Colors and Gradients

The Visual Studio SDK provides support to make it easier to create visual components, such as command bars, backgrounds, and menus, in VSPackages. Additionally, it provides support to make sure that components are always visually consistent with any running instance of the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE). This is accomplished by letting VSPackages query the IDE for the correct colors, cursors, theme brushes, gradient schemes, and palettes that will be used in a user interface (UI) element.

In This Section

• How to: Add Colors to User Interface Elements
  Describes how to query the IDE to obtain the correct RGB color value to use when painting a particular IDE component and how to use this information.

• How to: Add Gradients to User Interface Elements
  Describes how to query the IDE to obtain the correct kind of gradient to use with a particular IDE component and how to use this information.

• How to: Add Cursor Support
  Describes how to query the IDE to obtain the correct type of cursor to use with a particular IDE component and how to use this information.

Related Sections

• User Interface Design Guidelines
  Provides a detailed discussion of the design of a UI for Visual Studio add-ins and packages.

• User Interfaces
  Explains how to use Visual Studio services to create UI elements that match the rest of Visual Studio.