// Purpose: topic overview
// Author: wxWidgets team
// RCS-ID: $Id$
-// Licence: wxWindows license
+// Licence: wxWindows licence
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/**
@page overview_bitmap Bitmaps and Icons
-Classes:
-@li wxBitmap
-@li wxBitmapHandler
-@li wxIcon
-@li wxCursor
+@tableofcontents
The wxBitmap class encapsulates the concept of a platform-dependent bitmap,
either monochrome or colour. Platform-specific methods for creating a wxBitmap
run-time.
@code
-#include "mondrian.xpm"
+#include "sample.xpm"
@endcode
Sometimes you wish to use a .ico resource on Windows, and XPMs on other
appropriate platform, or an icon resource on Windows:
@code
-wxIcon icon(wxICON(mondrian));
+wxIcon icon(wxICON(sample));
// The above line is equivalent to this:
#if defined(__WXGTK__) || defined(__WXMOTIF__)
- wxIcon icon(mondrian_xpm);
+ wxIcon icon(sample_xpm);
#endif
#if defined(__WXMSW__)
- wxIcon icon("mondrian");
+ wxIcon icon("sample");
#endif
@endcode
// which is roughly equivalent to the following
#if defined(__WXMSW__) || defined(__WXPM__)
- wxBitmap bmp("bmpname", wxBITMAP_TYPE_RESOURCE);
+ wxBitmap bmp("bmpname", wxBITMAP_TYPE_BMP_RESOURCE);
#else // Unix
wxBitmap bmp(bmpname_xpm, wxBITMAP_TYPE_XPM);
#endif
You should always use wxICON() and wxBITMAP() macros because they work for any
platform (unlike the code above which doesn't deal with wxMac, wxX11, ...) and
-are shorter and more clear than versions with many @ifdef_ blocks. Even better,
-use the same XPMs on all platforms.
+are shorter and more clear than versions with many @ifdef_ blocks.
+Alternatively, you could use the same XPMs on all platforms and avoid dealing
+with Windows resource files.
-@li @ref overview_bitmap_supportedformats
-@li @ref overview_bitmap_handlers
+If you'd like to embed bitmaps with alpha transparency in your program, neither
+XPM nor BMP formats are appropriate as they don't have support for alpha and
+another format, typically PNG, should be used. wxWidgets provides a similar
+helper for PNG bitmaps called wxBITMAP_PNG() that can be used to either load
+PNG files embedded in resources (meaning either Windows resource section of the
+executable file or OS X "Resource" subdirectory of the application bundle) or
+arrays containing PNG data included into the program code itself.
+@see @ref group_class_gdi
-<hr>
@section overview_bitmap_supportedformats Supported Bitmap File Formats