You have probably already seen how to use DrawThemeTextEx on Vista and above to draw text with a white blurry ‘glow’ effect behind it. It’s commonly used when drawing on glass, to ensure that text has enough background contrast to be easily readable. But the API only draws a white glow. What if you want […]
This is part 2 of a short series that examines alpha-aware graphics using native GDI only – not GDI+, not DirectX, and not with any other custom non-GDI graphics implementation.This post will cover: Non-rectangular drawing Handling GDI’s clobbering of the alpha channel Better use of per-pixel alpha (based on what’s drawn, which is more useful […]
Transparent graphics are used everywhere these days. Half the UIs you will have used today will have made some use of composited graphics, overlays, or something similar. You’ve probably seen: Selections with transparent rectangles or other shapes Text with a transparent shape behind it, so you can see the through to the background and still […]
