System colors The Color Structure

169 DarkOrchid DarkRed DarkSalmon DarkSeaGreen DarkSlateBlue DarkSlateGray DarkTurquoise DarkViolet DeepPink DeepSkyBlue DimGray DodgerBlue Firebrick FloralWhite ForestGreen Fuchsia Gainsboro GhostWhite Gold Goldenrod Gray Green GreenYellow Honeydew HotPink IndianRed Indigo Ivory Khaki Lavender LavenderBlush LawnGreen LemonChiffon LightBlue LightCoral LightCyan LightGoldenrodYellow LightGray LightGreen LightPink LightSalmon LightSeaGreen LightSkyBlue LightSlateGray LightSteelBlue LightYellow Lime LimeGreen Linen Magenta Maroon MediumAquamarine MediumBlue MediumOrchid MediumPurple MediumSeaGreen MediumSlateBlue MediumSpringGreen MediumTurquoise MediumVioletRed MidnightBlue MintCream MistyRose Moccasin NavajoWhite Navy OldLace Olive OliveDrab Orange OrangeRed Orchid PaleGoldenrod PaleGreen PaleTurquoise PaleVioletRed PapayaWhip PeachPuff Peru Pink Plum PowderBlue Purple Red RosyBrown RoyalBlue SaddleBrown Salmon SandyBrown SeaGreen SeaShell Sienna Silver SkyBlue SlateBlue SlateGray Snow SpringGreen SteelBlue Tan Teal Thistle Tomato Transparent Turquoise Violet Wheat White WhiteSmoke Yellow YellowGreen

4.6.4.1 System colors

It is useful to discover the colors that Windows uses to draw specific window elements, such as the active windows title bar. If the color itself is required, it can be obtained from the SystemColors class. If a pen or brush of the appropriate color is needed, the pen or brush can be obtained from the corresponding property of the Pens or Brushes class, respectively. The property names exposed by these three classes overlap and, therefore, are presented here in a single list: ActiveBorder 170 The color of the filled area of the border of the active window. Not available on the Pens class. ActiveCaption The background color of the title bar of the active window. Not available on the Pens class. ActiveCaptionText The text color in the title bar of the active window. AppWorkspace The background color of MDI parent windows. Not available on the Pens class. Control The background color of controls. ControlDark The shadow color of controls for 3-D effects. ControlDarkDark The very dark shadow color of controls for 3-D effects. ControlLight The highlight color of controls for 3-D effects. ControlLightLight The very light highlight color of controls for 3-D effects. ControlText The color of text on controls. Desktop The color of the Windows desktop. Not available on the Pens class. GrayText The text color of disabled controls or other disabled visual elements. Not available on the Brushes class. Highlight The background color of highlighted selected text. HighlightText The text color of highlighted selected text. 171 HotTrack The background color of a hot tracked item. Hot tracking is highlighting an item as the mouse moves over it. Windows menus use hot tracking. Not available on the Pens class. InactiveBorder The color of the filled areas of the borders of inactive windows. Not available on the Pens class. InactiveCaption The background color of the title bars of inactive windows. Not available on the Pens class. InactiveCaptionText The text color in the title bars of inactive windows. Not available on the Brushes class. Info The background color of tool tips. Not available on the Pens class. InfoText The text color of tool tips. Not available on the Brushes class. Menu The background color of menus. Not available on the Pens class. MenuText The text color of menus. Not available on the Brushes class. ScrollBar The color of scroll bars in the area not occupied by the scroll box or thumb. Not available on the Pens class. Window The background color of the client areas of windows. Not available on the Pens class. WindowFrame The color of the frames surrounding windows. Not available on the Brushes class. WindowText The color of the text in the client areas of windows. Note that some of these properties arent available on either the Pens class or the Brushes class. In such cases, it is still possible to get a Pen or Brush object of the appropriate color by instantiating a new Pen or Brush object, passing to its constructor the desired color value, like this: 172 Dim br As New SolidBrushSystemColors.InfoText

4.6.5 Alpha Blending