Saving and Loading Ink on InkPicture Control in C#

This article shows a real-world usage of Tablet PC InkPicutre control and ink. The attached file is a Visual Studio 2003 project, which allows you to load an image file, write on the image using ink and save the ink. It also allows you to load and view the saved ink on the image.

The Application

The application is a simple Widnows Application with two Button controls, a CheckBox control, and an InkPicture control. ( See Figure 1).

Figure 1. InkPicture test application.

Loading Image

The Load Image button allows you to load in Image using the following code:

OpenFileDialog fileDlg = new OpenFileDialog();
fileDlg.Filter = "Image files (*.bmp; *.gif; *.jpg; *.png)|*.bmp;*.gif;*.jpg;*.png|" + "All files (*.*)|*.*";
if (fileDlg.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
try
{
inkPicture1.Image = Image.FromFile(fileDlg.FileName);
}
catch (Exception)
{
MessageBox.Show(this, "Unable to load the image file!", "Load Image Failed");
}
}

As you can see from this code, I simply set the file name selected from the Open File Dialog as Image property of InkPicture control, which views the image. After that I write something on InkPicuture using the pen. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. InkPicture control with an image.

Saving Image

The Save Ink button click saves the image. The following code saves the ink:

private void saveImageButton_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
SaveFileDialog savedlg = new SaveFileDialog();
savedlg.Filter = "ISF files (*.isf)|*.isf| All files (*.*)|*.*";
if (savedlg.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
stream = savedlg.OpenFile();
if (stream != null)
{
if (inkPicture1.Image != null)
{
SaveInkImage(inkPicture1.Image, inkPicture1.Ink);
}
bytes = inkPicture1.Ink.Save();
stream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
stream.Close();
}
}
}
private void SaveInkImage(Image image, Ink imgInk)
{
memStream = new MemoryStream();
BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
bf.Serialize(memStream, image);
bytes = memStream.GetBuffer();
imgInk.ExtendedProperties.Add(guidImage, bytes);
}