Non rectangle form drop shadow

[Guest]

I’ve created a non rectangle form by setting the FormBorderStyle, BackColor
and TransparanceKey properties and drawing on the form in the pain event or
setting the BackgroundImage.

What I would like to do is add a drop shadow to my non rectangle form. I did
a search on the Internet for how to add a drop shadow to a form, but that
only returned pages that showed how to change the ClassStyle of the form in
the overridden CreateParams procedure. This does add a drop down shadow to
the form, but it’s rectangular, and doesn’t go round the edge of my
non-rectangle form.

I’ve also tried to draw the shadow directly on the form using pen’s that
have a part transparent alpha value, but it just draws a solid line.

Can someone please show me how to add a drop shadow to a non-rectangle form
in C#. Or how to draw part transparent alpha value lines on a transparent
form where you can see what's underneath the form?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

Rather than setting a transparency (or in addition to, if the shape you want
isn't completely filled) you should set the Form's Region property to a
Region created to match the filled shape you want.

 

[Chris Dunaway]

And at www.bobpowell.net you will find code that shows how to create a
region from a bitmap.

 

[Jeff Glatt]

Another approach is to use the FormShaper component from
http://www.springsys.com

This component changes the form into real non-rectangular shape base on a
bitmap.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your help. I'll give all your suggestions ago.

Regards
Mark

 

[Chris Dunaway]

Another approach is to use the FormShaper component from
http://www.springsys.com

This component changes the form into real non-rectangular shape base on a
bitmap.

How is that different that using a bitmap and the TransparencyKey
property of the form?

Just curious

 

[Stuart Nathan]

This might be easier
Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CreateParams() As
System.Windows.Forms.CreateParams
Get
Dim parameters As CreateParams = MyBase.CreateParams
parameters.ClassStyle = (parameters.ClassStyle Or &H20000)
Return parameters
End Get
End Property

This provides the windows shadow.

 

[Stuart Nathan]

It works on my non-rectangular forms