Wesner Moise has some great tips in "
Simple Changes To Spiff Up Your App UI". I especially like:
- GDI+ alphablending and gradients. Most developers know about gradients, but few realize that gradients can be applied with one or more colors partially opaque (an alpha less than 255). For example by creating a new LinearGradientBrush(rect, Color.FromArgb(128, Colors.White), Color.FromArgb(0, Colors.White), 45) and applying it over the drawing area of a control after painting, you can add pseudo-lighting effects on control. Alphablending and gradients are often used to create gel buttons, often seen in the Macintosh.
I was already using a variation of this, doing it the hard way, on a per element in basis some of my charts. This could give me another tiny speedup.
May the
New Year (5765) be a good year to you.