How to avoid color changes when button is disabled?

Question

We have a Windows Forms project with quite a few FlatStyle buttons.

When we disable the buttons, the colors of the buttons are changed automatically Frown | :(

Is it possible to override this somehow, so we can control the colors ourselves?

Banc

Do you want the text color to appear as activated or the background color? – Blayze

Text color as activated and backcolor as activated - actually, for some of the buttons, everything as when activated... – Banc

Seeing a user banging away at a button that was disabled but doesn't look disabled is a UI tragedy. You'll get no help from Winforms to invoke such a tragedy, it implements the UI design guide rules. The rules that every user is familiar with. You'll need to create your own tragedy with your own button control. – Sophia

Totally agree - the issue is being taken care of by button image changes. – Banc

Answer 1

You need to use the EnabledChanged event to set the desired color. Here is an example.

private void Button1_EnabledChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    Button1.ForeColor = sender.enabled == false ? Color.Blue : Color.Red;
    Button1.BackColor = Color.AliceBlue;
}

Use the desired colors according to your requirement.

Also you need to use the paint event.

private void Button1_Paint(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs e)
{
    dynamic btn = (Button)sender;
    dynamic drawBrush = new SolidBrush(btn.ForeColor);
    dynamic sf = new StringFormat {
        Alignment = StringAlignment.Center,
        LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center
    };
    Button1.Text = string.Empty;
    e.Graphics.DrawString("Button1", btn.Font, drawBrush, e.ClipRectangle, sf);
    drawBrush.Dispose();
    sf.Dispose();
}

Blayze

Excellent. Only problem is that the image on the buttons still change colors... I have tried using e.Graphics.DrawImage(), but it didn't help. The image still change colors :( But your solution fixes the text color issue. – Banc

Glad to know it helped. Please mark as answered if you got the answer to your question. – Blayze

For a label or checkbox, make sure you set the AutoSize property to false. – Den

Answer 2

To get less-fuzzy text, use the TextRenderer class instead:

private void Button1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
     Button btn = (Button)sender;
     // Make sure Text is not also written on button.
     btn.Text = string.Empty;
     // Set flags to center text on the button.
     TextFormatFlags flags = TextFormatFlags.HorizontalCenter | TextFormatFlags.VerticalCenter | TextFormatFlags.WordBreak;   // center the text
     // Render the text onto the button.
     TextRenderer.DrawText(e.Graphics, "Hello", btn.Font, e.ClipRectangle, btn.ForeColor, flags);
}

And use the Button1_EnabledChanged method as in the Harsh's answer.

Helminthology

I would avoid setting properties in a paint event. – Sniffle

Answer 3

I use ClientRectangle instead of e.ClipRectangle to avoid clip effect when the button is partialy repaint :

e.Graphics.Clear(BackColor);
using (var drawBrush = new SolidBrush(ForeColor))
using (var sf = new StringFormat
{
    Alignment = StringAlignment.Center,
    LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center
})
{
    e.Graphics.DrawString(Text, Font, drawBrush, ClientRectangle, sf);
}

Druse

Answer 4

On the EnableChanged event of the button

private void button1_EnabledChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (button1.Enabled == false)
        {
            button1.ForeColor = Color.DarkGray; //or pick the color you want when not enabled
        }
        else
        {
            button1.ForeColor = Color.White; //same here with the color
        }
    }

Buxton

Answer 5

I followed the following approach :- The Click() event of the button can be controlled using custom variable.

private bool btnDisabled;

private void btnClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   if (!btnDisabled) return;
}

This way the button doesn't even need to be disabled. The button still has the click feel but no action will be taken. Have to use the right colors to communicate that the button is disabled.

Ichor

Answer 6

Never too late for a suggestion:

public class BlackButton : Button
{
    #region #Private Members
    private bool m_BasePaint = false;
    #endregion #Private Members

    #region #Ctor
    public BlackButton() : base()
    {
        base.ForeColor = Color.White;
        base.BackColor = Color.Black;
        this.DisabledForeColor = Color.FromArgb(0x6D, 0x6D, 0x6D);
    }
    #endregion #Ctor

    #region #Public Interface
    public Color DisabledForeColor
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
    #endregion #Public Interface

    #region #Overrides
    public override string Text
    {
        get
        {
            if (m_BasePaint)
                return "";
            return base.Text;
        }
        set
        {
            base.Text = value;
        }
    }
    protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs pevent)
    {
        m_BasePaint = true;
        base.OnPaint(pevent);
        m_BasePaint = false;

        TextFormatFlags flags = TextFormatFlags.HorizontalCenter | TextFormatFlags.VerticalCenter | TextFormatFlags.WordBreak; 

        TextRenderer.DrawText(pevent.Graphics, 
            Text, 
            base.Font, 
            ClientRectangle, 
            base.Enabled ? base.ForeColor : this.DisabledForeColor, 
            flags);
    }
    #endregion #Overrides
}

Despondency

Answer 7

Another way to do this is to use the Pre_Render event. The example use Telerik but standard buttons should work fine too.

protected void radButton_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    RadButton btn = sender as RadButton;
    btn.BackColor = btn.Checked ? Color.LightBlue : Color.White;
}

Astatic