The PngComponents library supports alpha-channels to their full extend, using a modified version of the excellent pngdelphi library. PngComponents’ main and most important component is the PngImageList. This is a descendant of the normal TImageList, with in addition full support for PNGs with an alpha-channel. This will enable you to keep using most components that take advantage of imagelists, while actually feeding them icons with alphablending capabilities. Two other very nice components are the PngSpeedButton and the PngBitBtn. These two buttons do not have a Glyph anymore, but in stead, they accept a PNG file to be assigned directly to the button, without the need for an imagelist (just like the normal SpeedButton and BitBtn). And since the PNG glyphs are drawn in realtime, there’s no more hassling with WM_DISPLAYCHANGE when the user changes the clBtnFace color in his display settings… Two other components included in the library are the PngImageCollection, which is simply a collection of PNG images. Nothing more, nothing less. The last one is the PngCheckListBox. This one accepts PNG glyphs for the check states. Beside that, it’s a completely normal CheckListBox.
The PngComponents library offers a major leap forward in creating nice GUI’s in designtime. Not only does it speed up the implementation of alphablended icons in your application, it eases the way you can use them throughout your software. No longer do you need to put them in a resource file manually and then manually drawing them on a temporary bitmap and assigning that to somewhere. Adding beautiful alphablended icons to your interface is but a few clicks away.
Author : Gustavo Huffenbacher Daud
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