Show a Label with semi-transparent BackColor above other controls?

Question

I've got a custom control with two PictureBox controls that are animated and a label control over them.

The child indexes are set so that label is always on top but the picture boxes are interchanging so when animated they display different images each time.

As I understand, label needs to have a parent control on top of which it can support a semi transparent color (Argb). Since the label has active picture box as its parent it will also be animated with which is not what I want at all.

Is there a way to fix a child position relative to parents parent?

Answer 1

To have a transparent label control, you can override the OnPaint method and draw all controls that intersects with label, at last draw the background and text of the label.

Also when moving your picture boxes, don't forget to call the Invalidate() method of the transparent label.

Screenshot

Sample Implementation

public class TransparentLabel : Label
{
    public TransparentLabel()
    {
        this.transparentBackColor = Color.Blue;
        this.opacity = 50;
        this.BackColor = Color.Transparent;
    }
    protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
    {
        if (Parent != null)
        {
            using (var bmp = new Bitmap(Parent.Width, Parent.Height))
            {
                Parent.Controls.Cast<Control>()
                      .Where(c => Parent.Controls.GetChildIndex(c) > Parent.Controls.GetChildIndex(this))
                      .Where(c => c.Bounds.IntersectsWith(this.Bounds))
                      .OrderByDescending(c => Parent.Controls.GetChildIndex(c))
                      .ToList()
                      .ForEach(c => c.DrawToBitmap(bmp, c.Bounds));


                e.Graphics.DrawImage(bmp, -Left, -Top);
                using (var b = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(this.Opacity, this.TransparentBackColor)))
                {
                    e.Graphics.FillRectangle(b, this.ClientRectangle);
                }
                e.Graphics.TextRenderingHint = System.Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.ClearTypeGridFit;
                TextRenderer.DrawText(e.Graphics, this.Text, this.Font, this.ClientRectangle, this.ForeColor, Color.Transparent);
            }
        }
    }

    private int opacity;
    public int Opacity
    {
        get { return opacity; }
        set
        {
            if (value >= 0 && value <= 255)
                opacity = value;
            this.Invalidate();
        }
    }

    public Color transparentBackColor;
    public Color TransparentBackColor
    {
        get { return transparentBackColor; }
        set
        {
            transparentBackColor = value;
            this.Invalidate();
        }
    }

    [Browsable(false)]
    public override Color BackColor
    {
        get
        {
            return Color.Transparent;
        }
        set
        {
            base.BackColor = Color.Transparent;
        }
    }
}