Chami.com Tips

Windows, web pages, multimedia programs, all have backgrounds. How come your Delphi form doesn't?

Of course you could place a "TImage" component on your form and set its "Alignment" to "Client" in order to place a background image on your form. Here's another way:

1. Add following code to your form's "Public declarations" section:
    
   bmpBackground : TBitmap;

   Listing #1 : Delphi code. Download code (0.15 KB).
    
2. Double click on your form and add bitmap initialization code in the "FormCreate" event:
    
   bmpBackground := TBitmap.Create;
   bmpBackground.
     LoadFromFile( 'c:windowssetup.bmp' );

   Listing #2 : Delphi code. Download code2 (0.21 KB).
    
3. Go to the form's events list and double click on "OnPaint". Add following line to the "FormPaint" event:
    
   Canvas.Draw( 0, 0, bmpBackground );

   Listing #3 : Delphi code. Download code3 (0.16 KB).
    
4. Finally insert the following code in to the "FormDestroy" event ("OnDestroy" event):
    
   bmpBackground.Free;

   Listing #4 : Delphi code. Download code4 (0.15 KB).
    

Sample screen shot: