Graphics Programming with GDI+ [Paperback]

Mahesh Chand (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321160770 | ISBN-13: 978-0321160775 | Publication Date: October 20, 2003 | Edition: 1

GDI+ is a part of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that provides graphics, imaging, and typography functionality. It is a successor to GDI, the Graphics Device Interface included in previous versions of Windows. It improves on GDI in a number of ways, both by adding new features and by optimizing existing features. There is little documentation available on GDI+, and only two books available on it, both of which are written at a very introductory level. This book teaches .NET developers how to work with GDI+ as they develop applications that include graphics, or that interact with monitors or printers. It begins by explaining the difference between GDI and GDI+, and covering the basic concepts of graphics programming in Windows. It goes on to show the relationship between GDI+ and .NET. Chand then quickly moves to more advanced topics. The chapters start with simple code samples, and then move on to more complex real world applications. The author keeps a practical focus throughout, while teaching the entire GDI+ API defined in the .NET framework class library. All code samples in the book will be in C#. The companion Web site will have the code samples in both C# and Visual Basic .NET.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“Graphics Programming with GDI+ explores and exploits a wonderful range of GDI+ programming concepts, techniques, and applications for programmers of beginner to intermediate abilities. Being a prolific contributor to the Internet community of developers, Mahesh Chand is offering what seems to be a natural extension of what he does best—sharing his programming skills with other talented programmers. Each chapter compels to the next.”

         —Jason Hattingh, Director, Greystone Digital FX

“Mahesh does a very good job getting .NET developers up to speed using the GDI+ features supported in the .NET Framework. There is good coverage of graphics fundamentals that helps the reader better understand the concepts of graphics programming with GDI+, and there are some excellent sample applications that demonstrate the graphics topics covered to reinforce the concepts presented.”

         —Charles G. Parker, President, Parallel Consulting, Inc.

“Graphics Programming with GDI+ is a comprehensive reference for anyone who wants to leverage this technology. It presents a clear discussion of the topics in such a manner that is comprehensible to the beginner, but sufficiently in-depth to challenge seasoned programmers.”

         —Deborah J. Bechtold, MCSD, MCDBA

"This is the most comprehensive book about graphics programming using GDI+ so far. This book will be a very useful handbook for everyone who does graphics programming for Windows."

         —Min Liu, Software Design Engineer of GDI+, Microsoft Corporation

Graphics Programming with GDI+ is the .NET developer's guide to writing graphics applications for Windows and the Web. Through the use of detailed examples it provides experienced programmers with a deep understanding of the entire GDI+ API defined in the .NET Framework class library.

The book begins with an introduction to GDI+ and the basics of graphics programming in Windows. The core of the book is a hands-on guide to practical topics, including how to use Windows Forms and optimize GDI+ performance. Chapters demonstrate how to develop real-world tools such as GDI+Painter, GDI+Editor, ImageViewer, and ImageAnimator. The author provides extensive reusable sample code in C# throughout, and complete downloadable source code in C# and Visual Basic .NET is available online, as are color versions of screen shots from the book.

Key topics include:

• How GDI+ compares to GDI
• How GDI+ is defined and used in the .NET Framework
• How to draw, paint, and fill graphics objects
• Viewing and manipulating images
• Transforming graphics objects, images, and colors
• Printing in .NET
• How to develop GDI+ Web applications
• How to optimize drawing quality and performance
• Interactive color blending and transparent colors
• GDI interoperability
• Answers to frequently asked GDI+ questions

Graphics Programming in GDI+ is the most in-depth treatment available on writing effective graphics applications for the .NET Framework.

About the Author

Mahesh Chand is a .NET consultant and the founder and administrator of two popular community Web sites, www.c-sharpcorner.com and www.mindcracker.com. He has been working with .NET since the pre-beta releases. Mahesh is the author of A Programmer¿s Guide to ADO.NET in C# (APress, 2002) and coauthor of Applied ADO.NET (APress, 2003).

0321160770AB09252003

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Product Details

• Paperback: 784 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (October 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321160770
• ISBN-13: 978-0321160775
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars don't bother, December 21, 2005

By 

Smith (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Graphics Programming with GDI+ (Paperback)

There is nothing in this book that is not in the MSDN documentation (comes with Visual Studio, and is freely available at the MSDN site). In some cases, this book actually tells you less than the class library reference help. E.g., the example code regarding metafiles in MSDN has more detail than this book -- and that's not a lot! The examples in the book are just way too simplistic. In places, it seems plain that the help reference has basically been copied. Every time I check this book when I'm facing a real-world problem, the book is useless. There is nothing regarding best practices. It almost seems as though the author has not done serious work with GDI. Other books in this series from Addison are ok, but not this one.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very, very disappointed, January 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Graphics Programming with GDI+ (Paperback)

I was very disappointed with this book. I needed a book to help me make the jump from GDI to GDI+ and this was most certainly not that book. This was little more than a rehashing of the .NET framework library help file as far as far as I could tell, with all its limitations. It offers little or no additional value.

There were no useful discussions of the underlying abstract coordinate system of GDI+. Oh sure there was a rudimentary discussion of the Cartesian coordinate system, but no real discussion of how the vector shapes you draw in GDI+ get rendered on pixels, and how this can lead to all sorts of frustrating "off by one pixel" issues.

There was no dicussion about why DrawRectangle and FillRectangle seem to draw rectangles of different sizes. In fact, the caption in one drawing in the book makes me think the author has no idea this issue even exists.

There are no explanation of the subtle issues surrounding metafiles (like why do I still need a hDC, since hDCs are no longer used in GDI+) and on and on the list goes.

I can browse through the list of methods and properties in the .NET framework just fine, thanks. What I really need is a book that talks about the subtle issues of GDI+.

My recommendation to you? Buy one of Petzold's new .NET books. They aren't specific to GDI+, but there's a heck of lot better information in the sections he devotes to GDI+ than there is in this lousy book.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just a Rewrite of the Help File, May 19, 2005

By 

R. Cernis (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Graphics Programming with GDI+ (Paperback)

Little more than a rewriting of the GDI+ help file with minimalist samples of the main functions. No discussion of why you might want to use particular functions and - despite what other reviewers have said - no serious discussion of real-life examples at all. (The closest thing to a useful program discussed is an - ugly - clone of Paint - which I would NOT consider a example to be proud of.) The pictures are all in black-and-white, which is ludicrous in a book that deals with colour graphics, even if colour versions are available for download. Don't even THINK about looking in here for techniques to use GDI+ to make Windows programming easier.