VisualStyles: Improved visual style performance
In a perfect world, the standard Windows Forms controls would all have perfect XP theme support.
Buttons would support images. Everything would be transparent—even read-only text boxes.
The tab control could be rotated any direction. And you could resize things without worring about
seizures being caused by obscene amounts of flicker.
But today, only VisualStyles offers your applications this kind of perfect-world, native look and feel
under Windows XP. And it's all done automatically—as if it were part of the framework itself,
VisualStyles requires just one line of code to be activated.
Dual Purpose
VisualStyles is actually a two-in-one component—first and foremost, it quashes XP theme bugs,
silently, efficiently and automatically. But it also provides a simple set of classes which you can use
to draw your own controls using the Windows XP Theme API.
VisualStyles is designed using strict .NET framework conventions, integrates easily and
enhances any application, component library, or Microsoft Office(R) add-in. It supports
right-to-left layouts out of the box. Plus, there's no need to use a manifest file anymore—you
can enable VisualStyles under any version of the .NET framework with just one line of code.
But I Thought .NET 2.0 Already Supported XP Themes
As far as XP themes are concerned, the second version of
the .NET framework is a step in the right direction. Well, every journey starts with a single step.
.NET 2.0 may not be as rife with theme bugs as its predecessor. But VisualStyles steps in
wherever there is room for improvement. The table below compares the XP theme features
supported by both versions of the framework, and VisualStyles:
| 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.0 | VS | Feature |
|---|
| No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Enable XP visual styles without a manifest |
| No | No | Yes | Yes | Images on button controls |
| No | No | Yes | Yes | Themed backgrounds on tab pages |
| No | No | Yes | Yes | Themed backgrounds on tab page child controls |
| No | No | No | Yes | Themed backgrounds on read-only text boxes |
| No | No | No | Yes | Left, right and bottom aligned tab controls |
| No | No | Yes | Yes | Themed CheckedListBox controls |
| No | No | Yes | Yes | Themed UpDown controls |
| No | No | No | Yes | Tab controls resize without pixel errors |
| No | No | No | Yes | Tab controls and all child controls are flicker-free |
Built For Design
If you've already used another Skybound product, you know just how seriously we take
design-time support. The fact that VisualStyles a free product didn't stop us from building
it around some impressive design-time support:
Since all theme bugs are now fixed by default, VisualStyleProviders are no longer necessary.
Instead, VisualStyles includes a VisualStyleFilter component, which you can place on any form
designer to take advantage of fine-grained, dynamic control over whether theme support is
enhanced for each individual control.
Built To Last
Part of the formula behind every successful product lies in the manufacturing
process. Software development is no different, and that's why we've invested
heavily in an automated build process that enforces strict unit tests, design
patterns and framework conventions. Every name down to every last field of every
little class is planned, written, tested, and carefully documented.