WPF image resources

Question

I come from a mostly web and a little bit Windows Forms background. For a new project, we will be using WPF. The WPF application will need 10 - 20 small icons and images for illustrative purposes. I am thinking about storing these in the assembly as embedded resources. Is that the right way to go ?

How do I specify in XAML that an Image control should load the image from an embedded resource ?

Answer 1

yes it is the right way. You could use the image in the resource file just using the path:

<Image Source="..\Media\Image.png" />

You must set the build action of the image file to "Resource"

Answer 2

If you're using blend, to make it extra easy and not have any trouble getting the correct path for the Source attribute, just drag and drop the image from the Project panel onto the designer.

Answer 3

If you will use the image in multiple places, then it's worth loading the image data only once into memory and then sharing it between all Image elements.

To do this, create a BitmapSource as a resource somewhere:

<BitmapImage x:Key="MyImageSource" UriSource="../Media/Image.png" />

Then, in your code, use something like:

<Image Source="{StaticResource MyImageSource}" />

In my case, I found that I had to set the Image.png file to have a build action of Resource rather than just Content. This causes the image to be carried within your compiled assembly.

Answer 4

It worked until I have moved the window and resource png image to another project.

It works if i keep the the resource image in the win.exe project. But I would like to keep the image resource in the same assembly as the xaml file :(.

Any ideas?

Answer 5

I found to be the best practice of using Images,Video,etc is:

• Change your files "Build action" to "Content"
  • found on the "Right-Click" menu at the Solution Explorer window
• Image Source in the following format:
  • "/«YourAssemblyName»;component/Images/«YourImage.png»"

Example

<Image Source="/WPFApplication;component/Images/Start.png" />

Benefits:

• Files are not embedded into the assembly
  • The Resource Manager will raise some Memory Overflow problems with too many Resources (at build time)
• Can be called between assemblies

Answer 6

Full description how to use resources: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970494.aspx and how to reference them read "Pack URIs in WPF"

In short, there is even means to reference resources from referenced/referencing assemblies