ImageGear .NET v24.12 - Updated
Clipboard Operations
User Guide > How to Work with... > Common Operations > Clipboard Operations

ImageGear .NET allows you to copy, cut, and paste all or part of an image to and from the Windows clipboard. The following sections explain how to:

Copy or Cut to the Clipboard

You can copy or cut all or part of an ImGearRasterPage instance to the clipboard:

Check the Contents of the Clipboard

You can check whether the clipboard currently contains image data that is usable by ImageGear .NET via the ImGearRasterPage.CanGetFromClipboard property. We recommend you always check that this property returns true before calling ImGearRasterPage.GetFromClipboard.

Paste from the Clipboard

To get an image from the clipboard as a new ImGearRasterPage instance, call the static ImGearRasterPage.GetFromClipboard method. If the clipboard contains valid image data, a new ImGearRasterPage instance will be returned.

If the clipboard contains data previously copied from an ImGearRasterPage instance that happened to contain a non-rectangular region of interest, then the new ImGearRasterPage instance returned from the clipboard will contain a matching non-rectangular region of interest (the ImGearRasterPage.ROI property will contain an ImGearROIMask instance that matches the mask originally copied to the clipboard).

ImageGear .NET does not provide a special method for pasting the clipboard image into a pre-existing ImGearRasterPage. However, this can be easily achieved using the ImGearRasterProcessing.Merge method.

The following example includes code to handle mismatched color spaces and channel depths:

C# Example
Copy Code
ImGearRasterPage page = ImGearRasterPage.GetFromClipboard();
if (page != null)
{
    ImGearRasterPage currentPage = this.imGearPage as ImGearRasterPage;
    if (currentPage != null)
    {
        if (!currentPage.DIB.ColorSpace.Equals(page.DIB.ColorSpace))
        {
            // Convert to the destination color space.
            ImGearRasterProcessing.ConvertColorSpace(page, currentPage.DIB.ColorSpace);
        }
        bool changeDepth = false;
        if (currentPage.DIB.ChannelDepths.Length != page.DIB.ChannelDepths.Length)
        {
            changeDepth = true;
        }
        else
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < currentPage.DIB.ChannelDepths.Length; ++i)
            {
                if (currentPage.DIB.ChannelDepths[i] != page.DIB.ChannelDepths[i])
                {
                    changeDepth = true;
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        if (changeDepth)
        {
            // Convert to the destination bit depth.
            ImGearRasterProcessing.ChangeChannelDepths(page, currentPage.DIB.ChannelDepths);
        }
        if (ImGearRasterProcessing.Verifier.CanApplyMerge(currentPage, page))
        {
            ImGearRasterProcessing.Merge(currentPage, page, 0, 0, ImGearMergeModes.OVER);
        }
        else
        {
            // Incompatible images. Just replace the current page by page from clipboard.
            this.imGearPage = page;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        this.imGearPage = page;
    }
}
VB.NET Example
Copy Code
Dim page As ImGearRasterPage = ImGearRasterPage.GetFromClipboard()
If page IsNot Nothing Then
Dim currentPage As ImGearRasterPage = TryCast(Me.imGearPage, ImGearRasterPage)
    If currentPage IsNot Nothing Then
        If Not currentPage.DIB.ColorSpace.Equals(page.DIB.ColorSpace) Then
' Convert to the destination color space.
            ImGearRasterProcessing.ConvertColorSpace(page, currentPage.DIB.ColorSpace)
        End If
Dim changeDepth As Boolean = False
        If currentPage.DIB.ChannelDepths.Length <> page.DIB.ChannelDepths.Length Then
            changeDepth = True
        Else
            For i As Integer = 0 To currentPage.DIB.ChannelDepths.Length - 1
                If currentPage.DIB.ChannelDepths(i) <> page.DIB.ChannelDepths(i) Then
                    changeDepth = True
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next
        End If
        If changeDepth Then
' Convert to the destination bit depth.
            ImGearRasterProcessing.ChangeChannelDepths(page, currentPage.DIB.ChannelDepths)
        End If
        If ImGearRasterProcessing.Verifier.CanApplyMerge(currentPage, page) Then
            ImGearRasterProcessing.Merge(currentPage, page, 0, 0, ImGearMergeModes.OVER)
        Else
' Incompatible images. Just replace the current page by page from clipboard.
            Me.imGearPage = page
        End If
    Else
        Me.imGearPage = page
    End If
End If