How to: Fill a Shape with a Hatch Pattern

A hatch pattern is made from two colors: one for the background and one for the lines that form the pattern over the background. To fill a closed shape with a hatch pattern, use a HatchBrush object. The following example demonstrates how to fill an ellipse with a hatch pattern:

Example

The HatchBrush constructor takes three arguments: the hatch style, the color of the hatch line, and the color of the background. The hatch style argument can be any value from the HatchStyle enumeration. There are more than fifty elements in the HatchStyle enumeration; a few of those elements are shown in the following list:

• Horizontal

• Vertical

• ForwardDiagonal

• BackwardDiagonal

• Cross

• DiagonalCross

The following illustration shows the filled ellipse.

Dim hBrush As New HatchBrush( _
   HatchStyle.Horizontal, _
   Color.Red, _
   Color.FromArgb(255, 128, 255, 255))
e.Graphics.FillEllipse(hBrush, 0, 0, 100, 60)

HatchBrush hBrush = new HatchBrush(
   HatchStyle.Horizontal,
   Color.Red,
   Color.FromArgb(255, 128, 255, 255));
e.Graphics.FillEllipse(hBrush, 0, 0, 100, 60);

Compiling the Code

The preceding example is designed for use with Windows Forms, and it requires PaintEventArgs e, which is a parameter of the Paint event handler.

See Also

Other Resources

Using a Brush to Fill Shapes