Text Opacity

[Sol]

I am new to Visual Basic 2008 so this may be a simple one...

I am attempting to write opaque text over an Image (Picture Box) however when I set the background colour of a label to transparent this makes the background colour of the label the same as the form and not transparant to the picture box which is what I need. Does anyone know how this is done please?

[epots9]

does it is look like that when you run the app?

[Sol]

Yes. The idea is a simulation of a GUI where softkey options are displayed on screen

[epots9]

until i install the demo version i won't be much help, but i'll get one of the .NET Pros help you out.

[Sol]

Thank you.... A little more information.. I am developing an application which incorporates a web-cam. The webcam outputs to a picturebox as a bitmap image. I need to add text over the picturebox without having the opaque textblock backcolour. I have tryed setting the transparantcy key to the same as the label back colour however the the label becomes transparant and shows whats behind the form and not transparant to the picture box. I have seen examples of alpha blending however my programming skills prevent me from exploiting this method against a 25-frame per second webcam picture. There must be a simple way to do this as with the form opacity?

[kenobewan]

Have you tried using a textbox instead of a label? Another option in asp.net would be to use DrawString statements. HTH.

[Sol]

I have tried both of these. The Drawstring draws the text string behind the picturebox (and all controls) and the textbox behaves in the same way as the label. Is it possible to programmably z-order the drawstring output in front of the picturebox?

[Sol]

I have done a little test with the Drawstring Function when loading and clearing a picture every second in a picture box... The Text remains as I need it do.

The problem appears to be involved in the webcam and the way in which the frames are cleared and loaded onto the picturebox. (I am using the AVICAP.32 method with CapCreateCamWin dow) I believe that there may be a deeply embedded member of a called class that affects the image in a way that clears not just teh image, but the text as well.... Any Ideas?