How do i custom draw of TEdit control text?

Question

I\'d like to draw a piece of TEdit.Text using Font.Color different from the default. Are there any examples how to do that?

I\'m attempting to do something like thi

Answer 1

No. A standard tEdit does not have support for custom drawing or having text with multiple colors. As an alternative you can use a tRichEdit with WantReturns=False.

Answer 2

Another small improvement by overriding the CreateParams procedure which fixes the flickering during text selection (mouse move while left button down):

procedure TMyEdit.CreateParams(var Params: TCreateParams);
begin
    inherited;
    if csDesigning in ComponentState then
        exit;
    Params.ExStyle := Params.ExStyle or WS_EX_COMPOSITED;
end;

Answer 3

Some improvements to kobik solusion:

procedure TMyEdit.Paint;
var
  R: TRect;
  I: Integer;

  NewColor : TColor;
  NewBackColor : TColor;

  procedure DrawEx(S: String);
  begin
     if ((i-1)>=Self.SelStart) and ((i-1)<=(Self.SelStart+(Self.SelLength-1)))
        and (Self.SelLength>0) and (Self.focused)
       then begin
         Canvas.Font.Color  := clWhite;
         Canvas.Brush.Color := NewColor;
       end else begin
         Canvas.Font.Color  := NewColor;
         Canvas.Brush.Color := NewBackColor;
       end;
     Canvas.Brush.Style := bsSolid;
     DrawText(Canvas.Handle, PChar(S), -1, R, DT_LEFT or DT_NOPREFIX or
       DT_WORDBREAK or DrawTextBiDiModeFlagsReadingOnly);
  end;

begin
  R := ClientRect;
  Inc(R.Left, 1);
  Inc(R.Top, 1);
  Canvas.Brush.Assign(Self.Brush);
  Canvas.Font.Assign(Self.Font);

  if Self.Focused then begin
      NewBackColor       := clYellow;
      Canvas.Brush.Color := NewBackColor;
      Canvas.Brush.Style := bsSolid;
      Canvas.FillRect(ClientRect);
      Canvas.DrawFocusRect(ClientRect);
    end else NewBackColor := clWhite;

  for I:=1 to Length(Text) do begin
   if PasswordChar=#0 then begin
     if Text[I] in ['0'..'9'] then begin
       NewColor := clRed;
       DrawEx(Text[I]);
      end else begin
       NewColor := clGreen;
       DrawEx(Text[I]);
      end;
     Inc(R.Left,Canvas.TextWidth(Text[I]));
    end else begin //with passwordchar
       NewColor := clBlack;
       DrawEx(PasswordChar);
     Inc(R.Left,Canvas.TextWidth(PasswordChar));
    end;
  end;
end;

Answer 4

Edit controls do not have owner-draw support, but you can custom-draw it by sub-classing it and handling WM_PAINT (among many other messages). It's doable, but it would be a world of pain to actually implement 100% correctly. From the docs: Developing Custom Draw Controls in Visual C++:

Note that owner-draw will work for most controls. However, it doesn't work for edit controls; and with regards to the list control, it works only for report-view style

I was also interested to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes, so,
Here is a code sample using an interposer class (still needs to implement selection but the custom drawing works when the caret is in the control):

type
  TEdit = class(StdCtrls.TEdit)
  private
    FCanvas: TCanvas;
    procedure WMPaint(var Message: TWMPaint); message WM_PAINT;
  protected
    procedure WndProc(var Message: TMessage); override;
    procedure Paint; virtual;
    procedure PaintWindow(DC: HDC); override;
    property Canvas: TCanvas read FCanvas;
  public
    constructor Create(AOwner: TComponent); override;
    destructor Destroy; override;
  end;

...

constructor TEdit.Create(AOwner: TComponent);
begin
  inherited Create(AOwner);
  FCanvas := TControlCanvas.Create;
  TControlCanvas(FCanvas).Control := Self;
end;

destructor TEdit.Destroy;
begin
  FCanvas.Free;
  inherited Destroy;
end;

procedure TEdit.Paint;
var
  R: TRect;
  I: Integer;
  S: String;
begin
  R := ClientRect;
  Inc(R.Left, 1);
  Inc(R.Top, 1);
  Canvas.Brush.Assign(Self.Brush);
  Canvas.Font.Assign(Self.Font);
  for I := 1 to Length(Text) do
  begin
    if Text[I] in ['0'..'9'] then
      Canvas.Font.Color := clRed
    else
      Canvas.Font.Color := clGreen;
    S := Text[I];
    DrawText(Canvas.Handle, PChar(S), -1, R, DT_LEFT or DT_NOPREFIX or
      DT_WORDBREAK or DrawTextBiDiModeFlagsReadingOnly);
    Inc(R.Left,Canvas.TextWidth(S));
  end;
end;

procedure TEdit.PaintWindow(DC: HDC);
begin
  FCanvas.Lock;
  try
    FCanvas.Handle := DC;
    try
      TControlCanvas(FCanvas).UpdateTextFlags;
      Paint;
    finally
      FCanvas.Handle := 0;
    end;
  finally
    FCanvas.Unlock;
  end;
end;

procedure TEdit.WMPaint(var Message: TWMPaint);
begin
  ControlState := ControlState+[csCustomPaint];
  inherited;
  ControlState := ControlState-[csCustomPaint];
end;

procedure TEdit.WndProc(var Message: TMessage);
begin
  inherited WndProc(Message);
  with Message do
    case Msg of
      CM_MOUSEENTER, CM_MOUSELEAVE, WM_LBUTTONUP, WM_LBUTTONDOWN,
      WM_KEYDOWN, WM_KEYUP,
      WM_SETFOCUS, WM_KILLFOCUS,
      CM_FONTCHANGED, CM_TEXTCHANGED:
      begin
        Invalidate;
      end;
   end; 
end;