
Here is how you can achieve Gradients used in Office 2010 Buttons with a glow at the bottom.
I came across a requirement to achieve a Office 2010 like gradient, if you take a closer look at the Office 2010 buttons you can see the gradient is not actually linear, it is more like a light source as in photo editors. I have raised this in an MSDN article and received a clue on achieving the solution. Here is the generic solution - a reusable office button.

public class OfficeButton : Button
  {
    public OfficeButton() : base() { }
    public Color GradientGlowColor { get; set; }
    protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs pevent)
    {
      Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(this.Width,this.Height);
      Rectangle rect = this.ClientRectangle;
      
      Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp);
      g.Clear(GradientGlowColor);
      g.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.NearestNeighbor;
      using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(this.BackColor))
      {
        g.FillRectangle(brush, rect);
      }
      rect.Inflate(-1, -1);
      rect.Width -= 1; rect.Height -= 1;
      using (Pen pen = new Pen(GradientGlowColor))
      {
        g.DrawRectangle(pen, rect);
      }
      RectangleF[] CornerDots = new RectangleF[]
        {
          new RectangleF(rect.Left + 1, rect.Top + 1, 1, 1),
          new RectangleF(rect.Right - 1, rect.Top + 1, 1, 1),
          new RectangleF(rect.Left + 1, rect.Bottom - 1, 1, 1),
          new RectangleF(rect.Right - 1, rect.Bottom - 1, 1, 1)
        };
      using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(this.GradientGlowColor))
      {
        g.FillRectangles(brush, CornerDots);
      }
      using (GraphicsPath ellipse = new GraphicsPath())
      {
        float offset = this.Width / 5;
        
        ellipse.AddEllipse(new RectangleF( - offset / 2, 0, this.Width + offset, 30));
        ellipse.Transform(new Matrix(1, 0, 0, 1, 0, (this.Height - 15)));
        using (PathGradientBrush p = new PathGradientBrush(ellipse))
        {
          p.CenterColor = this.GradientGlowColor;
          p.SurroundColors = new Color[] { Color.FromArgb(12,this.GradientGlowColor) };
          p.FocusScales = new PointF(0.6F, 0.1F);
          g.FillPath(p, ellipse);
        }
      }
      using (Pen pen = new Pen(this.BackColor))
      {
        rect = this.ClientRectangle;
        rect.Height -= 1; rect.Width -= 1;
        g.DrawRectangle(pen, rect);
      }
      pevent.Graphics.DrawImage(bmp, Point.Empty);
    }
  }


Original thread is here[^]

Posting here, therefore it may help someone who is in need.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)