png to bmp conversion (maintaining transparency) - delphi

Question

I am using delphi XE-5 and I am loading button information from a JSON file, in order to create buttons on a TMS ADVToolBar control. Each button is 50X35 and in png format with transparency.
I am getting each url, using the idHTTP component to retrieve it to a stream and then load it into a png. I then draw it onto a transparent BMP. However, I dont think this is the correct way. Anyway, the bmp is then added to a TImageList where it is assigned to a button using the index. The Image shows up on the button, but with no transparency.
see my code below:
imgUrl:= //code to get img url from JSON file;
MS := TMemoryStream.Create;
png := TPngImage.Create;
png.Transparent:= True;
try
idHTTP1.get(imgUrl,MS);
Ms.Seek(0,soFromBeginning);
png.LoadFromStream(MS);
bmp:= TBitmap.Create;
bmp.Transparent:= True;
bmp.Width:= 50;
bmp.Height:= 50;
png.Draw(bmp.Canvas, Rect(7, 7, png.Width, png.Height));
ImageList1.Add(bmp, nil);
AdvGlowBtn.Images:= ImageList1;
AdvGlowBtn.Layout:= blGlyphTop;
AdvGlowBtn.WordWrap:= False;
AdvGlowBtn.AutoSize:= True;
AdvGlowBtn.ImageIndex:= ImageList1.Count-1;
bmp.Free;
finally
FreeAndNil(png);
FreeAndNil(MS);
end;

Answer 1

At first you have to enable the runtime themes (Project Manager) otherwise you will have no transparency of your images.
And this is the code to load the PNG image into your ImageList1
bmp := TBitmap.Create;
try
// everything done before to bmp has no effect
bmp.Assign( png );
// if for some reason the loaded image is smaller
// set the size to avoid the invalid image size error
bmp.Width := ImageList1.Width;
bmp.Height := ImageList1.Height;
AdvGlowBtn.Images:= ImageList1;
...
// now add the Bitmap to the ImageList
AdvGlowBtn.ImageIndex := ImageList1.Add( bmp, nil );
finally
bmp.Free;
end;

Answer 2

I have an old project in Delphi 5 and I still using it sometimes.
This is my solution using the png object.
procedure ImageList2Alpha(const ImageList: TImageList);
const
Mask: array[Boolean] of Longint = (0, ILC_MASK);
var
TempList: TImageList;
begin
if Assigned(ImageList) then
begin
TempList := TImageList.Create(nil);
try
TempList.Assign(ImageList);
with ImageList do
begin
Handle := ImageList_Create(Width, Height, ILC_COLOR32 or Mask[Masked], 0, AllocBy);
if not HandleAllocated then
raise EInvalidOperation.Create(SInvalidImageList);
end;
Imagelist.AddImages(TempList);
finally
FreeAndNil(TempList);
end;
end;
end;
procedure LoadPngToBmp(var Dest: TBitmap; AFilename: TFilename);
type
TRGB32 = packed record
B, G, R, A : Byte;
end;
PRGBArray32 = ^TRGBArray32;
TRGBArray32 = array[0..0] of TRGB32;
type
TRG24 = packed record
rgbtBlue, rgbtGreen, rgbtRed : Byte;
end;
PRGBArray24 = ^TPRGBArray24;
TPRGBArray24 = array[0..0] of TRG24;
type
TByteArray = Array[Word] of Byte;
PByteArray = ^TByteArray;
TPByteArray = array[0..0] of TByteArray;
var
BMP : TBitmap;
PNG: TPNGObject;
x, y: Integer;
BmpRow: PRGBArray32;
PngRow : PRGBArray24;
AlphaRow: PByteArray;
begin
Bmp := TBitmap.Create;
PNG := TPNGObject.Create;
try
if AFilename <> '' then
begin
PNG.LoadFromFile(AFilename);
BMP.PixelFormat := pf32bit;
BMP.Height := PNG.Height;
BMP.Width := PNG.Width;
if ( PNG.TransparencyMode = ptmPartial ) then
begin
for Y := 0 to BMP.Height-1 do
begin
BmpRow := PRGBArray32(BMP.ScanLine[Y]);
PngRow := PRGBArray24(PNG.ScanLine[Y]);
AlphaRow := PByteArray(PNG.AlphaScanline[Y]);
for X := 0 to BMP.Width - 1 do
begin
with BmpRow[X] do
begin
with PngRow[X] do
begin
R := rgbtRed; G := rgbtGreen; B := rgbtBlue;
end;
A := Byte(AlphaRow[X]);
end;
end;
end;
end else
begin
for Y := 0 to BMP.Height-1 do
begin
BmpRow := PRGBArray32(BMP.ScanLine[Y]);
PngRow := PRGBArray24(PNG.ScanLine[Y]);
for X := 0 to BMP.Width - 1 do
begin
with BmpRow[X] do
begin
with PngRow[X] do
begin
R := rgbtRed; G := rgbtGreen; B := rgbtBlue;
end;
A := 255;
end;
end;
end;
end;
Dest.Assign(BMP);
end;
finally
Bmp.Free;
PNG.Free;
end;
end;
Call ImageList2Alpha(YourImageList) on the OnCreate of the Form (FormCreate), and the ImageList will be ready to store your Bitmaps32 keeping the transparency.
Call the LoadPngToBmp procedure to convert a PNG to Bitmap32 and then, store it on your ImageList.

Answer 3

The TBitmap class uses Windows own libraries to manipulate Bitmaps. Depending on you Windows version, the underlying Operating System libraries does not support 32 bits BMPs, despite the libraries header files declares a BITMAPQUAD struct.
For newer versions of Windows (Vista and above afaik), the field BITMAPQUAD.reserved is used to store the alpha channel. For older versions, this field must remain zero (0x00).
If you are using a "recent" version of Windows, the only possible explanation I see is that the TBitmap class were not updated to support the alpha channel.
Using the class TPNGImage should not be an issue instead of converting it to BMP before using, unless you have some more specific needs.

Answer 4

Use it like that:
ABitmap.SetSize(png.Width, png.Height);
png.AssignTo(ABitmap);