Transparent checkbox with theme-support?

Question

I'm looking for a simple, transparent checkbox component that properly supports XP/Vista/7 theming.

It should also work with Delphi 7.

I've found a component on Torry's that's not working properly, and I know that Raize components has a transparent checkbox - but I'm obviously not going to pay $300 for the entire package just to get this single component.

I've also found many other solutions, but none of them support theming.

The main problem is that TCustomCheckBox is a TWinControl descendant, and in order to implement transparency, you need to make a new TGraphic descendant control from ground up.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Raize Components is overkill for just this component, but much more capable and supports transparency in a whole load more components. Once you have it, you'll appreciate the other items greatly. I'd say it is the solution you are looking for.

Answer 2

If you can accept an alternative control there is JvXPCheckCtrls.pas with its TJvXPCheckbox component in the JVCL library. http://jvcl.delphi-jedi.org I think (if I remember correct) it is transparent when themes are used.

It's quite a large package which will add to vcl with the installation of Jvcl. And it doesn't cost you a cent.

But remember, the TJvXPCheckbox component is part of their XP-controls package and you cannot simply lift out the component as a standalone. You will need the installation of Jedi and to get the core code and necessary theme handling to use it. - Its Mozilla Public Licence ("MPL") version 1.1.

Answer 3

I use AlphaControls for some of my programs - all of their components are skinnable and have reasonably powerful graphics handling options. A lot of the components also have more features than their corresponding Delphi standard components - some I just use for those functions alone. There's a free Lite version available at www.alphaskins.com - it may just be what you're after. It's not Vista/7 theme-aware, mind you. We use Delphi 2010 and vista/7 theme awareness is built into the standard VCL there, although that's probably not the solution you were hoping for.

Answer 4

LMD-Tools SE is free, works great on Delphi 7 and has a checkbox component that has a transparency property. I've recently used TLMDCheckbox with its transparency property enabled with Delphi 7.

http://www.lmdinnovative.com/download/index.php#LMD

Download file: setupse10d7.zip. Sorry, I can't post the whole path (url) since I don't have enough juice yet.

This should fix you up :).

ShawnH.

Answer 5

Not sure if this will help, but I ran into what I think is the same problem when working with the TMSSmooth controls: the label of a checkbox place on a form looked terrible because it was not transparent.

Their demo/example programs had nice looking checkboxes so I took a look at their sample code.

Turns out they reduced the width of the checkbox component to 13 so that only the box itself and no caption shows. Then they added a TLabel for the caption.

Seemed like a clever workaround to me.

Hope this helps.