Recommended Format: BMP (Magenta Mask)
The first thing I would like to say is that if you're using Visual Studio 2003,
consider upgrading
to version 2005. It's absolutely fantastic. You may have noticed that our entire
site was created using it (i.e.: Visual Basic 2005). But, have no fear.... Our icons will
work fine with version 2003, although you will have to use a mask color in order
to acquire transparency with your toolbars.
Unfortunately the toolbar included with VS 2003 doesn't support alpha transparency.
This means that you won't be able to use the [PNG] or [ICO 24-bit/8-bit Alpha] formats (which we
always recommend as a first choice). Because of this minor restriction you will
have to sacrifice some color quality, but not much. This is the standard format
for VS 2003, so nothing new here.
In this example we are going to implement a basic toolbar using some images from
our
Web Icons
package:
1) We will start by adding an image list to our project. You will need to set the
following properties:
- Transparent Color -> Magenta
- Color Depth -> Depth24Bit
- ImageSize
-> (Target Resolution: 16x16, 24x24, etc.)
2) Using the Images (Collection) shown above, we will add the appropriate icons
from the BMP_Mask folder.
3) Next we will add a toolbar control to our project and associate it with the imagelist.
4) Add buttons to your toolbar and associate each button with the appropriate item
from the imagelist.
Special Note:
I must say that I am not too impressed with the default toolbar style settings.
I would recommend changing the following properties:
And now for the final result:
The samples used in this screenshot can be found in our
Web Icons
library.