Gradient Form - Function

A simple function to make your form background gradient.

First you need to :

Import System.Drawing.Drawing2D

In the method New() or Load :

' Optimize Painting.

  SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint Or _

              ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer Or _

              ControlStyles.ResizeRedraw Or _

              ControlStyles.UserPaint, _

              True)

In the OnPaint Method :

Private Sub Form1_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles Me.Paint

        'Creating a new Rectangle as similar width and height of the base form 

        Dim oRAngle As Rectangle = New Rectangle(0, 0, Me.Width, Me.Height)

        'Creating a new Gradient style brush.

        'Change the colors here to get different color combination.

        '"Drawing.Drawing2D.LinearGradientMode.BackwardDiagonal" can be changed accordingly to get different styles like

        'ForwardDiagonal, Horizontal, Vertical.

        Dim oGradientBrush As Brush = New Drawing.Drawing2D.LinearGradientBrush(oRAngle, Color.Silver, Color.WhiteSmoke, Drawing.Drawing2D.LinearGradientMode.BackwardDiagonal)

        'With the help of fillrectangle function drawing rectangle in to form

        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(oGradientBrush, oRAngle)

End Sub

Or if you want a function to use for your controls :

Private Function DrawGradientBackground(ByVal Ctrl As Control, ByVal color1 As Color, ByVal color2 As Color, ByVal mode As System.Drawing.Drawing2D.LinearGradientMode) As Boolean

    Try

        Dim a As New System.Drawing.Drawing2D.LinearGradientBrush(New RectangleF(0, 0, Ctrl.Width, Ctrl.Height), color1, color2, mode)

        Dim g As Graphics = Ctrl.CreateGraphics

        g.FillRectangle(a, New RectangleF(0, 0, Ctrl.Width, Ctrl.Height))

        g.Dispose()

        Return True

    Catch ex As Exception

        MsgBox("Error Creating Gradient!" + Environment.NewLine + ex.Message)

        Return False

    End Try

End Function