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Matthew MacDonald

"Pro WPF with VB 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5"

These
bitmaps can then be used to skin windows, buttons, and other controls. This approach works
well for straightforward interfaces that don??™t change much over time, but it??™s extremely limiting
in other scenarios. Some of its problems include the following:
??? Each graphical element (background, button, and so on) needs to be exported as a separate
bitmap. That limits the ability to combine bitmaps and use dynamic effects such
as antialiasing, transparency, and shadows.
??? A fair bit of user interface logic needs to be embedded in the code by the developer.
This includes button sizes, positioning, mouse-over effects, and animations. The
graphic designer can??™t control any of these details.
??? There??™s no intrinsic connection between the different graphical elements, so it??™s easy to
end up with an unmatched set of images. Tracking all these items adds complexity.
??? Bitmaps can??™t be resized without compromising their quality. For that reason, a bitmapbased
user interface is resolution-dependent. That means it can??™t accommodate large
monitors and high-resolution displays, which is a major violation of the WPF design
philosophy.
If you??™ve ever been through the process of designing a Windows Forms application with
custom graphics in a team setting, you??™ve put up with a lot of frustration.


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