Updated March 04, 2007
GDI+ is the way to draw shapes, fonts, images or generally anything graphic in Visual Basic .NET. You can get the most from this tutorial by starting with Part 1 where the fundamentals of GDI+ are explained.
Previous Lesson Links
- Part 1 - Introduction to GDI+ and the Graphics object
- Part 2 - Drawing a curve with a series of connected points
- Part 3 - Advanced vector graphics with an intro to bitmapped graphics
- Part 4 - Blending and merging colors and shapes in the same graphic
- Part 5 - Coordinate Spaces and Matrix Transformations
Most of what you can do with GDI+ vector graphics - drawing and moving shapes directly with methods - has been explained, but it's been a rushed trip to cover the major points. There are a lot of details that haven't been covered because they're not part of the main thrust of GDI+. They are part of what makes GDI+ so useful, however.
Here are some of the things that we're going to go over in this segment of the tutorial:
- GraphicsPath - So far, the tutorial has focused on rectangle and elipse shapes. Use the GraphicsPath object to draw any kind of shape - or a whole collection of shapes.
- Clipping Regions - Another way to control where your images are drawn including a discussion of how to combine clipping regions with boolean operations.
On the next page, we start coding with GraphicsPath.