Microsoft WPF Ribbon October 2010 - Bad Image Quality

Question

WPF Ribbon has poor image quality. I added

<Window.Resources>
    <Style TargetType="{x:Type Image}">
        <Setter Property="RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode" Value="HighQuality" />
    </Style>
</Window.Resources>

in my ribbon windows - but it doesnt helped. Also tried with

<ribbon:RibbonWindow.Resources>

image quality is still bad :-(

Does anybody know a workaround for this problem? My images are 48x48 png and i used them for large image icons

Thanks Michael

Answer 1

I had the same problem and I created my own usercontrol to solve this.

This is how I did it:

<ribbon:Ribbon>
        <ribbon:RibbonTab Header="File">
            <ribbon:RibbonGroup Header="File">
                <views:ImageButton Command="{Binding LoadCommand}" Caption="Open" SourceImage="/Images/save.png"/>
            </ribbon:RibbonGroup>
        </ribbon:RibbonTab>
    </ribbon:Ribbon>

The image button usercontrol ImageButton.xaml

<UserControl Name="control"

 <Button Command="{Binding Command, ElementName=control}" Style="{x:Null}">
    <StackPanel>
        <infrastructure:AutoGreyableImage Width="32" Source="{Binding SourceImage, ElementName=control}"/>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Caption, ElementName=control}"/>
    </StackPanel>
</Button>

The image button usercontrol ImageButton.xaml.cs

public partial class ImageButton : UserControl
{
    public static DependencyProperty CommandProperty = DependencyProperty.Register(
      "Command", typeof(ICommand), typeof(ImageButton));
    public static DependencyProperty SourceProperty = DependencyProperty.Register(
      "SourceImage", typeof(string), typeof(ImageButton));
    public static DependencyProperty CaptionProperty = DependencyProperty.Register(
      "Caption", typeof(string), typeof(ImageButton));

    public ICommand Command
    {
        get
        {
            return (ICommand)GetValue(CommandProperty);
        }
        set
        {
            SetValue(CommandProperty, value);
        }

    }
    public string SourceImage
    {
        get
        {
            return (string)GetValue(SourceProperty);
        }
        set
        {
            SetValue(SourceProperty, value);
        }

    }
    public string Caption
    {
        get
        {
            return (string)GetValue(CaptionProperty);
        }
        set
        {
            SetValue(CaptionProperty, value);
        }

    }
    public ImageButton()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
}

For the AutogreyableImage, I used this post

This is a copy paste of the class

    using System.Windows.Controls;
    using System.Windows.Media;
    using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;  


/// <summary>
    /// Class used to have an image that is able to be gray when the control is not enabled.
    /// Author: Thomas LEBRUN (http://blogs.developpeur.org/tom)
    /// </summary>
    public class AutoGreyableImage : Image
    {

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="AutoGreyableImage"/> class.
        /// </summary>
        static AutoGreyableImage()
        {
            // Override the metadata of the IsEnabled property.
            IsEnabledProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(AutoGreyableImage), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(true, new PropertyChangedCallback(OnAutoGreyScaleImageIsEnabledPropertyChanged)));
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Called when [auto grey scale image is enabled property changed].
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="source">The source.</param>
        /// <param name="args">The <see cref="System.Windows.DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.</param>
        private static void OnAutoGreyScaleImageIsEnabledPropertyChanged(DependencyObject source, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs args)
        {
            var autoGreyScaleImg = source as AutoGreyableImage;
            var isEnable = Convert.ToBoolean(args.NewValue);
            if (autoGreyScaleImg != null)
            {
                if (!isEnable)
                {
                    // Get the source bitmap
                    var bitmapImage = new BitmapImage(new Uri(autoGreyScaleImg.Source.ToString()));
                    // Convert it to Gray
                    autoGreyScaleImg.Source = new FormatConvertedBitmap(bitmapImage, PixelFormats.Gray32Float, null, 0);
                    // Create Opacity Mask for greyscale image as FormatConvertedBitmap does not keep transparency info
                    autoGreyScaleImg.OpacityMask = new ImageBrush(bitmapImage);
                }
                else
                {
                    // Set the Source property to the original value.
                    autoGreyScaleImg.Source = ((FormatConvertedBitmap)autoGreyScaleImg.Source).Source;
                    // Reset the Opcity Mask
                    autoGreyScaleImg.OpacityMask = null;
                }
            }
        }
    }

I hope this will help you and the others coming

Answer 2

The reason for you poor quality, is because of incorrect image size. Small icons must be 16 x 16. And large icons must 32 x 32. If the image size is of another size it will be stretched. And the stretching will result in a reduced image quality.

Answer 3

Have you checked out the following page from Microsoft with specific recommendations on image size / DPI?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd316921(v=vs.85).aspx