The Location of a Bitmap

Using the location, to specify where to display a picture, you can pass the x and y values as the second and the third arguments, respectively, of the Graphics.DrawImage() method. Here is an example:

Private Sub btnPictureClicked(ByVal sender As Object, _
                              ByVal e As EventArgs) _
                              Handles btnPicture.Click

            Dim bmpPicture As Bitmap

            bmpPicture = New Bitmap("woman.jpg")
            Dim graph As Graphics = CreateGraphics()

            graph.DrawImage(bmpPicture, 10, 12)
End Sub

As opposed to integers, you can also pass the location's values as floating point numbers. This is done using the following version of the Graphics.DrawImage() method:

Public Sub DrawImage(image As Image, 	x As Single, y As Single)

Here is an example:

Private Sub btnPictureClicked(ByVal sender As Object, _
                              ByVal e As EventArgs) _
                              Handles btnPicture.Click
            Dim bmpPicture As Bitmap

            bmpPicture = New Bitmap("woman.jpg")
            Dim graph As Graphics = CreateGraphics()

            graph.DrawImage(bmpPicture, 10.5F, 12.2F)
End Sub

You can also specify the location as a Point. If the properties of the Point are integers, you can use the following flavor of the Graphics.DrawImage() method:

Public Sub DrawImage(image As Image, point As Point)

If the values of the Point are floating point numbers, you can use the following version:

Public Sub DrawImage(image As Image, point As PointF)

1. In the Class Name combo box, select (Form1 Events)
2. In the Method Name combo box, select Paint and implement the event as follows:
    

   Private Sub Form1_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, _ ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) _ Handles Me.Paint If strPicture <> "" Then Dim bmpPicture As Image = Image.FromFile(strPicture) e.Graphics.DrawImage(bmpPicture, 10, 40) PictureIsLoaded = True End If End Sub

3. Execute the application
    
   
4. Try opening a picture
5. Close the form and return to your programming environment

A picture usually appears as a geometric figure such as a rectangle:

Through some manipulations, a picture can appear non-rectangular. Regardless of the perception, a picture is meant to fit a rectangular figure. As such, a picture has a size, represented by a width and a height, in pixels. The width of a picture is the distance from its left to its right borders. The height of a picture is the distance, in pixels, between its top and its bottom borders. The size of a picture can be illustrated as follows:

When creating or designing a Bitmap object, you can specify its primary size. To do this, you can use the following constructor:

Public Sub New(width As Integer, height As Integer)

The width and the height arguments are as we illustrated them above. Here is an example of using this constructor:

Private Sub btnPictureClicked(ByVal sender As Object, _
                              ByVal e As EventArgs) _
                              Handles btnPicture.Click
            Dim bmpSample As Bitmap
            bmpSample = New Bitmap(450, 625)
End Sub

If you have a picture, you can find out what its size is. To assist you with knowing the width of a picture, the Image class, the parent of the Bitmap class, provides the Width property, which is of type integer. In the same way, to give you the height of a picture, the Image class is equipped with a property named Height, which also is an int type. Here is an example of getting the dimensions of a picture:

Private Sub btnShowPicture_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
                                     ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
                                     Handles btnShowPicture.Click
        Dim width As Integer
        Dim height As Integer
        Dim dlgOpen As OpenFileDialog

        dlgOpen = New OpenFileDialog()

        If dlgOpen.ShowDialog() = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
            Dim strFilename As String = dlgOpen.FileName
            Dim bmpPicture As Bitmap = New Bitmap(strFilename)
            Dim graph As Graphics = CreateGraphics()

            graph.DrawImage(bmpPicture, 120, 12)
            width = bmpPicture.Width
            height = bmpPicture.Height

            TextBox1.Text = width.ToString()
            TextBox2.Text = height.ToString()
        End If
End Sub

To get both the width and the height as one object, the Image class provides to its children, such as Bitmap, the Size property. As you may guess, the Size property is of type Size.

Besides the Width, the Height, and the Size properties, to get the size of a bitmap, you can access the PhysicalDimensions property of the Image class. This property is of type SizeF but its values depend on the type of picture.

In the previous lesson, we saw that a graphic could be made of thousands to millions of colors. When you display a picture in your application, you can ask Microsoft Windows to "see through" one particular color. Seeing through is referred to as transparency. This is an operation regularly needed in graphics applications, the operating system is already equipped to select a default color it considers for transparency. In most cases, you can use that color. Otherwise, for your particular application, you can specify what color you want to use as "see through".

To support picture transparency, the Bitmap class is equipped with the MakeTransparent() method that is overloaded with two versions. The first version uses the following syntax:

Public Sub MakeTransparent

When you call this method, it lets the operating system choose the color used for transparency. In most cases, the operating system selects white as the transparency color. Consequently, when you display the picture, wherever a white spot or area is shown on the picture, that area would disappear to show behind it. Here is an example:

Private Sub FormPaint(ByVal sender As Object, _
                              ByVal e As PaintEventArgs) _
                              Handles MyBase.Paint
            Dim bmpBuilding As Bitmap
            Dim bmpMonument As Bitmap

            bmpBuilding = New Bitmap("building.gif")
            e.Graphics.DrawImage(bmpBuilding, 0, 0)

            bmpMonument = New Bitmap("monument.jpg")
            bmpMonument.MakeTransparent()
            e.Graphics.DrawImage(bmpMonument, 200, 260)

End Sub

This would produce:

Instead of using the default transparency color of the operating system, you can specify your own color. To support this, the Bitmap class provides another version of the MakeTransparent() method. Its syntax is:

Public Sub MakeTransparent(transparentColor As Color)

With this method, instead of letting the operating system determine the transparency color, you pass your own as argument. Here is an example:

Private Sub FormPaint(ByVal sender As Object, _
                              ByVal e As PaintEventArgs) _
                              Handles MyBase.Paint
            Dim bmpFlying As Bitmap
            Dim bmpGlobe As Bitmap

            bmpFlying = New Bitmap("flying.jpg")
            bmpGlobe = New Bitmap("globe.jpg")

            e.Graphics.DrawImage(bmpFlying, 0, 0)

            bmpGlobe.MakeTransparent(Color.Black)
            e.Graphics.DrawImage(bmpGlobe, 20, 120)

End Sub

This would produce:

1. To create a new program, on the main menu, click File -> New -> Project...
2. In the Templates list, click Windows Application
3. Set the Name to ImageFloater and click OK
4. From the Components section of the Toolbox, click Timer and click the form
5. While the timer is still selected under the form, in the Properties window, set its Enabled property to True and its Interval to 1000
6. Copy the following pictures (click the left picture to open the real one in the browser) in the ImageFloater\ImageFloater\bin\debug folder inside the current project
    
7. Under the form, double-click the time1 control and implement its event as follows:
    

   Public Class Form1 Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, _ ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles Timer1.Tick Dim bmpArea As Bitmap = New Bitmap(Width, Height) Dim graphArea As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bmpArea) Dim bmpDiamond As Bitmap = New Bitmap("diamond.bmp") bmpDiamond.MakeTransparent() Dim bmpHouse As Bitmap = New Bitmap("house.bmp") graphArea.DrawImage(bmpHouse, 0, 0) Dim Rnd As Random = New Random() Dim rndLeft As Integer = Rnd.Next(bmpHouse.Width) Dim rndTop As Integer = Rnd.Next(bmpHouse.Height) graphArea.DrawImage(bmpDiamond, rndLeft, rndTop) Dim Painter As Graphics = Graphics.FromHwnd(Handle) Painter.DrawImage(bmpArea, 0, 0) End Sub End Class

8. Execute the application to see the result