Delphi: Aero-Glass Tabs [closed]

Asked 6/1, 2012 at 5:50 Answered 12/12, 2012 at 15:48

I would want to have tabs like here (all are glass): enter image description here

A program is written in Delphi or C++ Builder. I can't find a class of the tabs in Winspector Spy & Window Detective.

I know a very good component - rkAeroTabs, but unfortunately it doesn't show an active tab with glass (that's what I need), & other tabs are not fully glass:
_{(source: rmklever.com)}

Does anybody know how to get those glass tabs? Thanks.

Olimpia answered 6/1, 2012 at 5:50 Comment(18)

The component you refer has a 'LevelTabActive' property which is supposed to set opacity of the active tab. – Arturo 6/1, 2012 at 8:15

I'm about rkAeroTabs. There is a wrong caption, rkAeroTabs component is on the picture, not rkSmartTabs. – Olimpia 6/1, 2012 at 8:22

It's more complicated because there is always an intersection of the active tab with some inactive. Making it "glass" or better to say transparent will cause that you will see the part of an inactive tab (see here). Workaround this will need deeper modifications. And there is also an unpleasant artifact which you can see also in your screenshot; there is a solid rectangle behind the control colored by ColorBackground. – Anisole 6/1, 2012 at 9:23

To remove the solid rectangle behind the control you can publish the FTransparent property field. By setting it to True the background become transparent (see here). – Anisole 6/1, 2012 at 10:39

+1 to the question, they are nice looking tabs for gui important applications :) – Altimeter 6/1, 2012 at 16:28

It's so interesting for me how an author has made those tabs. He uses LMD, TMS, Jedi components in the app but they don't have such tabs. – Olimpia 6/1, 2012 at 17:7

Thanks TLama for your attempts to improve a view of tabs and advices – Olimpia 6/1, 2012 at 17:9

possible duplicate of Google Chrome tabs style UI in Delphi – Masto 6/1, 2012 at 17:19

Are you asking about how to put the tabs in the non-client area at the top of the form, or are you asking about how to make them paint over glass? rkSmartTabs already works, but setting up a fully-user-managed non-client area is also required. See the linked duplicate for details. The vaguest part of your question is what you mean by fully-glass? You want more like 50% transparency? – Masto 6/1, 2012 at 17:21

I know how to put the tabs in the non-client area - delphihaven.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/… I'm asking about how to make GLASS tabs on a GLASS form (not the transparent tabs; the tabs must be like on the first picture - glass). – Olimpia 6/1, 2012 at 17:31

@Tlama, those links are asking me to sign in to something. Can you post your pictures publicly instead, please? – Obregon 6/1, 2012 at 18:2

maxfax: The active tab is colored blue and is 100% non-opaque, so by what definition is the active tab being painted in a "glass" manner? What on earth do you mean by 'glass'? it's an aero rendering effect involving (guess what!?) TRANSPARENCY. – Masto 6/1, 2012 at 19:34

ok. Finally, all the tabs (except the active one) look like glass (many effects are used to get that glass effect, not only transparency like in rkAeroTabs/rkSmartTabs). I need glass tabs, not transparent ones. If you want you can install that app and see a difference, and the difference is big. – Olimpia 6/1, 2012 at 19:51

@Rob, my apologies, here they are: Transparent tab, solid background is here and the same with the transparent background here. – Anisole 7/1, 2012 at 11:36

The difference is NOT big. It's subjective and non-apparent. Does glass equal "blue" somewhere in your brain? – Masto 7/1, 2012 at 14:40

@maxfax, go to TrkAeroTabs.SetColors and modify the line Brushes[2] := TGPSolidBrush.Create(MakeColor(255, Byte(c), Byte(c shr 8), Byte(c shr 16))); to ...MakeColor(200, Byte(c), Byte(c shr 8), Byte(c shr 16))... where 200 means the transparency of the active tab color. I don't know how would you paint a glass effect over a non-transparent element. – Anisole 8/1, 2012 at 17:25

That's how I made my screenshots (but with lower value for the transparency) ;) – Anisole 8/1, 2012 at 17:33

I'm a little confused as to why this question was closed by Will. How is it not constructive? – Maternal 13/12, 2012 at 9:59

I've just completed a pretty much complete implementation of Chrome Tabs for Delphi.

enter image description here

The features include:

Fully configurable Look and Feel including gradients, transparencies and custom tab shapes
Works on Vista glass
Tab movement animation
Tab transitional style effects (fade between colours and alpha levels)
Drag and Drop within container and between containers
Drag image displays tab and any TWinControl
Smart tab resizing when user clicks close button
Fluid tab resizing with minimum and maximum tab sizes
Add tab button can be positioned on the left, right or floating right
Full featured scrolling including auto scroll when dragging
Smart tab content display hides/shows items depending on the tab width
Owner draw any item
Right to Left text
Pinned tabs
Modified tabs with animated glow
Tab images and overlay images
Mouse over glow
Lots of events
Load/save look and feel and options to stream/file
Generate look and feel/options Delphi code

You can download the source and a full demo/editor here: http://code.google.com/p/delphi-chrome-tabs/

Maternal answered 12/12, 2012 at 15:48 Comment(2)

Really good your tabs, are you planning to update it to XE5? – Broderic 15/4, 2014 at 21:1

@eelias - It's very hard to find the time at the moment. However, it should be as simple as creating a new XE5 package and installing it. – Maternal 22/4, 2014 at 10:15

As pointed out by @Sertac Akyuz:

the rkSmartTabs has properties to set the tabs opacity levels.

LevelTabActive, LevelTabHot and LevelTabInActive.

By changing the default values (255, 192 and 224 respectivly) you can alter the opacity of different tab states.

I've been playing with it for a couple of weeks now. I really like what Roy has done with them.

Molokai answered 6/1, 2012 at 15:51 Comment(3)

OP wants that for rkAeroTabs not rkSmartTabs ;) – Anisole 6/1, 2012 at 16:13

@TLama: no he mentions rkAeroTabs. What, I think, he's looking for is a pagecontrol type of component that is glass enabled. Using rkSmartTabs, similar to tabcontrol, he can get the Glassy tabs and then using something like panels or frames(?) switch between them to get the glass look on the form. I haven't found a Glass capable pagecontrol equivilent. rkSmartTabs (same author) I know that hey can do the glass looking tabs using what I mentioned. – Molokai 6/1, 2012 at 20:20

Of course he do. You are talking about the rkSmartTabs in your answer :) – Anisole 8/1, 2012 at 17:20

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