How to: Flatten a Curved Path into a Line

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A GraphicsPath object stores a sequence of lines and Bézier splines. You can add several types of curves (ellipses, arcs, cardinal splines) to a path, but each curve is converted to a Bézier spline before it is stored in the path. Flattening a path consists of converting each Bézier spline in the path to a sequence of straight lines. The following illustration shows a path before and after flattening.

Straight Lines and Curves

To Flatten a Path

  • call the Flatten method of a GraphicsPath object. The Flatten method receives a flatness argument that specifies the maximum distance between the flattened path and the original path.

See Also

Reference

System.Drawing.Drawing2D.GraphicsPath

Other Resources

Lines, Curves, and Shapes

Constructing and Drawing Paths