Hatch Brushes

A hatch brush relies on a drawn or designed pattern to set its filling type. To support hatch brushes, the .NET Framework provides the patterns you can use as part of the brush. These pre-designed patterns are referred to as hatch styles. This means that when you use a hatch brush, you must specify the type of pattern you want to use, through one of the available hatch styles. To make the filled area more interesting, you also specify the color to use when drawing the pattern.

To get a hatch brush, you use the HatchBrush class. One of its constructors has the following syntaxes:

public: HatchBrush(HatchStyle style, Color foreColor);

The foreColor argument is the color that will be used to draw the pattern. The style argument is the hatch style you want to apply. Some of the available styles are:

private: System::Void Form1_Paint(System::Object *  sender, System::Windows::Forms::PaintEventArgs *  e)
{
	 using namespace System::Drawing::Drawing2D;

HatchBrush *brushBackDiag   = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::BackwardDiagonal,  Color::FromArgb(0, 0, 255));
	HatchBrush *brushCross      = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::Cross, Color::FromArgb(200, 0, 0));
	HatchBrush *brushDarkDown   = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DarkDownwardDiagonal,  Color::Salmon);
	HatchBrush *brushDarkHorz   = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DarkHorizontal,  Color::Navy);
	HatchBrush *brushDarkUpDiag = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DarkUpwardDiagonal, Color::Pink);
HatchBrush *brushVertical   = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DarkVertical,   Color::FromArgb(255, 0, 255));
HatchBrush *brushDashDnDiag = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DashedDownwardDiagonal, Color::FromArgb(255, 128, 0));
HatchBrush *brushDashHorz   = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DashedHorizontal,  Color::FromArgb(0, 128, 192));
HatchBrush *brushDashUpDiag = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DashedUpwardDiagonal,  Color::Green);
	HatchBrush *brushDashVert   = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DashedVertical, Color::Firebrick);
	HatchBrush *brushDiagBrisk  = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DiagonalBrick, Color::Fuchsia);
	HatchBrush *brushDiagCross  = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DiagonalCross, Color::Moccasin);
	HatchBrush *brushDivot      = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::Divot, Color::Goldenrod);
	HatchBrush *brushDotDiamond = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DottedDiamond, Color::Gainsboro);
	HatchBrush *brushDottedGrid = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::DottedGrid, Color::Khaki);
	HatchBrush *brushForDiag    = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::ForwardDiagonal, Color::Maroon);
	HatchBrush *brushHorz       = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::Horizontal, Color::Red);
	HatchBrush *brushHorzBrick  = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::HorizontalBrick, Color::SaddleBrown);
	HatchBrush *brushLgChkBoard = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::LargeCheckerBoard, Color::RoyalBlue);
	HatchBrush *brushLgConfetti    = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::LargeConfetti, Color::MistyRose);
	HatchBrush *brushLgGrid         = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::LargeGrid, Color::Purple);
	HatchBrush *brushLtDnDiag     = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::LightDownwardDiagonal, Color::DarkCyan);
	HatchBrush *brushLtHorz         = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::LightHorizontal, Color::PowderBlue);
	HatchBrush *brushUpDiag        = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::LightUpwardDiagonal, Color::SeaGreen);
	HatchBrush *brushLtVert          = new HatchBrush(HatchStyle::LightVertical, Color::Olive);

	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushBackDiag,       20,  20, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushCross,          120,  20, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDarkDown,   220,  20, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDarkHorz,     320,  20, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDarkUpDiag, 420,  20, 80, 60);

	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushVertical,          20, 100, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDashDnDiag, 120, 100, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDashHorz,     220, 100, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDashUpDiag, 320, 100, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDashVert,      420, 100, 80, 60);

	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDashVert,    20, 180, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDiagBrisk,  120, 180, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDiagCross,  220, 180, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDivot,      320, 180, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDotDiamond, 420, 180, 80, 60);

	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushDottedGrid,  20, 260, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushForDiag,    120, 260, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushHorz,       220, 260, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushHorzBrick,  320, 260, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushLgChkBoard, 420, 260, 80, 60);
			
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushLgGrid,      20, 340, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushLtDnDiag,   120, 340, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushLtHorz,     220, 340, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushUpDiag,     320, 340, 80, 60);
	e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushLtVert,     420, 340, 80, 60);
}

If you use the above constructor to fill out a shape, the selected pattern would be drawn on top of a black color used as the background. If you want to use a different background, use the following constructor to initialize the brush:

public: HatchBrush(HatchStyle hatchstyle, Color foreColor,  Color backColor);

The backColor argument passed as a Color value will be used as the background Color::

At any time, to find out the color used to paint a pattern, you can access the brush's ForegroundColor property. To know the color used as background, you can access the brush's BackgroundColor property. To know the hatch style used on the current brush, you can access its HatchStyle property.