Create Wallpapers the Easy Way !

HADBI Moussa Benameur {Mozads}

3.50/5 (6 votes)

Mar 26, 2008

CPOL

3 min read

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Deal with different pictures (format/sizes) and make them well mounted on your desktop -wallpapers-

Introduction

This is my second post. I tried in this one to help some programmers to deal with graphical concepts, so I take the wallpaper-desktop as a practice for this purpose.

Background

The only hard stuff in this article, I guess, is the use of the API! Because of that, I added a document that will explain how to use this API (API-Explanation file).

Using the Code

Since our project is a little bit wide (of course I mean, than the previous one), I focus my explanation on the class that deals with pictures and creates wallpapers.

So let's start:

The first thing to do is initialize the picture used to be the 'main' wallpaper, on the other hand it's the property MyFileBimap that controls this process.

Friend Property MyFileBimap() As String
    Get
        Return MyFileNameEx
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
        If value Is Nothing OrElse value = "" Then
            MyFileBimapEx = Nothing
            MyFileNameEx = ""
        Else
            MyFileBimapEx = New Bitmap(value)
            MyFileNameEx = value
        End If
        
    End Set
End Property

Now, I suppose that my picture is really "tiny" since my screen resolution is very large. So I got an idea to include a background in this one. Well, I must notice that my project will directly create a black background if the picture doesn't exist. Here it is the property that will init the background picture.

    Friend Property MyBgPic() As Bitmap
    Get
        Return MyBgPicEx
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As Bitmap)
        If value Is Nothing Then
            MyBgPicEx = Nothing
        Else
            If value.Width > MyScreenWidth _
		OrElse value.Height > MyScreenHeight Then
                'Set the size of the back-ground pic 
	       'as the size of screen resolution
                MyBgPicEx = New Bitmap(value, MyScreenWidth, MyScreenHeight)
            Else
                MyBgPicEx = value
            End If
        End If
        
    End Set
    
End Property

This property will create the background bitmap to the screen resolution!

You might be wondering why I added this background picture. Honestly guys, do you prefer this kind of wallpaper?

Or do you prefer this one:

I mean, when the system tries to resize the picture to the desktop (depending on your screen resolution), your picture will look really blurred!

So then the idea is to keep the original picture size, and add this one to a bigger, background.

Now, we can call the subroutine that creates our final picture WallpaperChanger:

 Friend Sub WallpaperChanger()
    Dim MyXLoc As Int32
    Dim MyYLoc As Int32
'
    Dim MyGraphic As Graphics
    '
    If MyBgPicEx Is Nothing Then
        MyBgPicEx = New Bitmap(MyScreenWidth, MyScreenHeight)
        MyGraphic = Graphics.FromImage(MyBgPicEx)
        'Fill the empty area !...in my example i fill it with Black brush
        MyGraphic.FillRectangle(Brushes.Black, 0, 0, MyScreenWidth, MyScreenHeight)
    Else
        'Resize the background picture...
        MyBgPicEx = New Bitmap(MyBgPicEx, MyScreenWidth, MyScreenHeight)
        MyGraphic = Graphics.FromImage(MyBgPicEx) 'Create a graphic from MyBgPicEx, 
				'in which will be added our MyFileBitmapEx
    End If

As you see, if no background picture is entered, the program will create an empty black area, with height/width equal as those of the screen resolution and on the other hand when (MyBgPicEx <> Nothing), a resize action will occur.

'Verify the width & height of the picture
        If MyFileBimapEx.Width > MyScreenWidth Then
            MyXLoc = 0
            MyFileBimapEx = New Bitmap_
		(MyFileBimapEx, MyScreenWidth, MyFileBimapEx.Height)
        Else
            MyXLoc = (MyScreenWidth - MyFileBimapEx.Width) / 2
        End If
        If MyFileBimapEx.Height > MyScreenHeight Then
            MyYLoc = 0
            MyFileBimapEx = New Bitmap_
		(MyFileBimapEx, MyFileBimapEx.Height, MyScreenHeight)
        Else
            MyYLoc = (MyScreenHeight - MyFileBimapEx.Height) / 2
        End If

So now what's about MyXLoc & MyYLoc !

Those two variables will exists only if (MyFileBitmapEx) is smaller than screen resolution, and both give the position (x,y) of MyFileBitmapEx in MyBgPicEx.

'Draw the FileMyBitmapEx into the MyBgPicEx, in the given location (MyXLoc, MyYLoc) !
        MyGraphic.DrawImage(MyFileBimapEx, _
	MyXLoc, MyYLoc, MyFileBimapEx.Width, MyFileBimapEx.Height)

Imagine that somebody will like to add some text to the wallpaper,... since MyGraphic is holding (MyBgPicEx + MyFileBitmapEx), we can add some text:

If MyTextEx.Length > 0 Then
            MyGraphic.DrawString(MyTextEx, MyFontStyleEx, _
		New SolidBrush(MyFontColorEx), MyTextLocEx.X, MyTextLocEx.Y)
        End If

Since all effects are added to MyGraphic, we are now able to generate our bitmap, and I must notice that it will be saved to disk when you call SavePicture but before that, let's check the final part of WallpaperChanger subroutine.

'Create a new pathfile
        Dim MyStr As String
        MyStr = System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(MyFileNameEx)
        MyNewPath = My.Computer.FileSystem.CombinePath(TempDirEx, MyStr & ".bmp")
        'Verif that file doesn't exist
        If IO.File.Exists(MyNewPath) Then
            Dim DialogResult As MsgBoxResult = _
		MsgBox("Do you want to replace the existing file", _
		MsgBoxStyle.Exclamation + MsgBoxStyle.YesNo, "Notification")
            If DialogResult = MsgBoxResult.No Then
                MyStr = InputBox("filename", "Enter a valid filename !", _
		"", MyScreenWidth / 2, MyScreenHeight / 2)
                MyNewPath = My.Computer.FileSystem.CombinePath_
		(TempDirEx, MyStr & ".bmp")
            End If
        End If
        'Return the path, so it can be loaded again in preview picture box
        MyFileNameEx = MyNewPath

As you see, this final part only generates the name of the resulted picture, that will be finally saved to disk using SavedPicture:

Friend Sub SavePicture()
        'Save bitmap to disk...
        MyBgPicEx.Save(MyFileNameEx, Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp)
End Sub

The most interesting part in this project is how to set the wallpaper and I do that by calling an API function declared as:

Const SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER = 20
    Const SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE = &H1
    Const SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE = &H2
    Private Declare Auto Function SystemParametersInfo Lib _
	"user32" (ByVal uAction As Int32, ByVal uParam As Int32, _
	ByVal lpvParam As String, ByVal fuWinIni As Int32) As Integer

and called from SetWallpaper:

 Friend Sub SetWallpaper(ByVal MyBitmap As String)
        SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, _
	0, MyBitmap, SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE Or SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE)
    End Sub

Yes, as you guessed it: MyBitmap is the picture that resulted from the previous transformation.

Other Stuff in this Project

Well, it will take a lot of time for me to explain other stuff, like:

Changing desktop wallpaper after a given time, I of course used a timer :

Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
	Handles Timer1.Tick
        If MyCount > Me.ListBox1.Items.Count - 1 Then
            MyCount = 0
        Else
            MyWallpaper.SetWallpaper(ListBox1.Items.Item(MyCount))
            MyCount += 1
        End If
    End Sub

Selecting the position where to put the text on picture :

Private Sub PictureBox3_MouseClick(ByVal sender As Object, _
	ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) _
	Handles PictureBox3.MouseClick
        Select Case e.Button
            Case Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Left
                'Store the current position of text
                MyWallpaper.MyTextLoc = New Point(e.X * Me.ScreenRsX / 232, _
		e.Y * Me.ScreenRsY / 201)
                TextBox2.Text = Format((e.X * Me.ScreenRsX / 232), "0")
                TextBox3.Text = Format((e.Y * Me.ScreenRsY / 201), "0")
            Case Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Right
                'Show the resulted wallpaper in fullscreen mode !
                Dim MyResizer As New Bitmap(Me.PictureBox3.Image)
                FullScreen.PictureBox1.Image = Me.PictureBox3.Image
                FullScreen.Height = MyResizer.Height
                FullScreen.Width = MyResizer.Width
                '
                FullScreen.Show()
                MyResizer = Nothing
        End Select
    End Sub

Well, to be clear when the RIGHT button is clicked, the resulted wallpaper will be showed in fullscreen mode.

Other thing, I added an invert color subroutine. Somebody might like to add a white text on the picture, and since the textbox also has a white background... this subroutine will invert the color so the user will be able to see what he writes!

Private Function RevertColor(ByVal MyColor As Color) As Color
        Dim MyAlpha As Int32
        Dim MyRGBCvrted As Int32
        MyAlpha = MyColor.ToArgb And &HFF000000 'Store alpha...
        MyRGBCvrted = MyColor.ToArgb And &HFFFFFF _
	'Now eliminate Alpha...and keep only RBG colors
        MyRGBCvrted = &HFFFFFF - MyRGBCvrted 'Revert color
        MyRGBCvrted += MyAlpha 'Restore Alpha
        Return Color.FromArgb(MyRGBCvrted)
    End Function

Points of Interest

I put in my best effort to make this project clear, and I hope you did find some useful things that will help you on your project. Concerning me, it was another good initiation for me with the GDI+ features provided by .NET !

History

Version (1.0.0) created on : (26).03.2008 By : GENCOX {Mozads}