Making `TStaticText` transparent - delphi

I have to use TStaticText instead of TLabel to make my software friendly to screen-readers because TStaticText has window handle and TLabel does not.
However, even though TStaticText has Transparent property, it is not really transparent on a gradient background.
Can anyone recommend way how to make it transparent or perhaps how to make a simple custom component which would be compatible with screen readers (having window handle that is) and be transparent at the same time?

Related

Lazarus/Codetyphon/freepascal translucent window

I have seen this : form:Transparent, Control on form:non Transparent?
I would like to create a translucent window on linux, where the window background has an alpha value of, say, 100, but all components on top of it have full opacity.
This shouldnt be a splash screen. The window borders should exist, and the window should be resizable, draggable.
I dont see any option for doing that in Linux. there is only form alpha-blend, which forces everything to the same opacity.
Please note, that I would like to do this with QT-bindings, as opposed to GTK-bindings, if possible.
Help please.

How to scroll a TTabSheet

I'd like to scroll an individual TabSheet within a PageControl if the height of the sheet becomes less than a value.
If I put a ScrollBox on the TabSheet, the themed background of the TabSheet is not painted (it's overwritten by the single color background of the scrollbox).
I've been trying to find / create a transparent scrollbox component with no luck. Any other ideas?
I'm using Delphi 7.
Thanks!
To answer my own question, TMS has a transparent scrollbox component called "TAdvScrollBox" that works with themed tabsheets too:
http://www.tmssoftware.com/site/asb.asp
Maybe this will help somebody:
There is a small bug with the component that turns the ParentCtl3d property to false causing ListViews to be rendered with a black border instead of a 3d one. It's easy to fix by setting ParentCtl3d to true programmatically on FormCreate.

How to set TPanel transparent?

When placing the TPanel component in designer, it seems it can not be made transparent? There's an opacity option, but that only deails with animations. I want the panel itself to be fully transparent, so I can see the image underneath. (I want to use the panel as a way of control layout of the controls placed on it)
Use TLayout or TRectangle instead of TPanel.
You can use almost any object opacity for that, for example:
Panel1->Opacity=0.5;

Why TPanel does not show correct frame/border in Delphi XE?

Tpanel does not show the top and left border under Delphi XE/Win 7.
Why?
Example (I just dropped few TPanel from pallete to my form, inside of a TTabSheet):
How do I make it look like the original Delphi 7 control (with all 4 borders), without changeing its properties every time I place it on my form?
Set ParentBackground to false.
Above is a blue panel on a green form (ParentBackground = false). Notice the white upper-left border and the gray bottom-right border. Of course, if both the form and the panel are white, the white border will become invisible.
That is how it meant to be drawn. The 3D effect is as if there was a light source shining from the top left. That's why the bottom and right edges are in a shadow cast by the raised panel.
Regarding your updated question, it sounds like you want your application to run without themes. The easiest way is to uncheck "Enable runtime themes" in the Application pane of the project settings.
But of course that would look odd nowadays. If you are using the panel to group related controls, perhaps a group box would be better. My instincts are that panels with raised borders will look poor on modern themed Windows.

How to add background images to Delphi forms

How can I add a background image to my delphi form? I added a TImage, but now the labels aren't visible any more, and the texts of my checkboxes are in a blue "box" (blue is the background color i chose). This blue doesn't look very good on the background image, and the hidden labels also don't look good. How do I fix these problems?
For the labels: make sure that they are transparent (Transparent property in the Object Inspector), and that they are on top of the TImage in the Z-order of controls. To correct this you can execute the "Send to back" command on the TImage component in design mode, it will make all other non-windowed controls appear on top of it.
For the checkboxes I don't know what the problem in your case is, in Delphi 2007 checkboxes appear properly transparent when put over a TImage. Maybe you use an earlier Delphi version? If so it would be good to mention this in the question. There may also be a different behaviour depending on whether themes are active. Again, hard to say without further information.
Move the TImage to the back of the form (right click, order -> send to back).
For labels, set the Transparent property to true. For checkboxes and radio buttons, at least in Delphi 6 which is all I have access to, there is no transparent property. The way round this is to reduce the controls label to zero size and the provide your own additional TLabel, which can be transparent.
Can I also say that I find windows with background images ultra naff, and I know I'm not alone in this.

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