GDI+: Hatch Brushes

	GDI+: Hatch Brushes

Introduction

A hatch brush relies on a drawn or designed pattern to set its filling type. To support hatch brushes, the .NET Framework provides the patterns you can use as part of the brush. These pre-designed patterns are referred to as hatch styles. This means that when you use a hatch brush, you must specify the type of pattern you want to use, through one of the available hatch styles. To make the filled area more interesting, you also specify the color to use when drawing the pattern.

To get a hatch brush, you use the HatchBrush class. One of its constructors has the following syntaxes:

Public Sub HatchBrush(ByVal style As HatchStyle, ByVal foreColor As Color)

The foreColor argument is the color that will be used to draw the pattern. The style argument is the hatch style you want to apply. Some of the available styles are:

Private Sub Form1_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) _
			Handles MyBase.Paint
        Dim brushBackDiag As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.BackwardDiagonal, Color.FromArgb(0, 0, 255))
        Dim brushCross As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.Cross, Color.FromArgb(200, 0, 0))
        Dim brushDarkDown As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DarkDownwardDiagonal, Color.Salmon)
        Dim brushDarkHorz As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DarkHorizontal, Color.Navy)
        Dim brushDarkUpDiag As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DarkUpwardDiagonal, Color.Pink)
        Dim brushVertical As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DarkVertical, Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 255))
        Dim brushDashDnDiag As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DashedDownwardDiagonal, _
		Color.FromArgb(255, 128, 0))
        Dim brushDashHorz As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DashedHorizontal, Color.FromArgb(0, 128, 192))
        Dim brushDashUpDiag As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DashedUpwardDiagonal, Color.Green)
        Dim brushDashVert As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DashedVertical, Color.Firebrick)
        Dim brushDiagBrisk As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DiagonalBrick, Color.Fuchsia)
        Dim brushDiagCross As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DiagonalCross, Color.Moccasin)
        Dim brushDivot As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.Divot, Color.Goldenrod)
        Dim brushDotDiamond As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DottedDiamond, Color.Gainsboro)
        Dim brushDottedGrid As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.DottedGrid, Color.Khaki)
        Dim brushForDiag As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.ForwardDiagonal, Color.Maroon)
        Dim brushHorz As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.Horizontal, Color.Red)
        Dim brushHorzBrick As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.HorizontalBrick, Color.SaddleBrown)
        Dim brushLgChkBoard As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.LargeCheckerBoard, Color.RoyalBlue)
        Dim brushLgConfetti As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.LargeConfetti, Color.MistyRose)
        Dim brushLgGrid As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.LargeGrid, Color.Purple)
        Dim brushLtDnDiag As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.LightDownwardDiagonal, Color.DarkCyan)
        Dim brushLtHorz As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.LightHorizontal, Color.PowderBlue)
        Dim brushUpDiag As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.LightUpwardDiagonal, Color.SeaGreen)
        Dim brushLtVert As New HatchBrush(HatchStyle.LightVertical, Color.Olive)

        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushBackDiag, 20, 20, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushCross, 120, 20, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDarkDown, 220, 20, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDarkHorz, 320, 20, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDarkUpDiag, 420, 20, 80, 60)

        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushVertical, 20, 100, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDashDnDiag, 120, 100, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDashHorz, 220, 100, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDashUpDiag, 320, 100, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDashVert, 420, 100, 80, 60)

        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDashVert, 20, 180, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDiagBrisk, 120, 180, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDiagCross, 220, 180, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDivot, 320, 180, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDotDiamond, 420, 180, 80, 60)

        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushDottedGrid, 20, 260, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushForDiag, 120, 260, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushHorz, 220, 260, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushHorzBrick, 320, 260, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushLgChkBoard, 420, 260, 80, 60)

        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushLgGrid, 20, 340, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushLtDnDiag, 120, 340, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushLtHorz, 220, 340, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushUpDiag, 320, 340, 80, 60)
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brushLtVert, 420, 340, 80, 60)
End Sub

If you use the above constructor to fill out a shape, the selected pattern would be drawn on top of a black color used as the background. If you want to use a different background, use the following constructor to initialize the brush:

Public Sub HatchBrush(ByVal hatchstyle As HatchStyle, ByVal foreColor As Color,  ByVal backColor As Color)

The backColor argument passed as a Color value will be used as the background Color.

At any time, to find out the color used to Paint a pattern, you can access the brush's ForegroundColor property. To know the color used as background, you can access the brush's BackgroundColor property. To know the hatch style used on the current brush, you can access its HatchStyle property.


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