How to create an imagelist from a PNG?

Question

I've seen here that you can create an image list with transparency. It works... sort of.

I used this to create an image list for a list control. The results were a little disappointing:

The one on the left is how it should look. The one on the right is how the list control is displaying it. It looks like it just tried to use the alpha as a mask and any blended area is attempted to be approximated by dithering. Is there a way of getting this better so that I get an actual alpha blended image?

Here is the source if that makes any difference:

class CDlg : public CDialog
{
    DECLARE_DYNCREATE(CDlg)

public:
    CDlg(CWnd* pParent = NULL);   // standard constructor
    virtual ~CDlg();

    // Dialog Data
    enum { IDD = IDD_BS_PRINT };
    CGdiPlusBitmapResource m_pBitmap;

protected:
    virtual void DoDataExchange(CDataExchange* pDX);    // DDX/DDV support
    virtual BOOL OnInitDialog();

    DECLARE_MESSAGE_MAP()
public:
    CListCtrl m_printOptions;
};

BOOL CDlg::OnInitDialog()
{
    __super::OnInitDialog();

    m_pBitmap.Load(IDB_RIBBON_HOMELARGE, _T("PNG"), AfxGetResourceHandle());
    HBITMAP hBitmap;
    m_pBitmap.m_pBitmap->GetHBITMAP(RGB(0, 0, 0), &hBitmap);

    CImageList *pList = new CImageList;
    CBitmap bm;
    bm.Attach(hBitmap);
    pList->Create(32, 32, ILC_COLOR32, 0, 4);
    pList->Add(&bm, RGB(255, 0, 255));
    m_printOptions.SetImageList(pList, LVSIL_NORMAL);

//...
    return TRUE;
}

IMPLEMENT_DYNCREATE(CDlg, CDialog)

CBSPrintDlg::CBSPrintDlg(CWnd* pParent /*=NULL*/)
: CBCGPDialog(CBSPrintDlg::IDD, pParent)
{
}

CBSPrintDlg::~CBSPrintDlg()
{
}

void CBSPrintDlg::DoDataExchange(CDataExchange* pDX)
{
    CBCGPDialog::DoDataExchange(pDX);

    DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_PRINT_OPTIONS, m_printOptions);
}

For source of CGdiPlusBitmapResource implementation look here.

The original image with transparency is this:

@Barmak tried with a different image and it looks fine. I think that is because the transparency is near the edge and not located within the image. See here:

Answer 1

Edit ----------

First parameter in Gdiplus::GetHBITMAP should be the background color. Using RGB(0, 0, 0) as background color causes the semi-transparent pixels to match with black.

Using Gdiplus::Color(255,255,255,255) (white) it will improve the appearance (because ListView background is also white). But it's better to change the background to Gdiplus::Color(0,255,255,255) (transparent) to match any background.

{
    CGdiPlusBitmapResource gdibmp;
    if (gdibmp.Load(IDB_RIBBON_HOMELARGE, _T("PNG"), AfxGetResourceHandle()))
    {
        HBITMAP hBitmap;
        gdibmp.m_pBitmap->GetHBITMAP(Gdiplus::Color::Transparent, &hBitmap);
        ImageList_AddMasked(*pList, hBitmap, 0);
    }
}

This assume images are all 32x32 pixels. If images are different sizes, they have to be resized before being added to image list.

{
    CGdiPlusBitmapResource gdibmp;
    if (gdibmp.Load(id, _T("PNG"), AfxGetResourceHandle()))
    {
        //resize image to 32x32 pixels
        Gdiplus::Bitmap newBmp(32, 32, PixelFormat32bppPARGB);
        double oldh = (double)gdibmp.m_pBitmap->GetHeight();
        double oldw = (double)gdibmp.m_pBitmap->GetWidth();
        double neww = 32;
        double newh = 32;

        double ratio = oldw / oldh;
        if (oldw > oldh)
            newh = neww / ratio;
        else
            neww = newh * ratio;

        Gdiplus::Graphics graphics(&newBmp);
        graphics.SetInterpolationMode(Gdiplus::InterpolationMode::InterpolationModeHighQualityBicubic);
        graphics.SetSmoothingMode(Gdiplus::SmoothingModeAntiAlias);
        graphics.DrawImage(gdibmp.m_pBitmap, 0, 0, (int)neww, (int)newh);

        //add `newBmp` to image list
        HBITMAP hBitmap;
        newBmp.GetHBITMAP(Gdiplus::Color::Transparent, &hBitmap);
        ImageList_AddMasked(m_ImageList, hBitmap, 0);
    }
}

---

Using GdiPlus::GetHICON to get the icon handle... With CGdiPlusBitmapResource class, it should be possible to use the following:

HICON hicon;
m_pBitmap.Load(IDB_RIBBON_HOMELARGE, _T("PNG"), AfxGetResourceHandle());
m_pBitmap.m_pBitmap->GetHICON(&hicon);
pList->Add(hicon);

or using GetHBITMAP

Also make sure Visual Styles is enabled for improved appearance of ListView icons.

Test image with transparent background:

Answer 2

The PNG image contains pixels that are partially transparent (alpha < 255). That's a pretty common accident with a program like Photoshop, the most likely cause is overlaying the spyglass image on top of the document image and not merging the layers correctly.

As given, the image can only look good when it is displayed on top of the light-gray or white background. But that didn't happen, the background was black. Now making the anti-aliasing pixels around the spyglass painfully obvious, they turned various shades of dark-gray depending on their alpha value and no longer blend with the white background of the document image. A very typical mishap when you use GDI functions, it does not like alpha.

You can doctor it with GDI+, ensuring that the background color is correct. But that's a fair amount of work and it still leaves you with the trouble of guessing at the original background color correctly.

Just really rather best to go back to whatever painting tool you used and fix the problem there. Quickest fix ought to be re-saving it as a 24bpp BMP image file, ymmv.