WPF Pen in VB.NET

Posted in VB.NET | WPF IN VB.NET on November 07, 2019

Tags: pen in wpf, pens, xaml, Wpf

Pen was a major player to draw layouts and borders in GDI+. However, WPF graphics sub-system is redesigned and pens are merely used. But if you know the usage of pens, you may need it. This article demonstrates how to use pens in WPF using XAML and C#.

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While a brush is used to fill shapes with colors, a pen is used to draw outlines of a shape.

The Pen element in XAML is used to create a pen at design-time. The Brush and Thickness are only two required attributes you need to set to create a pen. The Brush property represents the brush that is used to draw an outline and Thickness property represents the thickness of the outline.

A Pen can be created by any kind of brushes discussed above and once a Brush is set for a pen, that brush is used to draw the outlines of a shape. The code listed in Listing 30 creates two Pen elements. First Pen is created using a SolidColorBrush and second Pen is created using a LinearGradientBrush.

<Pen x:Key="SolidYellowPen" Thickness="5" Brush="Yellow" />

<Pen x:Key="YellowGreenBrush" Thickness="5" >
    <Pen.Brush>
        <LinearGradientBrush>
            <GradientStop Offset="0.0" Color="Green" />
            <GradientStop Offset="1.0" Color="Yellow" />
        </LinearGradientBrush>
    </Pen.Brush>
</Pen>

Listing 30

The code snippet in Listing 31 creates a GeometryDrawing with a Line and two Rectnagle objects` and uses GeometryDrawing.Pen to draw the outline of the GeometryDrawing. As you can see from Pen element, the thickness of Pen is 5.

Listing 31

The output of Listing 31 looks like Figure 36. As you may notice, the outline of rectangles and line is just flat.

Figure 36

Now let's add some creativity to the Pen. Pen supports several more properties including StartLineCap, EndLineCap, DashCap, LineJoin, and MiterLimit.

StartLineCap and EndLineCap define the type of shape to use at the beginning and end of a stroke. The value can be flat, square, triangle and round. LineJoin property defines the type of joint used at the vertices of a shape's outline. The value of LineJoin is type of PenLineJoin enumeration that has Miter, Bevel, and Round values. The following code snippet sets StartLineCap, EndLineCap, and LineJoin properties to Triangle, Round, and Bevel respectively.

The DashCap attribute property defines how the ends of each dash are drawn. DashStyle property defines the style of dash used in a pen. The value of DashStyle is a member of DashStyles class that can be a Dash, DashDot, DashDotDot, Dot, or Solid. MiterLimit propert represents the limit on the ratio of the miter length to half this pen's Thickness.

The following code snippet sets DashStyle, DashCap, and MiterLimit properties to DotDot, Triangle, and 0 respectively.

<Pen Thickness="5" StartLineCap="Triangle" EndLineCap="Round"
LineJoin="Bevel" DashStyle="DotDot" DashCap="Triangle" MiterLimit="0">

The code snippet in Listing 33 sets some of these properties using attributes of the Pen element,

Listing 33

The output of Listing 33 looks like Figure 37.

Figure 37

The Pen object in WPF is used to create a pen at run-time. The code snippet in Listing 34 creates a Pen object at run-time and sets some of these properties.

    Private Sub CreateADynamicPen()
        ' Create two Rectangle and one Line Geometry
        Dim line1 As New LineGeometry()
        line1.StartPoint = New Point(25, 25)
        line1.EndPoint = New Point(75, 75)
        Dim rect1 As New RectangleGeometry()
        rect1.Rect = New Rect(50, 25, 25, 25)
        Dim rect2 As New RectangleGeometry()
        rect2.Rect = New Rect(25, 50, 25, 25)

        ' Create a GeometryGroup and add the geometries to it.
        Dim geoGroup As New GeometryGroup()
        geoGroup.Children.Add(line1)
        geoGroup.Children.Add(rect1)
        geoGroup.Children.Add(rect2)

        ' Create a GeometryDrawing and add it to a DrawingGroup
        Dim geoDrawing As New GeometryDrawing()
        geoDrawing.Geometry = geoGroup
        Dim drawingGrp As New DrawingGroup()
        drawingGrp.Children.Add(geoDrawing)

        ' Create a linear gradient brush with five stops
        Dim blueBlackLGB As New LinearGradientBrush()
        blueBlackLGB.StartPoint = New Point(0, 0)
        blueBlackLGB.EndPoint = New Point(1, 1)
        ' Create and add Gradient stops
        Dim blueGS As New GradientStop()
        blueGS.Color = Colors.Blue
        blueGS.Offset = 0.0R
        blueBlackLGB.GradientStops.Add(blueGS)
        Dim blackGS As New GradientStop()
        blackGS.Color = Colors.Black
        blackGS.Offset = 1.0R
        blueBlackLGB.GradientStops.Add(blackGS)

        ' Create a Pen to add to the GeometryDrawing
        Dim blackBluePen As New Pen()
        blackBluePen.Thickness = 5
        blackBluePen.LineJoin = PenLineJoin.Bevel
        blackBluePen.StartLineCap = PenLineCap.Triangle
        blackBluePen.EndLineCap = PenLineCap.Round
        blackBluePen.Brush = blueBlackLGB
        geoDrawing.Pen = blackBluePen
        ' Create a DrawingBrush and fill a Rectangle with it
        Dim drawingBrush As New DrawingBrush()
        drawingBrush.Drawing = geoDrawing

        ' Create a Rectangle and fill with DrawingBrush
        Dim rect As New Rectangle()
        rect.Width = 200
        rect.Height = 200
        rect.Stroke = New SolidColorBrush(Colors.Black)
        rect.Fill = drawingBrush

LayoutRoot.Children.Add(rect)
End Sub

Listing 34

The output of Listing 34 generates Figure 38.

Figure 38

WPF Pen in VB.NET

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