How to: Create a Bitmap at Run Time (Visual C#)

This example creates and fills a Bitmap object, and then displays it in a PictureBox control. To run this example, create a Windows Forms Application project and drag a PictureBox control from the Toolbox to the form. The size of the Picture Box is not important; it will resize automatically to fit the bitmap. Paste the CreateBitmap method into the Form1 class, and call it from the Form1_Load event-handler method.

Example

void CreateBitmap()
{
    const int colWidth = 10;
    const int rowHeight = 10;
    System.Drawing.Bitmap checks = new System.Drawing.Bitmap(
        colWidth * 10, rowHeight * 10);
    // The checkerboard consists of 10 rows and 10 columns.
    // Each square in the checkerboard is 10 x 10 pixels.
    // The nested for loops are used to calculate the position
    // of each square on the bitmap surface, and to set the
    // pixels to black or white.

    // The two outer loops iterate through 
    //  each square in the bitmap surface.
    for (int columns = 0; columns < 10; columns+)
    {
        for (int rows = 0; rows < 10; rows+)
        {
            // Determine whether the current sqaure
            // should be black or white.
            Color color;
            if (columns % 2 == 0)
                color = rows % 2 == 0 ? Color.Black : Color.White;
            else
                color = rows % 2 == 0 ? Color.White : Color.Black;
            // The two inner loops iterate through
            // each pixel in an individual square.
            for (int j = columns * colWidth; j < (columns * colWidth) +
                colWidth; j+)
            {
                for (int k = rows * rowHeight; k < (rows * rowHeight) +
                    rowHeight; k+)
                {
                    // Set the pixel to the correct color.
                    checks.SetPixel(j, k, color);
                }
            }
            pictureBox1.BackgroundImage = checks;
        }
    }
}

Compiling the Code

This example requires:

• A reference to the System namespace.

Robust Programming

The following conditions may cause an exception:

• Trying to set a pixel outside the bounds of the bitmap.

See Also

Concepts

Designing a User Interface in Visual C#

Other Resources

Creating and Using Bitmaps and Icons

Visual C# Guided Tour

Change History