Transparent icons on a toolbar buttons

[Daredevil]

Hello I am using 256 color icons for my toolbar, however each of the icons has a white (or light grey) background which is ugly. How is it possible to make the icons transparent on any windows theme? Thanks in advance.

[GermanGeorge]

i did not try this out, but I would start this way: subclass the bar overwrite the WM_CTLCOLOR of the bar and set in the method { pDC->SetBkMode( TRANSPARENT ); return m_LeerBrush; } where m_LeerBrush=GetStockObject(HOLLOW_BRUSH) Then use a transparent color for the icon hope this helps

[Elmue]

Hello This will not work. The toolbar internally works with old primitive bitmaps. (it comes from the Windows 3.1 times) SetBkMode(TRANSPARENT) is useless for painting bitmaps. It is mainly for printing text. What you have to do is assign an Imagelist to the toolbar. The imagelist can maintain a primitive transparency using a mask. With i_ImageList.SetBkColor(..) you can define with which color the "transparent" pixels are filled. With i_ImageList.Add(AfxGetApp()->LoadIcon(IDI_ICON1) you can load transparent icons. With i_Toolbar->GetToolBarCtrl().SetImageList(&i_ImageList) you assign the image list And as LAST you can load the toolbar tooltips and Command IDs trom the resources i_Toolbar.LoadToolBar(IDR_TOOLBAR1); The images stored in the resources will be overridden with your imagelist. Please note: This is NOT real transparency with an Alpha channel! You can NOT draw XP icons or alpha channel bitmaps with various levels of transparency! And you can NOT draw on a multicolored backgound. Elmü

[lakshmanguru]

Any suggestions? Still no luck.

if (!myBar.CreateEx(this, TBSTYLE_FLAT | TBSTYLE_TRANSPARENT, WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | CBRS_TOP
| CBRS_GRIPPER | CBRS_TOOLTIPS | CBRS_FLYBY | CBRS_SIZE_DYNAMIC))
{
TRACE0("Failed to create toolbar\n");
return -1; // fail to create
}

myBar.LoadToolBar(IDR\_TOOLBAR1);

list1.Create(16, 16, ILC\_COLOR32 | ILC\_MASK, 2, 2);
    list1.SetBkColor(RGB(255,0,0));

list1.Add(AfxGetApp()->LoadIcon(IDI\_ICON1));
list1.Add(AfxGetApp()->LoadIcon(IDI\_ICON2));

    myBar.SendMessage(TB\_SETIMAGELIST, 0 , LPARAM (list1.m\_hImageList));

myBar.EnableDocking(CBRS\_ALIGN\_ANY);
EnableDocking(CBRS\_ALIGN\_ANY);
DockControlBar(&myBar);

[Mahadev HK]

Hi, Try the below code. It will work for sure.

if (!m\_wndToolBarMaha.CreateEx(this, TBSTYLE\_FLAT, WS\_CHILD | WS\_VISIBLE | CBRS\_TOP
    | CBRS\_GRIPPER | CBRS\_TOOLTIPS | CBRS\_FLYBY | CBRS\_SIZE\_DYNAMIC ) )
{
    TRACE0("Failed to create toolbar\\n");
    return -1;      // fail to create
}

CWinApp\* pApp= AfxGetApp();
m\_TBarImages.Create(32, 32, ILC\_COLOR, 4, 4);
m\_TBarImages.SetBkColor( RGB( 192, 192, 192 ) );
m\_TBarImages.Add(pApp->LoadIcon(IDI\_ICON1));
m\_TBarImages.Add(pApp->LoadIcon(IDI\_ICON2));
m\_TBarImages.Add(pApp->LoadIcon(IDI\_ICON3));
m\_wndToolBarMaha.GetToolBarCtrl().SetImageList(&m\_TBarImages);

m\_wndToolBarMaha.LoadToolBar(IDR\_MAINFRAME);

// TODO: Delete these three lines if you don't want the toolbar to be dockable
m\_wndToolBarMaha.EnableDocking(CBRS\_ALIGN\_ANY);
EnableDocking(CBRS\_ALIGN\_ANY);
DockControlBar(&m\_wndToolBarMaha);

Mahadev