Introduction

The simplest type of brush is referred to as solid. This type of brush is simply equipped with a color and it is used to fill a shape with it. To get a solid brush, you use the SolidBrush class defined in the System.Drawing namespace. It has only one constructor declared with the following syntax:

public: SolidBrush(Color color);

The color passed as argument must be a valid definition of a Color:: Here is an example:

private: System::Void Form1_Paint(System::Object *  sender, System::Windows::Forms::PaintEventArgs *  e)
{
	 SolidBrush *brushBlue = new SolidBrush(Color::Blue);

	 e->Graphics->FillRectangle(brushBlue, 20, 20, 200, 160);
}

If you plan to use different colors to fill different shapes, you don't have to create a new brush for each shape. At any time, before re-using the same brush previously defined, you can simply change its Color:: For this reason, the SolidBrush class is equipped with the Color property. Here is an example of using it:

private: System::Void Form1_Paint(System::Object *  sender, System::Windows::Forms::PaintEventArgs *  e)
			 {
				 SolidBrush *colorizer = new SolidBrush(Color::Lime);
				 e->Graphics->FillRectangle(colorizer, 10, 10, 120, 120);

				 colorizer->Color = Color::Salmon;
				 e->Graphics->FillRectangle(colorizer, 140, 10, 120, 120);

				 colorizer->Color = Color::Aqua;
				 e->Graphics->FillRectangle(colorizer, 10, 140, 120, 120);

				 colorizer->Color = Color::Navy;
				 e->Graphics->FillRectangle(colorizer, 140, 140, 120, 120);
			 }

Like most objects used in graphics programming, a brush consumes the computer resources. Therefore, after using it, you can free the resources it was using by calling the Dispose() method. Here is an example: