Create a fading form in VB.NET

While core functionality and useability of the application is always one of the most important aspects, various visual effects may improve the way users feel about a particular application. Even though you may be able to implement purely cosmetic features in an application, it's important to keep the functionality in mind.

In this VB.NET tip, I will show you a way to give users a form that fades out when it's closed. This isn't a must-have functionality for applications, but I think this feature is often nice to have so that an application closing doesn't look abrupt.

Form fade out

In order to make the form fade out, I use the Form's Opacity property. By default, the Form's Opacity equals 1. To let the form fade out, I create a look to gradually decrease the Form's Opacity value until I finally close the form.

Example

To try this out, add a button to the form and add the following code to its click event:

Private Sub FadingForm()

         Dim iCount As Integer  

         For iCount = 90 To 10 Step -10
             Me.Opacity = iCount / 100
             Me.Refresh()
             Threading.Thread.Sleep(50)
         Next

         Me.Close()

     End Sub

Then add the following code to the Form_Load event:

        Me.Opacity = 0.99

How it works

On the Form_Load event, I set the Form's Opacity to 0.99 (or 99%). This is because, on some computers, the code provided would initially create a blink and then let the form fade out. This usually happens when the Form's Opacity is lowered from 1 down. To prevent this blink before the fade out effect, I set the Form's Opacity to 0.99 (the difference is not visible to the user) and then fade the form out.