How to: Custom Draw a ToolStrip Control

Article
02/06/2023

The ToolStrip controls have the following associated rendering (painting) classes:

ToolStripSystemRenderer provides the appearance and style of your operating system.
ToolStripProfessionalRenderer provides the appearance and style of Microsoft Office.
ToolStripRenderer is the abstract base class for the other two rendering classes.

To custom draw (also known as owner draw) a ToolStrip, you can override one of the renderer classes and change an aspect of the rendering logic.

The following procedures describe various aspects of custom drawing.

Switch between the provided renderers

Set the RenderMode property to the ToolStripRenderMode value you want.

With ManagerRenderMode, the static RenderMode determines the renderer for your application. The other values of ToolStripRenderMode are Custom, Professional, and System.

Change the Office–style borders

Override ToolStripProfessionalRenderer.OnRenderToolStripBorder, but do not call the base class.

Note

There is a version of this method for ToolStripRenderer, ToolStripSystemRenderer, and ToolStripProfessionalRenderer.

Change the ProfessionalColorTable

Override ProfessionalColorTable and change the colors you want.

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        var colorTable = new MyColorTable();
        toolStrip1.Renderer = new ToolStripProfessionalRenderer(colorTable);
    }

    class MyColorTable: ProfessionalColorTable
    {
        public override System.Drawing.Color ButtonPressedGradientBegin => Color.Red;
        public override System.Drawing.Color ButtonPressedGradientMiddle => Color.Blue;
        public override System.Drawing.Color ButtonPressedGradientEnd => Color.Green;
        public override System.Drawing.Color ButtonSelectedGradientBegin => Color.Yellow;
        public override System.Drawing.Color ButtonSelectedGradientMiddle => Color.Orange;
        public override System.Drawing.Color ButtonSelectedGradientEnd => Color.Violet;
    }
}

Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim colorTable As New MyColorTable
        ToolStrip1.Renderer = New ToolStripProfessionalRenderer(colorTable)
    End Sub

    Class MyColorTable
        Inherits ProfessionalColorTable

        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property ButtonPressedGradientBegin() As System.Drawing.Color
            Get
                Return Color.Red
            End Get
        End Property

        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property ButtonPressedGradientMiddle() As System.Drawing.Color
            Get
                Return Color.Blue
            End Get
        End Property

        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property ButtonPressedGradientEnd() As System.Drawing.Color
            Get
                Return Color.Green
            End Get
        End Property

        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property ButtonSelectedGradientBegin() As System.Drawing.Color
            Get
                Return Color.Yellow
            End Get
        End Property

        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property ButtonSelectedGradientMiddle() As System.Drawing.Color
            Get
                Return Color.Orange
            End Get
        End Property

        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property ButtonSelectedGradientEnd() As System.Drawing.Color
            Get
                Return Color.Violet
            End Get
        End Property
    End Class
End Class

Change rendering for all ToolStrips

Use the ToolStripManager.RenderMode property to choose one of the provided renderers.
Use ToolStripManager.Renderer to assign a custom renderer.
Ensure that ToolStrip.RenderMode is set to the default value of ManagerRenderMode.

Turn off the Office colors

Set ToolStripManager.VisualStylesEnabled to false.

Turn off the Office colors for one ToolStrip

Use code similar to the following code example.

ProfessionalColorTable colorTable = new ProfessionalColorTable();
colorTable.UseSystemColors = true;
toolStrip1.Renderer = new ToolStripProfessionalRenderer(colorTable);

Dim colorTable As New ProfessionalColorTable
colorTable.UseSystemColors = True
ToolStrip1.Renderer = new ToolStripProfessionalRenderer(colorTable)