Windows Developer Power Tools

2.3 Creating a Professional User Interface with Krypton Toolkit

Adding a professional veneer to your application can be the most time-consuming part of your development effort. You want the polish of Office 2003, but without the three-month schedule that goes with it. Krypton Toolkit, written by Phil Wright of Component Factory Pty Ltd., can help.

A global palette is used to determine the default appearance of all the Krypton controls, so changing the entire look and feel of your application is as simple as switching the global palette in one line of code. Individual controls can override the palette settings, giving you complete control over presentation. When you combine these two features, you really do get the best of both worlds: ease of use and deep customizability.

To help you get started, the library comes with full help documentation, including step-by-step tutorials for creating applications and C# source code for all samples. Additional resources are available online, with a forum for asking questions and a blog for tracking development progress.

Krypton Toolkit at a Glance
Tool	Krypton Toolkit
Version covered	1.1
Home page	http://www.componentfactory.com
Power Tools page	http://www.windevpowertools.com/tools/61
Summary	Create applications with the look and feel of Office 2003. Designed to combine deep customization with ease of use.
License type	Freeware
Online resources	Full documentation, ...