AlphaGradientPanel, an extended panel

Download source and demo project - 236 Kb

Introduction

This is a panel, first of all. Therefore, it has all the advantages of a panel, plus some nice little features.

Using the code

You'll just have to include the component in your toolbox and use it.

The only property that is a bit special is the Colors() property. It is a collection of items and has design-time visibility in the property grid. I'm still trying to achieve transforming the color name that appears in the property grid in a nice drawing... If anybody knows how that can be achieved, please, please, please, let me know ;)

Features

Rounded corners (any one of them or all at the same time).
Gradients (from 2 to n colors, with some special effects).
Transparency (any color can be made transparent with an "Alpha" value between 0 and 255).
Borders, even with rounded corners, have a nice little border.
Image inclusion (position, opacity, size, grayscale, and padding).
Padding of the content, of the back, and of the docking.