How can I set the opacity or transparency of a Pan

Question

I was wondering how to change or modify the transparency of a Panel in C#, not the whole form, but the panel only.. I've seen many C# tutorials on Opacity, but its for the Form. im looking for how it could be possible with the Panel only. Thank You!

Answer 1

I just wanted to add to the William Smash solution as I couldn't get to his blog so answers which may have been in there to my simple questions could not be found.

Took me a while to realise, but maybe I was just having a moment...

If you haven't had to do so already you'll need to add a reference to System.Windows.Forms in the project properties.

Also you'll need to add

Imports System.Windows.Forms 

to the file where you're adding the override class.

For OnPaintBackground you'll need to add a reference for System.Drawing then

Imports System.Drawing.Printing.PrintEventArgs

Answer 2

For whoever is still looking for a totally transparent panel, I found a nice solution in this blog by William Smash who in turn has taken it from Tobias Hertkorn on his T# blog. I thought its worth posting it as an answer here.

C# code:

public class TransparentPanel : Panel
{
    protected override CreateParams CreateParams 
    {            
        get {
            CreateParams cp =  base.CreateParams;
            cp.ExStyle |= 0x00000020; // WS_EX_TRANSPARENT
            return cp;
            }
    }
    protected override void OnPaintBackground(PaintEventArgs e) 
    {
        //base.OnPaintBackground(e);
    }
}

VB.Net code:

Public Class TransparentPanel
Inherits Panel
    Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CreateParams() As System.Windows.Forms.CreateParams
        Get
            Dim cp As CreateParams = MyBase.CreateParams
            cp.ExStyle = cp.ExStyle Or &H20 ''#WS_EX_TRANSPARENT
            Return cp
        End Get
    End Property
    Protected Overrides Sub OnPaintBackground(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs)
    ''#MyBase.OnPaintBackground(e)
    End Sub
End Class

Answer 3

some comments says that it works and some say it doesn't It works only for your form background not any other controls behind