How to: Paint an Area with a Solid Color

To paint an area with a solid color, you can use a predefined system brush, such as Red or Blue, or you can create a new SolidColorBrush and describe its Color using alpha, red, green, and blue values. In XAML, you may also paint an area with a solid color by using hexidecimal notation.

The following examples uses each of these techniques to paint a Rectangle blue.

Example

Using a Predefined Brush

In the following example uses the predefined brush Blue to paint a rectangle blue.

<Rectangle Width="50" Height="50" Fill="Blue" />

// Create a rectangle and paint it with 
// a predefined brush.
Rectangle myPredefinedBrushRectangle = new Rectangle();
myPredefinedBrushRectangle.Width = 50;
myPredefinedBrushRectangle.Height = 50;
myPredefinedBrushRectangle.Fill = Brushes.Blue;

For a list of predefined brushes, see the Brushes class.

[xaml]

Using Hexadecimal Notation

The next example uses 8-digit hexadecimal notation to paint a rectangle blue.

<!-- Note that the first two characters "FF" of the 8-digit
     value is the alpha which controls the transparency of 
     the color. Therefore, to make a completely transparent
     color (invisible), use "00" for those digits (e.g. #000000FF). -->
<Rectangle Width="50" Height="50" Fill="#FF0000FF" />

Using ARGB Values

The next example creates a SolidColorBrush and describes its Color using the ARGB values for the color blue.

<Rectangle Width="50" Height="50">
  <Rectangle.Fill>
    <SolidColorBrush>
     <SolidColorBrush.Color>

        <!-- Describes the brush's color using
             RGB values. Each value has a range of 0-255.  
             R is for red, G is for green, and B is for blue.
             A is for alpha which controls transparency of the
             color. Therefore, to make a completely transparent
             color (invisible), use a value of 0 for Alpha. -->
        <Color A="255" R="0" G="0" B="255" />
     </SolidColorBrush.Color>
    </SolidColorBrush>
  </Rectangle.Fill>
</Rectangle>

Rectangle myRgbRectangle = new Rectangle();
myRgbRectangle.Width = 50;
myRgbRectangle.Height = 50;
SolidColorBrush mySolidColorBrush = new SolidColorBrush();

// Describes the brush's color using RGB values.  
// Each value has a range of 0-255.
mySolidColorBrush.Color = Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 0, 255);
myRgbRectangle.Fill = mySolidColorBrush;           

For other ways of describing color, see the Color structure.

Related Topics

For more information about SolidColorBrush and additional examples, see the Painting with Solid Colors and Gradients Overview overview.

This code example is part of a larger example provided for the SolidColorBrush class. For the complete sample, see the Brushes Sample.