C# Winforms Size PictureBox Without Distortion

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2.50/5 (2 votes)

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Hi Guys,

I have a C# WinForms application where I need to display a series of images one at a time. The original images are all 512w x 768h and I need to stretch them to display at the maximum height the computer screen will allow while maintaining the aspect ratio (1 to 1.5). I Dock the PictureBox to the right side of the form which fixes the height.

How do I compute the width? I can't simply multiply the width by a factor of original height and new height. When I do this, images will display fine on some computers but will be distorted in height or width on others.

Here's what I'm doing now:

C#

int newHeight = pbImage.ClientRectangle.Height;
double multiplier = (newHeight / 768D);
int newWidth = ((int)Math.Ceiling(512 * multiplier));

As I said, this works on some but not all computers. Is there a solution?

Thanks....

Posted 1-Oct-12 4:49am

Steve Harp

Updated 1-Oct-12 4:58am

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Stephen Hewison 1-Oct-12 10:56am

Doesn't the picture box have either a stretch or a zoom mode which does this automatically?

Steve Harp 1-Oct-12 11:01am

SizeMode=Zoom doesn't work as documented on all computers. Some computers will show the images stretched or compressed in width distorting the display.

Steve Harp 1-Oct-12 11:13am

Also, Setting SizeMode tells the PictureBox to size or position the image for you. This prevents me from adjusting the height. I must set SizeMode=Normal so I can make the image as tall as possible; I then need to compute the width so as not to distort.

Stephen Hewison 1-Oct-12 11:15am

Oh wait, I think I see your problem. Solution coming.

Stephen Hewison 1-Oct-12 11:21am

No I was wrong. Thought (newHeight / 768D) would give an int because newHeight is an int.

Stephen Hewison 1-Oct-12 11:25am

My advice would be to check the configuration of the ones where it renders wrong. Look at things such as the dpi for the theme. You might need to take vertical and horizontal dpi into account.

Steve Harp 1-Oct-12 12:04pm

I know I can get DPI from the Graphic object of the form, but I'm not clear on how I would use this information. How would my original formula look taking DPI into consideration?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 1-Oct-12 12:05pm

Please see my solution. First of all, I would to get rid of PictureBox at all, but it's also solvable with the picture box.
--SA

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Answer 1 · 2012-10-01T06:04:00

This is all about aspect ratio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio[^].

This is hard-coded aspect ratio, so this code is not useful at all. You need to use:

C#

//having
PictireBox myPictireBox = //...

//...

//you can find the required aspect ratio using
int width = myPictireBox.Image.Width;
int height = myPictireBox.Image.Height;

//and from here, you can adjust myPictireBox.Width or myPictireBox.Height accordingly

Please see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.picturebox.aspx[^],
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.picturebox.image.aspx[^],
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.drawing.image.aspx[^].

This sounds like a legitimate use of the class PictureBox, but also consider not using it. This class is often heavily abuses, and, if by any chance you decide to get just a bit more complex rendering or behavior, this class will be turned a hassle rather then help. It could be much easier to render your images and graphics immediately on the surface of the control you presently use as a parent of your picture box, so a picture box is just a dumb middleman you don't really need. Please see my past answers on related topics:

How do I clear a panel from old drawing[^],
draw a rectangle in C#[^],
Append a picture within picturebox[^];

and also:
Drawing Lines between mdi child forms[^],
capture the drawing on a panel[^],
What kind of playful method is Paint? (DataGridViewImageCell.Paint(...))[^].

Good luck,

—SA