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ImageBrush Class

Paints an area with an image.

System.Object
  System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherObject
    System.Windows.DependencyObject
      System.Windows.Freezable
        System.Windows.Media.Animation.Animatable
          System.Windows.Media.Brush
            System.Windows.Media.TileBrush
              System.Windows.Media.ImageBrush

Namespace:  System.Windows.Media
Assembly:  PresentationCore (in PresentationCore.dll)
XMLNS for XAML: http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation, http://schemas.microsoft.com/netfx/2007/xaml/presentation
public sealed class ImageBrush : TileBrush
<ImageBrush .../>

The ImageBrush type exposes the following members.

  Name Description
Public method ImageBrush() Initializes a new instance of the ImageBrush class with no content.
Public method ImageBrush(ImageSource) Initializes a new instance of the ImageBrush class that paints an area with the specified image.
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  Name Description
Public property AlignmentX Gets or sets the horizontal alignment of content in the TileBrush base tile. (Inherited from TileBrush.)
Public property AlignmentY Gets or sets the vertical alignment of content in the TileBrush base tile. (Inherited from TileBrush.)
Public property CanFreeze Gets a value that indicates whether the object can be made unmodifiable. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Public property DependencyObjectType Gets the DependencyObjectType that wraps the CLR type of this instance.  (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public property Dispatcher Gets the Dispatcher this DispatcherObject is associated with. (Inherited from DispatcherObject.)
Public property HasAnimatedProperties Gets a value that indicates whether one or more AnimationClock objects is associated with any of this object's dependency properties. (Inherited from Animatable.)
Public property ImageSource Gets or sets the image displayed by this ImageBrush.
Public property IsFrozen Gets a value that indicates whether the object is currently modifiable. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Public property IsSealed Gets a value that indicates whether this instance is currently sealed (read-only). (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public property Opacity Gets or sets the degree of opacity of a Brush. (Inherited from Brush.)
Public property RelativeTransform Gets or sets the transformation that is applied to the brush using relative coordinates. (Inherited from Brush.)
Public property Stretch Gets or sets a value that specifies how the content of this TileBrush stretches to fit its tiles. (Inherited from TileBrush.)
Public property TileMode Gets or sets a value that specifies how a TileBrush fills the area that you are painting if the base tile is smaller than the output area. (Inherited from TileBrush.)
Public property Transform Gets or sets the transformation that is applied to the brush. This transformation is applied after the brush's output has been mapped and positioned. (Inherited from Brush.)
Public property Viewbox Gets or sets the position and dimensions of the content in a TileBrush tile. (Inherited from TileBrush.)
Public property ViewboxUnits Gets or sets a value that specifies whether the Viewbox value is relative to the bounding box of the TileBrush contents or whether the value is absolute. (Inherited from TileBrush.)
Public property Viewport Gets or sets the position and dimensions of the base tile for a TileBrush. (Inherited from TileBrush.)
Public property ViewportUnits Gets or sets a BrushMappingMode enumeration that specifies whether the value of the Viewport, which indicates the size and position of the TileBrush base tile, is relative to the size of the output area. (Inherited from TileBrush.)
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  Name Description
Public method ApplyAnimationClock(DependencyProperty, AnimationClock) Applies an AnimationClock to the specified DependencyProperty. If the property is already animated, the SnapshotAndReplace handoff behavior is used. (Inherited from Animatable.)
Public method ApplyAnimationClock(DependencyProperty, AnimationClock, HandoffBehavior) Applies an AnimationClock to the specified DependencyProperty. If the property is already animated, the specified HandoffBehavior is used. (Inherited from Animatable.)
Public method BeginAnimation(DependencyProperty, AnimationTimeline) Applies an animation to the specified DependencyProperty. The animation is started when the next frame is rendered. If the specified property is already animated, the SnapshotAndReplace handoff behavior is used. (Inherited from Animatable.)
Public method BeginAnimation(DependencyProperty, AnimationTimeline, HandoffBehavior) Applies an animation to the specified DependencyProperty. The animation is started when the next frame is rendered. If the specified property is already animated, the specified HandoffBehavior is used. (Inherited from Animatable.)
Public method CheckAccess Determines whether the calling thread has access to this DispatcherObject. (Inherited from DispatcherObject.)
Public method ClearValue(DependencyProperty) Clears the local value of a property. The property to be cleared is specified by a DependencyProperty identifier. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public method ClearValue(DependencyPropertyKey) Clears the local value of a read-only property. The property to be cleared is specified by a DependencyPropertyKey. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public method Clone Creates a modifiable clone of this ImageBrush, making deep copies of this object's values.
Protected method CloneCore Makes the instance a clone (deep copy) of the specified Freezable using base (non-animated) property values. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Public method CloneCurrentValue Creates a modifiable clone of this ImageBrush object, making deep copies of this object's current values.
Protected method CloneCurrentValueCore Makes the instance a modifiable clone (deep copy) of the specified Freezable using current property values. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Public method CoerceValue Coerces the value of the specified dependency property. This is accomplished by invoking any CoerceValueCallback function specified in property metadata for the dependency property as it exists on the calling DependencyObject. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Protected method CreateInstance Initializes a new instance of the Freezable class. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method CreateInstanceCore When implemented in a derived class, creates a new instance of the Freezable derived class. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Public method Equals Determines whether a provided DependencyObject is equivalent to the current DependencyObject. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Protected method Finalize Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before it is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Freeze() Makes the current object unmodifiable and sets its IsFrozen property to true. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method FreezeCore Makes this Animatable object unmodifiable or determines whether it can be made unmodifiable. (Inherited from Animatable.)
Public method GetAnimationBaseValue Returns the non-animated value of the specified DependencyProperty. (Inherited from Animatable.)
Public method GetAsFrozen Creates a frozen copy of the Freezable, using base (non-animated) property values. Because the copy is frozen, any frozen sub-objects are copied by reference. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method GetAsFrozenCore Makes the instance a frozen clone of the specified Freezable using base (non-animated) property values. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method GetContentBounds Obtains the current bounds of the TileBrush content (Inherited from TileBrush.)
Public method GetCurrentValueAsFrozen Creates a frozen copy of the Freezable using current property values. Because the copy is frozen, any frozen sub-objects are copied by reference. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method GetCurrentValueAsFrozenCore Makes the current instance a frozen clone of the specified Freezable. If the object has animated dependency properties, their current animated values are copied. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Public method GetHashCode Gets a hash code for this DependencyObject. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public method GetLocalValueEnumerator Creates a specialized enumerator for determining which dependency properties have locally set values on this DependencyObject. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public method GetType Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method GetValue Returns the current effective value of a dependency property on this instance of a DependencyObject. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public method InvalidateProperty Re-evaluates the effective value for the specified dependency property (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Protected method MemberwiseClone Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method OnChanged Called when the current Freezable object is modified. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method OnFreezablePropertyChanged(DependencyObject, DependencyObject) Ensures that appropriate context pointers are established for a DependencyObjectType data member that has just been set. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method OnFreezablePropertyChanged(DependencyObject, DependencyObject, DependencyProperty) This member supports the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) infrastructure and is not intended to be used directly from your code. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method OnPropertyChanged Overrides the DependencyObject implementation of OnPropertyChanged to also invoke any Changed handlers in response to a changing dependency property of type Freezable. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Public method ReadLocalValue Returns the local value of a dependency property, if it exists. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Protected method ReadPreamble Ensures that the Freezable is being accessed from a valid thread. Inheritors of Freezable must call this method at the beginning of any API that reads data members that are not dependency properties. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Public method SetCurrentValue Sets the value of a dependency property without changing its value source. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public method SetValue(DependencyProperty, Object) Sets the local value of a dependency property, specified by its dependency property identifier. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public method SetValue(DependencyPropertyKey, Object) Sets the local value of a read-only dependency property, specified by the DependencyPropertyKey identifier of the dependency property. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Protected method ShouldSerializeProperty Returns a value that indicates whether serialization processes should serialize the value for the provided dependency property. (Inherited from DependencyObject.)
Public method ToString() Return string representation of this Brush. (Inherited from Brush.)
Public method ToString(IFormatProvider) Creates a string representation of this object based on the specified culture-specific formatting information. (Inherited from Brush.)
Public method VerifyAccess Enforces that the calling thread has access to this DispatcherObject. (Inherited from DispatcherObject.)
Protected method WritePostscript Raises the Changed event for the Freezable and invokes its OnChanged method. Classes that derive from Freezable should call this method at the end of any API that modifies class members that are not stored as dependency properties. (Inherited from Freezable.)
Protected method WritePreamble Verifies that the Freezable is not frozen and that it is being accessed from a valid threading context. Freezable inheritors should call this method at the beginning of any API that writes to data members that are not dependency properties. (Inherited from Freezable.)
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  Name Description
Public event Changed Occurs when the Freezable or an object it contains is modified. (Inherited from Freezable.)
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  Name Description
Public field Static member ImageSourceProperty Identifies the ImageSource dependency property.
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  Name Description
Explicit interface implemetation Private method IFormattable.ToString Formats the value of the current instance using the specified format. (Inherited from Brush.)
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An ImageBrush is a type of TileBrush that defines its content as an image, which is specified by its ImageSource property. You can control how the image is stretched, aligned, and tiled, enabling you to produce patterns and other effects. The following images show some effects that can be achieved with an ImageBrush.

An ImageBrush can paint shapes, controls, text, and more

ImageBrush output examples

As mentioned, an ImageBrush paints an area with an ImageSource. The most common type of ImageSource to use with an ImageBrush is a BitmapImage, which describes a bitmap graphic. You can use a DrawingImage to paint using a Drawing object, but it is simpler to use a DrawingBrush instead. For more information about ImageSource objects, see Imaging Overview.

For more information about ImageBrush features, see Painting with Images, Drawings, and Visuals overview.

Freezable Features

Because the ImageBrush class inherits from Freezable, ImageBrush objects gain several special features, which include the following: they can be declared as resources, shared among multiple objects, made read-only to improve performance, cloned, and made thread safe. For more information about the features provided by Freezable objects, see Freezable Objects Overview.

This example shows how to use the ImageBrush class to paint an area with an image. An ImageBrush displays a single image, which is specified by its ImageSource property.

The following example paints the Background of a button by using an ImageBrush.



using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Media;

namespace Microsoft.Samples.Graphics.UsingImageBrush
{

    public class PaintingWithImagesExample : Page
    {

        public PaintingWithImagesExample()
        {
            Background = Brushes.White;
            StackPanel mainPanel = new StackPanel();
            mainPanel.Margin = new Thickness(20.0);

            // Create a button.
            Button berriesButton = new Button();
            berriesButton.Foreground = Brushes.White;
            berriesButton.FontWeight = FontWeights.Bold;
            FontSizeConverter sizeConverter = new FontSizeConverter();
            berriesButton.FontSize = (Double)sizeConverter.ConvertFromString("16pt");
            berriesButton.FontFamily = new FontFamily("Verdana");
            berriesButton.Content = "Berries";
            berriesButton.Padding = new Thickness(20.0);
            berriesButton.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left;

            // Create an ImageBrush.
            ImageBrush berriesBrush = new ImageBrush();
            berriesBrush.ImageSource =
                new BitmapImage(
                    new Uri(@"sampleImages\berries.jpg", UriKind.Relative)
                );

            // Use the brush to paint the button's background.
            berriesButton.Background = berriesBrush;

            mainPanel.Children.Add(berriesButton);
            this.Content = mainPanel;
        }
    }
}




<!-- This example shows how to use an ImageBrush to paint shapes and controls. -->
<Page  
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
  Background="White">

  <StackPanel Margin="20">

    <!-- Sets the button's Background property with an 
         ImageBrush. The resulting
         button has an image as its background. -->
    <Button
     Foreground="White" FontWeight="Bold"
     FontSize="16pt" FontFamily="Verdana" 
     Content="Berries"
     Padding="20" 
     HorizontalAlignment="Left">
      <Button.Background>
        <ImageBrush ImageSource="sampleImages\berries.jpg" />
      </Button.Background>
    </Button>
  </StackPanel>
</Page>


By default, an ImageBrush stretches its image to completely fill the area that you are painting. In the preceding example, the image is stretched to fill the button, possibly distorting the image. You can control this behavior by setting the Stretch property of TileBrush to Uniform or UniformToFill, which causes the brush to preserve the aspect ratio of the image.

If you set the Viewport and TileMode properties of an ImageBrush, you can create a repeating pattern. The following example paints a button by using a pattern that is created from an image.



using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Media;

namespace Microsoft.Samples.Graphics.UsingImageBrush
{

    public class TiledImageBrushExample : Page
    {

        public TiledImageBrushExample()
        {
            Background = Brushes.White;
            StackPanel mainPanel = new StackPanel();
            mainPanel.Margin = new Thickness(20.0);

            // Create a button.
            Button berriesButton = new Button();
            berriesButton.Foreground = Brushes.White;
            berriesButton.FontWeight = FontWeights.Bold;
            FontSizeConverter sizeConverter = new FontSizeConverter();
            berriesButton.FontSize = (Double)sizeConverter.ConvertFromString("16pt");
            berriesButton.FontFamily = new FontFamily("Verdana");
            berriesButton.Content = "Berries";
            berriesButton.Padding = new Thickness(20.0);
            berriesButton.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left;

            // Create an ImageBrush.
            ImageBrush berriesBrush = new ImageBrush();
            berriesBrush.ImageSource =
                new BitmapImage(
                    new Uri(@"sampleImages\berries.jpg", UriKind.Relative)
                );

            // Set the ImageBrush's Viewport and TileMode
            // so that it produces a pattern from
            // the image.
            berriesBrush.Viewport = new Rect(0,0,0.5,0.5);
            berriesBrush.TileMode = TileMode.FlipXY;

            // Use the brush to paint the button's background.
            berriesButton.Background = berriesBrush;

            mainPanel.Children.Add(berriesButton);
            this.Content = mainPanel;
        }
    }
}




<!-- This example shows how to use an ImageBrush to paint shapes and controls. -->
<Page  
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
  Background="White">

  <StackPanel Margin="20">

    <!-- Sets the button's Background property with an 
         ImageBrush. The resulting
         button has an image as its background. -->
    <Button
     Foreground="White" FontWeight="Bold"
     FontSize="16pt" FontFamily="Verdana" 
     Content="Berries"
     Padding="20" 
     HorizontalAlignment="Left">
      <Button.Background>

        <!-- The ImageBrush's Viewport and TileMode
             are set to produce a pattern from the
             image. -->
        <ImageBrush 
          Viewport="0,0,0.5,0.5" 
          TileMode="FlipXY"
          ImageSource="sampleImages\berries.jpg" />
      </Button.Background>
    </Button>
  </StackPanel>
</Page>


For more information about the ImageBrush class, see Painting with Images, Drawings, and Visuals.

This code example is part of a larger example that is provided for the ImageBrush class. For the complete sample, see ImageBrush Sample.

More Code

How to: Preserve the Aspect Ratio of an Image Used as a Background This example shows how to use the Stretch property of an ImageBrush in order to preserve the aspect ratio of the image.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 4, 3.5, 3.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.
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