CrossPlatformDrawer 1.1.2

CrossPlatformDrawer

A powerful, cross-platform educational graphics library for .NET 8.0+ with enhanced drawing primitives, text rendering, and color utilities. Perfect for educational environments, creative coding, and rapid prototyping.

Features

Core Drawing Capabilities

• Basic Shapes: Rectangles, ellipses, lines, triangles, polygons
• Advanced Shapes (v1.1.0):
  • Arcs and pie slices
  • Cubic Bezier curves
  • Rounded rectangles
  • Regular polygons (3-12+ sides)
  • Stars and complex polygons

Enhanced Text Rendering (v1.1.0)

• Text alignment (left, center, right, top, middle, bottom)
• Automatic word wrapping
• Custom font loading support
• Multi-line text with adjustable line spacing

Color Utilities (v1.1.0)

• Color interpolation (Lerp) for smooth gradients
• Complementary colors for contrast

Interactive Features

• Mouse event handling (click, move, release)
• Keyboard input support
• Scaled mouse coordinates for pixel-perfect drawing
• Real-time rendering with continuous mode

Advanced Rendering

• Shadow effects with customizable blur and offset
• Background color management
• Coordinate grid overlay for debugging
• FPS display for performance monitoring
• Animation support with continuous rendering mode

Installation

Via NuGet Package Manager

Install-Package CrossPlatformDrawer -Version 1.1.0

Via .NET CLI

dotnet add package CrossPlatformDrawer --version 1.1.0

Via PackageReference

<PackageReference Include="CrossPlatformDrawer" Version="1.1.0" />

Quick Start

using CrossPlatformDrawer;
using SkiaSharp;

// Create a drawing window
var drawer = new CPDrawer(800, 600, false);
drawer.BackgroundColor = SKColors.DarkSlateGray;

// Draw basic shapes
drawer.AddRectangle(50, 50, 150, 100, SKColors.CornflowerBlue, 3, SKColors.White);
drawer.AddEllipse(250, 50, 150, 100, SKColors.Coral);
drawer.AddLine(50, 200, 400, 200, SKColors.LimeGreen, 5);

// Draw advanced shapes
drawer.AddArc(100, 300, 80, 0, 90, SKColors.Red, 3);
drawer.AddPie(250, 300, 100, 100, 45, 270, SKColors.Orange, 2, SKColors.Black);
drawer.AddRoundedRectangle(400, 300, 150, 100, 20, SKColors.SteelBlue);

// Add text
drawer.AddText("CrossPlatformDrawer", 24, 300, 500, SKColors.White);

// Render the scene
drawer.Render();

// Keep window open
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);
drawer.Dispose();

Documentation

Creating a Drawer

// Basic constructor
CPDrawer drawer = new CPDrawer(width, height);

// With continuous rendering for animation
CPDrawer drawer = new CPDrawer(width, height, false, true);

// Control the scale for pixel art
drawer.Scale = 10; // Each logical pixel becomes 10x10 screen pixels

Drawing Shapes

Basic Shapes

// Rectangle with border
drawer.AddRectangle(x, y, width, height, fillColor, borderThickness, borderColor);

// Filled ellipse
drawer.AddEllipse(x, y, width, height, fillColor);

// Line with thickness
drawer.AddLine(x1, y1, x2, y2, color, thickness);

// Triangle
drawer.AddTriangle(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, fillColor, borderThickness, borderColor);

Advanced Shapes (v1.1.0)

// Arc - portion of circle outline
drawer.AddArc(centerX, centerY, radius, startAngle, sweepAngle, color, thickness);

// Pie slice - filled sector
drawer.AddPie(x, y, width, height, startAngle, sweepAngle, fillColor, borderThickness, borderColor);

// Cubic Bezier curve
drawer.AddBezier(x1, y1, cx1, cy1, cx2, cy2, x2, y2, color, thickness);

// Rounded rectangle
drawer.AddRoundedRectangle(x, y, width, height, cornerRadius, fillColor, borderThickness, borderColor);

// Regular polygon (pentagon, hexagon, etc.)
drawer.AddRegularPolygon(centerX, centerY, sides, radius, rotation, fillColor, borderThickness, borderColor);

// Star
drawer.AddStar(centerX, centerY, points, outerRadius, innerRadius, rotation, fillColor);

Text Rendering

// Simple text
drawer.AddText("Hello World", fontSize, x, y, color);

// Aligned text (v1.1.0)
drawer.AddTextAligned("Centered Text", x, y, fontSize, color, 
    CPDrawer.TextAlignment.Center, CPDrawer.VerticalAlignment.Middle, "Arial");

// Word-wrapped text (v1.1.0)
drawer.AddTextWrapped(longText, x, y, maxWidth, fontSize, color, lineSpacing, "Arial");

// Load custom font (v1.1.0)
drawer.LoadFont("MyFont", "path/to/font.ttf");

Color Utilities (v1.1.0)

// Color interpolation for gradients
for (int i = 0; i < steps; i++)
{
    float t = i / (float)(steps - 1);
    SKColor gradientColor = ColorUtils.Lerp(SKColors.Red, SKColors.Blue, t);
    drawer.AddRectangle(x + i * width, y, width, height, gradientColor);
}

// Get complementary color for contrast
SKColor baseColor = SKColors.Orange;
SKColor complement = ColorUtils.GetComplementary(baseColor);

Interactive Features

// Mouse events
drawer.MouseLeftClick += (point, drawer) =>
{
    drawer.AddEllipse(point.X - 10, point.Y - 10, 20, 20, SKColors.Red);
};

drawer.MouseMove += (point, drawer) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Mouse at: {point.X}, {point.Y}");
};

// Keyboard events
drawer.KeyboardEvent += (isDown, key, drawer) =>
{
    if (isDown && key == "Space")
    {
        drawer.Clear();
    }
};

// Get mouse position for pixel drawing
if (drawer.GetLastMouseLeftClick(out Point clickPoint))
{
    drawer.SetBBPixel(clickPoint.X, clickPoint.Y, SKColors.White);
}

Shadow Effects

// Enable shadows for depth
drawer.ShadowEnabled = true;
drawer.ShadowColor = SKColors.Black.WithAlpha(100);
drawer.ShadowOffsetX = 5;
drawer.ShadowOffsetY = 5;
drawer.ShadowBlur = 10;

// Draw shapes - they'll have shadows
drawer.AddRectangle(50, 50, 100, 100, SKColors.White);

Animation

// Create drawer in continuous mode
var drawer = new CPDrawer(800, 600, false, true);

// Animation loop
for (int frame = 0; frame < 300; frame++)
{
    drawer.Clear();
    
    // Draw animated content
    double angle = frame * 2;
    int x = 400 + (int)(150 * Math.Cos(angle * Math.PI / 180));
    int y = 300 + (int)(150 * Math.Sin(angle * Math.PI / 180));
    drawer.AddEllipse(x - 20, y - 20, 40, 40, SKColors.Yellow);
    
    drawer.Render();
    Thread.Sleep(33); // ~30 FPS
}

Use Cases

Educational Programming

• Teaching graphics programming concepts
• Visual algorithm demonstrations
• Interactive coding exercises
• Student project presentations

Creative Coding

• Generative art creation
• Data visualization
• Interactive sketches
• Rapid prototyping

Game Development

• 2D game prototypes
• Sprite rendering
• Simple physics simulations
• UI mockups

Migration from GDIDrawer

CrossPlatformDrawer is designed as a modern replacement for the legacy GDIDrawer library:

// Old GDIDrawer code
using GDIDrawer;
CDrawer drawer = new CDrawer();
drawer.AddText("Hello", 12, Color.Red);

// New CrossPlatformDrawer code
using CrossPlatformDrawer;
using SkiaSharp;
CPDrawer drawer = new CPDrawer();
drawer.AddText("Hello", 12, 100, 100, SKColors.Red);

Key differences:

• Cross-platform support (Windows, Linux, macOS)
• Uses SKColor instead of System.Drawing.Color
• Enhanced features and better performance
• Modern .NET 8.0+ support

Requirements

• .NET 8.0 or higher
• Dependencies (automatically installed):
  • Avalonia 11.0.7
  • Avalonia.Desktop 11.0.7
  • Avalonia.Skia 11.0.7
  • SkiaSharp 2.88.7

Version History

v1.1.0 (Latest)

• Added new drawing primitives (Arc, Pie, Bezier, Rounded rectangles, Regular polygons)
• Enhanced text rendering with alignment and word wrapping
• Custom font loading support
• Color utility methods (Lerp, complementary colors)
• Comprehensive XML documentation for IntelliSense

v1.0.0

• Initial release with basic drawing capabilities
• Mouse and keyboard event handling
• Cross-platform support via Avalonia

Acknowledgments

• Built with Avalonia UI for cross-platform support
• Graphics rendering powered by SkiaSharp
• Designed for educational use in computer science courses

Made for educators and students by the Digital Creators Suite team