Specifying Drawing Colors

In Visual Basic, you can specify drawing colors with the Color structure. To create a custom color, you can use the FromArgb method of this structure. There are a number of overloaded versions of the FromArgb method; one allows you to specify the red, green, and blue color values for the new color as bytes (holding values ranging from 0 to 255). For example, white has the (red, green, blue) color values (255, 255, 255), bright green is (0, 255, 0), gray is (128, 128, 128), bright blue is (0, 0, 255), and so on. Here's how I use the FromArgb method to create a bright red pen and use it to draw a line:

            Dim c As Color = Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 0)
            Dim RedPen As New Pen(c)
            g.DrawLine(RedPen, point1, point2)

The Color structure also comes with dozens of built-in colors, which are the same as those used in the Pens and Brushes classes, which you can find in Table 13.6. For example, you can use such colors as Color.SteelBlue or Color.Teal, and so on.

Table 13.6: Colors of the *Pens* and *Brushes* classes.
AliceBlue	AntiqueWhite	Aqua	Aquamarine
Azure	Beige	Bisque	Black
BlanchedAlmond	Blue	BlueViolet	Brown
BurlyWood	CadetBlue	Chartreuse	Chocolate
Coral	CornflowerBlue	Cornsilk	Crimson
Cyan	DarkBlue	DarkCyan	DarkGoldenrod
DarkGray	DarkGreen	DarkKhaki	DarkMagenta
DarkOliveGreen	DarkOrange	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

Tip

You can recover the red, green, and blue values for a color using the Color structure's R, G, and B members (these members are read-only).