OldSchoolForms.Ui

A cross-platform .NET UI framework for Linux and Windows. Provides a WinFomrs-inspired API and uses Silk.NET (OpenGL 3.3) for windowing and input, SkiaSharp for hardware-accelerated 2D graphics, and Svg.Skia for resolution-independent SVG icon rendering.

The project is still in development and not all controls are ready for production (e.g. HtmlBox control).

Why I created another Forms UI library

• Because I like the classic approach that uses code instead of markup to create UI
• Because I want all controls I need included (also the advanced ones, like DataGridView or PivotTable) and not the hot stuff behind a paywall
• Because I want as less dependencies as possible
• Because I want the best possible Linux support
• Because I don't want to rewrite half of my UI applications after a new major version of the UI framework was released

Features

• Cross-Platform – Runs on Linux and Windows with .NET 10+
• WinForms-like API – Familiar programming model with Form, Control, Application.Run(), event handlers
• GPU-Accelerated Rendering – SkiaSharp with OpenGL context; automatic software fallback
• 40+ Controls – From Label, Button, TextBox to DataGridView, TreeView, TabControl, HtmlBox, PivotTable, and more
• SVG Icons – 890+ Fluent UI Color SVGs as embedded resources, resolution-independent via Svg.Skia
• Data Binding – Full BindingSource / CurrencyManager system with INotifyPropertyChanged support
• HTML Rendering – Built-in HTML parser (HtmlAgilityPack), CSS parser, and WYSIWYG editor (HtmlBox)
• Theming – Light and dark themes, switchable at runtime
• Layout Managers – FlowLayoutPanel, TableLayoutPanel, Dock/Anchor, Padding
• Menus & Toolbars – MenuStrip with mnemonic support (&File → Alt+F), ToolStrip with buttons and text fields
• MessageBox – Modal dialogs with standard button combinations, icons, and localization (EN/DE)
• Multi-Window – Any number of windows, each with its own renderer context
• DPI Awareness – Automatic scaling per platform (Windows: system DPI, Linux: 96)
• WebView – Optional Chromium-based WebView control (separate package, cross-platform)
• DataGridView – Automatic column mapping, sorting, BindingList support

OldSchoolForms.Ui has also a Forms-Designer, but it is still under heavy development and not ready for production use, yet!

Controls

Basic Controls

Control	Description
Label	Displays static text with transparent background and theme-aware coloring
Button	Clickable button with hover/pressed states and keyboard activation
TextBox	Single-line text input with cursor, selection, clipboard, and password mode
CheckBox	Binary toggle with checked/unchecked states and keyboard activation
RadioButton	Mutual-exclusive selection within parent containers
ListBox	Scrollable list with selection, data binding, and scrollbar
ComboBox	Drop-down list with multiple styles, auto-complete, and data binding
ProgressBar	Visual progress indicator with configurable min/max/value and orientation
PictureBox	Image display with Normal, StretchImage, CenterImage, and Zoom modes
MemoBox	Multi-line text editor with word wrap, cursor navigation, and clipboard
FontPicker	Font selection with live preview and keyboard filtering
Spinner	Animated loading indicator with configurable speed and color
GroupBox	Bordered frame with title for grouping related controls

Container Controls

Control	Description
Panel	Generic container with optional single-line or 3D border styles
SplitPanel	Two-panel container with draggable splitter (horizontal/vertical)
TabControl	Tabbed interface with header navigation and overflow scrolling
TabPage	Individual tab page acting as a container for controls
UserControl	Reusable composite control base class for custom controls
FlowLayoutPanel	Arranges controls in a flow direction with automatic wrapping
TableLayoutPanel	Arranges controls in a grid of rows and columns

Menus & Toolbars

Control	Description
MenuStrip	Menu bar with dropdown menus, keyboard navigation, and Alt+mnemonic support
ToolStripMenuItem	Menu item with nested dropdown items and mnemonic support
ToolStrip	Toolbar with grip handle, overflow behavior, and item support
ToolStripButton	Toolbar button with text/image and dropdown menus
ToolStripLabel	Non-interactive toolbar label with optional link styling
ToolStripTextBox	Editable text box within a toolbar
ToolStripSeparator	Vertical divider line for grouping toolbar items
StatusStrip	Status bar at the bottom of a form
ToolStripStatusLabel	Label component within a StatusStrip

Advanced Controls

Control	Description
DataGridView	Data grid with sorting, grouping, column resizing, selection, and data binding
TreeView	Hierarchical node display with expand/collapse, icons, and keyboard navigation
HtmlBox	WYSIWYG HTML editor with rich text formatting (bold, italic, lists, tables, images)
CalendarView	Groupware-like calendar with Month/Week/Day views, appointments, and mini-calendar
DateTimePicker	Date/time selection with calendar dropdown and multiple display formats
DiagramView	Business charts (bar, pie, line, area, gauge) with axes, legends, and zoom
KanbanBoardView	Kanban board with draggable cards, configurable columns, and data binding
PivotTable	Cross-tabulated data with dimensions, aggregated values, and drill-through
SeperatorControl	Horizontal or vertical separator line with etched appearance

Dialogs & File Pickers

Control	Description
MessageBox	Modal message dialogs with standard button combinations, icons, and localization
ColorPickerDialog	Color selection with system colors, custom palette, and RGB/Alpha input
OpenFileDialog	File open dialog with multi-select and filter support
SaveFileDialog	File save dialog with overwrite confirmation
PrintDialog	Print settings dialog for printer and range selection

Web

Control	Description
WebView	Chromium-based web view (separate package, WebView2 on Windows, CefGlue on Linux)

Documentation

• DataGridView – Detailed guide on data binding, sorting, grouping, and inline editing
• PivotTable – Cross-tabulation with hierarchical drilldown, aggregations, and drill-through
• KanbanBoardView – Drag-and-drop kanban boards with configurable columns and state transitions
• Banded Reports – Report engine with bands, grouping, pagination, preview, print, and PDF export
• CLI Template – Create a new OldSchoolForms.Ui application from a dotnet new template

Requirements

• .NET 10.0 SDK or later
• Linux: OpenGL 3.3 drivers (typically pre-installed on desktop systems)
• Windows: No additional system dependencies
• Optional for WebView: CefGlue bundled Chromium (Linux) / WebView2 Runtime (Windows)

Build & Run

# Build all projects
dotnet build

# Run tests
dotnet test

# Run demo (requires X11/display server)
dotnet run --project samples/OldSchoolForms.Ui.Demo

On headless systems, use Xvfb:

xvfb-run dotnet run --project samples/OldSchoolForms.Ui.Demo

Hello World

using OldSchoolForms.Ui.Core;
using OldSchoolForms.Ui.Controls.Basic;
using OldSchoolForms.Ui.Theming;

var form = new Form
{
    Title = "Hello World",
    Width = 400,
    Height = 300
};

var label = new Label
{
    Text = "Welcome to OldSchoolForms.Ui!",
    Location = new Point(50, 50),
    Size = new Size(300, 30)
};

var button = new Button
{
    Text = "Click Me",
    Location = new Point(50, 100),
    Size = new Size(100, 40)
};

button.Click += (s, e) =>
{
    MessageBox.Show("Hello World!", "Greeting",
        MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information);
};

form.Controls.Add(label);
form.Controls.Add(button);

Application.Run(form);

Architecture

• Custom Types – Uses its own Color, Font, Point, Size, Rectangle (in Core/SystemTypes.cs) to avoid conflicts with System.Drawing
• Graphics – Command-list pattern (Rendering/Graphics.cs): collects drawing commands, executed by the renderer for platform independence
• SkiaSharp Rendering – Each window has its own SkiaRenderer + SkiaFontRenderer via WindowContext. GPU acceleration via OpenGL 3.3 with transparent software fallback
• Silk.NET – Windowing and input abstraction (keyboard, mouse); cross-platform without direct P/Invokes in framework code
• SVG Icons – Embedded SVG resources → Svg.Skia parse/rasterize → available as textures in the renderer; cached at multiple resolutions
• Theme System – Abstract Theme base class with LightTheme and DarkTheme; ThemeManager notifies all controls via WeakReference on theme switch

Key Namespaces

Namespace	Description
OldSchoolForms.Ui.Core	Base classes: Control, Form, Application, ContainerControl, system types (Color, Point, Size, etc.)
OldSchoolForms.Ui.Controls.Basic	Standard controls: Button, TextBox, Label, CheckBox, RadioButton, ListBox, ComboBox, ProgressBar, Spinner, PictureBox
OldSchoolForms.Ui.Controls.Advanced	Advanced controls: DataGridView, TabControl, HtmlBox
OldSchoolForms.Ui.Controls.Containers	Containers: Panel, SplitPanel, MenuStrip, ToolStrip
OldSchoolForms.Ui.Rendering	Graphics: Graphics (command list), SkiaRenderer, SkiaFontRenderer, HtmlRenderer
OldSchoolForms.Ui.Theming	Themes: Theme, LightTheme, DarkTheme, ThemeManager
OldSchoolForms.Ui.Data	Data binding: BindingSource, BindingContext, CurrencyManager
OldSchoolForms.Ui.Layout	Layout: FlowLayoutPanel, TableLayoutPanel

API Overview

Creating a form

var form = new Form
{
    Title = "My Window",
    Width = 800,
    Height = 600,
    Zoom = 1.25f  // 125% scaling
};

Adding controls

var button = new Button
{
    Text = "Save",
    Location = new Point(10, 10),
    Size = new Size(100, 35),
    Anchor = AnchorStyles.Top | AnchorStyles.Left
};

button.Click += (sender, args) => { /* ... */ };

form.Controls.Add(button);

MessageBox

var result = 
    MessageBox.Show(
        "Are you sure?", 
        "Confirm",
        MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, 
        MessageBoxIcon.Warning);

if (result == DialogResult.Yes) { /* ... */ }

Switching themes

ThemeManager.SetTheme(new DarkTheme());
// or
ThemeManager.SetTheme(new LightTheme());

Data binding

var source = new BindingSource { DataSource = myList };
var textBox = new TextBox();
textBox.DataBindings.Add("Text", source, "Name");

Menus

var menuStrip = new MenuStrip();
var fileMenu = new ToolStripMenuItem("&File");
fileMenu.DropDownItems.Add(new ToolStripMenuItem("&Open"));
fileMenu.DropDownItems.Add(new ToolStripMenuItem("&Save"));
menuStrip.Items.Add(fileMenu);
form.Controls.Add(menuStrip);

Troubleshooting

"Unable to create OpenGL context" or rendering issues

Ensure your system supports OpenGL 3.3. On Linux, install Mesa drivers:

sudo apt install mesa-utils

On virtual machines or headless systems, use software rendering or xvfb-run.

Demo doesn't show a window

The demo requires an X11/Wayland display server on Linux. On headless systems, use Xvfb:

xvfb-run dotnet run --project samples/OldSchoolForms.Ui.Demo

Related Projects

• OldSchoolForms.Ui.WebBrowser – Chromium-based WebView (WebView2 on Windows, CefGlue on Linux)

License

MIT License