Google Chrome tabs style UI in Delphi

Question

I am looking for the easiest way to implement Google Chrome style tabs over Windows 7 glass, in a Delphi application.

It would be great if I could hybridize the Google Chrome tabs style, and one element of the Ribbon style (the ribbon button, a round icon button), together, like this:

Answer 1

My first attempt was to make a full glass-window. But i'm stuck with the backward-compatibilty to pre-vista systems (like chrome has this blue form).

Answer 2

You don't want a full glass window, but you will have to draw the tabs yourself as there isn't a control that I am aware of that will give you the exact look your looking for. If you use the GlassFrame properties of the current form, enable it and set the top to the height you will want for your tabs, drop a paintbox on this area and use GDI+ calls to draw your tabs manually. A good library that should work for this is available on the EDN (http://cc.embarcadero.com/Download.aspx?id=26950). Without using GDI+ you will be able to draw to the paint box, but black will become transparent. With GDI+ you can draw freely to the glass in any color. For example:

Source:

unit Unit6;

interface

uses
  Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
  Dialogs, GdiPlusHelpers, GdiPlus, StdCtrls, ExtCtrls;

type
  TForm6 = class(TForm)
    pb1: TPaintBox;
    procedure pb1Paint(Sender: TObject);
  private
    { Private declarations }
   public
    { Public declarations }
  end;

var
  Form6: TForm6;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TForm6.pb1Paint(Sender: TObject);
var
  Graphics : IGPGraphics;
  Brush: IGPSolidBrush;
  FontFamily: IGPFontFamily;
  Font: IGPFont;
  Point: TGPPointF;
  Pen: IGPPen;
begin
  Graphics := Pb1.ToGPGraphics;
  Brush := TGPSolidBrush.Create(TGPColor.Create(255, 0, 0, 0));
  FontFamily := TGPFontFamily.Create('Consolas');
  Font := TGPFont.Create(FontFamily, 12, FontStyleRegular, UnitPoint);
  Point.Initialize(1, 0);
  Graphics.TextRenderingHint := TextRenderingHintAntiAlias;
  Graphics.DrawString('GDI+ Black Text', Font, Point, Brush);
  Pen := TGPPen.Create(TGPColor.Create(255, 0, 0, 0));
  Graphics.DrawLine(Pen, 0, 0, 200, 100);
end;

end.

Form:

object Form6: TForm6
  Left = 0
  Top = 0
  Caption = 'Form6'
  ClientHeight = 282
  ClientWidth = 418
  Color = clBtnFace
  Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
  Font.Color = clWindowText
  Font.Height = -11
  Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
  Font.Style = []
  GlassFrame.Enabled = True
  GlassFrame.Top = 22
  OldCreateOrder = False
  PixelsPerInch = 96
  TextHeight = 13
  object pb1: TPaintBox
    Left = 0
    Top = 0
    Width = 313
    Height = 105
    OnPaint = pb1Paint
  end
end

EDIT Updated to anti-alias the text so it looks better.