Text Effects in Visual Basic 2008.. (Reflect)

[jolle23]

In this tutorial I will teach you how to put an effect in the text using Visual Basic 2008. In here, I use the reflected text for the effect. It reflects any kind of text that you will type at the bottom and you can also change its font size. Others may think that reflected text is just easy to do. But, they were wrong. You have to take a closer look at each codes and calculate everything to make it accurate.

Let’s begin:

Open Visual Basic 2008, create a new Windows Application and drag a PictureBox, a TextBox, a ComboBox and a NumericUpDown. It will look like this.

Double click the Form, go to the solution explorer and click the view code. After that, create a sub procedure for the reflect effects.

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   DrawReflectText(
   
   )
   
2. Dim
   
   text_size As
   
   SizeF
   
3. Dim
   
   grafx As
   
   Graphics
   
4. Dim
   
   back_brush As
   
   Brush =
   
   Brushes.
   
   Gray
   
5. Dim
   
   fore_brush As
   
   Brush =
   
   Brushes.
   
   Black
   
6. Dim
   
   Fnt As
   
   New
   
   Font(
   
   "Microsoft Sans Serif"
   
   , NumericUpDown1.
   
   Value
   
   , FontStyle.
   
   Regular
   
   )
   
7. Dim
   
   my_state As
   
   GraphicsState 'STORE THE CURRENT STATE OF GRAPHICS
   
8. Dim
   
   x_location, y_location As
   
   Single
   
   'USED FOR THE LOCATION
   
9. Dim
   
   text_height As
   
   Single
   
10. 
    
11. 'CREATE A GRAPHIC OBJECT IN THE PICTURE BOX
    
12. grafx =
    
    PictureBox1.
    
    CreateGraphics
    
    (
    
    )
    
13. 'CLEAR THE GRAPHIC OBJECT
    
14. grafx.
    
    Clear
    
    (
    
    Color.
    
    White
    
    )
    
15. 
    
16. 'SIZE IS REQUIRED TO DRAW THE TEXT
    
17. text_size =
    
    grafx.
    
    MeasureString
    
    (
    
    TextBox1.
    
    Text
    
    , Fnt)
    
18. 
    
19. 'ELIMINATE THE REDUNDANT CALCULATIONS AFTER THE LOCATIONS' ONCE GET
    
20. x_location =
    
    (
    
    PictureBox1.
    
    Width
    
    -
    
    text_size.
    
    Width
    
    )
    
    /
    
    2
    
21. y_location =
    
    (
    
    PictureBox1.
    
    Height
    
    -
    
    text_size.
    
    Height
    
    )
    
    /
    
    2
    
22. 
    
23. 'IN SCALING THE ENTIRE GRAPHIC OBJECTS, WE NEED TO REPOSITION THE ORIGIN OF
    
24. 'IT (0,0) TO THE (xLocation, yLocation) POINT.
    
25. 'IF NOT, WHEN YOU FLIP THE TEXT WITH A SCALING TRANSFORM,
    
26. 'IT WILL DRAW REFLECTED TEXT AT (xLocation, -yLocation)THAT IS OUTSITDE THE VIEWABLE AREA
    
27. grafx.
    
    TranslateTransform
    
    (
    
    x_location, y_location)
    
28. 
    
29. Dim
    
    line_ascent As
    
    Integer
    
30. Dim
    
    line_spacing As
    
    Integer
    
31. Dim
    
    line_height As
    
    Single
    
32. 
    
33. 'USE GETCELLASCENT TO CALCULATE THE HIEGHT ABOVE THE BASELINE.
    
34. 'SINCE IT RETURNS A DESIGN METRIC VALUE YOU HAVE TO CONVERT IT
    
35. 'INTO PIXELS AND SCALED FOR THE FONT SIZE.
    
36. line_ascent =
    
    Fnt.
    
    FontFamily
    
    .
    
    GetCellAscent
    
    (
    
    Fnt.
    
    Style
    
    )
    
37. line_spacing =
    
    Fnt.
    
    FontFamily
    
    .
    
    GetLineSpacing
    
    (
    
    Fnt.
    
    Style
    
    )
    
38. line_height =
    
    Fnt.
    
    GetHeight
    
    (
    
    grafx)
    
39. text_height =
    
    line_height *
    
    line_ascent /
    
    line_spacing
    
40. 
    
41. 'THIS REFLECTS OVER THE LOWEST PORTION OF THE TEXT.
    
42. Dim
    
    line_descent As
    
    Integer
    
    'REFLECT TO THE DESCENDING CHARACTERS
    
43. line_descent =
    
    Fnt.
    
    FontFamily
    
    .
    
    GetCellDescent
    
    (
    
    Fnt.
    
    Style
    
    )
    
44. text_height =
    
    line_height *
    
    (
    
    line_ascent +
    
    line_descent)
    
    /
    
    line_spacing
    
45. 
    
46. 
    
47. 'DRAW THE REFLECTED ONE FIRST TO DEMONSTRATE THE USE OF GRAPHICS STATE OBJECT.
    
48. 'A GRAPHICSSTATE OBJECT MAINTAINS THE GRAPHICS OBJECT.
    
49. 
    
50. 'GRAPHICSSTATE SAVE FIRST.
    
51. my_state =
    
    grafx.
    
    Save
    
    (
    
    )
    
    S
    
52. 
    
53. 'USE THE SCALETRANSFORM WITH A NEGATIVE VALUE TO DRAW THE REFLECTIION
    
54. 'AND USING -1 THE REFLECTED TEXT WILL NOT DISTORT.
    
55. grafx.
    
    ScaleTransform
    
    (
    
    1
    
    , -
    
    1.
    
    0F)
    
    ' REFLECTING THE Y DIRECTION
    
56. grafx.
    
    DrawString
    
    (
    
    TextBox1.
    
    Text
    
    , Fnt, back_brush, 0
    
    , -
    
    text_height)
    
57. 
    
58. 'BEFORE IT TRANFORM RESET THE GRAPHICS STATE
    
59. grafx.
    
    Restore
    
    (
    
    my_state)
    
60. 
    
61. 'MAIN TEXT DRAWN.
    
62. grafx.
    
    DrawString
    
    (
    
    TextBox1.
    
    Text
    
    , Fnt, fore_brush, 0
    
    , -
    
    text_height)
    
63. 
    
64. End
    
    Sub
    

Then, create a sub procedure for the name of the effect. Clear and add the item in the ComboBox.

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   effectlist(
   
   )
   
2. With
   
   ComboBox1.
   
   Items
   
3. .
   
   Clear
   
   (
   
   )
   
4. .
   
   Add
   
   (
   
   "Reflect"
   
   )
   
5. End
   
   With
   
6. End
   
   Sub
   

Then, create a sub procedure to draw the text.

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   draw_text(
   
   )
   
2. effectlist(
   
   )
   
3. If
   
   ComboBox1.
   
   SelectedItem
   
   Is
   
   Nothing
   
   Then
   
4. ComboBox1.
   
   SelectedIndex
   
   =
   
   0
   
5. End
   
   If
   
6. Select
   
   Case
   
   ComboBox1.
   
   SelectedItem
   
   .
   
   ToString
   
   (
   
   )
   
7. Case
   
   "Reflect"
   
8. Draw_Reflect_Text(
   
   )
   
9. End
   
   Select
   
10. End
    
    Sub
    

Lastly, create a sub procedure for the UIchange.

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   UIChanged(
   
   ByVal
   
   sender As
   
   System.
   
   Object
   
   , ByVal
   
   e As
   
   System.
   
   EventArgs
   
   )
   
   _
   
2. Handles
   
   TextBox1.
   
   TextChanged
   
   , NumericUpDown1.
   
   ValueChanged
   
   , PictureBox1.
   
   MouseHover
   
3. If
   
   NumericUpDown1.
   
   Value
   
   =
   
   0
   
   Then
   
4. NumericUpDown1.
   
   Value
   
   =
   
   50
   
5. End
   
   If
   
6. draw_text(
   
   )
   
7. End
   
   Sub
   

Ouput:

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