KryptonDataGridView

Overview

KryptonDataGridView extends the standard Windows Forms DataGridView with full Krypton palette rendering for backgrounds, borders, headers, data cells, tooltips, and outer corner rounding. Data binding, editing, sorting, and column types follow the base DataGridView behavior; appearance is driven by palette state properties instead of DefaultCellStyle colors in most scenarios.

Namespace: Krypton.Toolkit
Assembly: Krypton.Toolkit
Default event: CellContentClick
Designer: System.Windows.Forms.Design.DataGridViewDesigner
Inheritance: Object → MarshalByRefObject → Component → Control → DataGridView → KryptonDataGridView

For general grid behavior (binding, sorting, selection modes), see Microsoft DataGridView documentation.

Key features

Palette integration

PaletteMode, Palette, and Renderer integration with global theme changes
StateCommon, StateNormal, StateDisabled, StateTracking, StatePressed, StateSelected
GridStyles for List, Sheet, Custom1–Custom3, and Mixed element styles
External corner rounding via StateNormal.Border / StateDisabled.Border

Data and columns

Full DataGridView data binding (DataSource, DataMember, complex binding)
AutoGenerateKryptonColumns converts generated columns to Krypton column types
Krypton column types for text, masked text, combo, numeric, domain, date/time, check box, button, link, image, progress, rating, and icon cells

Behavior

HideOuterBorders for use inside KryptonGroup or with native outer rounding
KryptonContextMenu and themed ContextMenuStrip support
Krypton tooltips with optional shadow (ToolTipShadow)
HighlightSearch for in-grid search highlighting
EditingControlButtonSpecClick when edit controls expose ButtonSpecs
DoubleBuffered exposed in the designer (default true)

Class hierarchy

System.Object
└── System.MarshalByRefObject
    └── System.ComponentModel.Component
        └── System.Windows.Forms.Control
            └── System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView
                └── Krypton.Toolkit.KryptonDataGridView

Constructor

KryptonDataGridView()

public KryptonDataGridView()

Initializes palette states, view manager, double buffering, DPI-adjusted default column header height, corner-rounding region, and cell-style sync with the active palette.

Properties

Palette and rendering

PaletteMode

[Category("Visuals")]
[DefaultValue(PaletteMode.Global)]
public PaletteMode PaletteMode { get; set; }

Palette source for drawing. PaletteMode.Custom requires Palette to be assigned. Changing this raises PaletteChanged and relayouts the control.

Palette

[Category("Visuals")]
[DefaultValue(null)]
public PaletteBase? Palette { get; set; }

Custom palette instance. When set, PaletteMode becomes Custom. ResetPalette() restores global mode.

Renderer

[Browsable(false)]
public IRenderer? Renderer { get; }

Active renderer resolved from the current palette (read-only).

Visual states

Property	Type	Description
`StateCommon`	`PaletteDataGridViewRedirect`	Shared defaults overridden by state-specific entries
`StateNormal`	`PaletteDataGridViewAll`	Normal appearance; includes `Background`, `Border`, `DataCell`, `HeaderColumn`, `HeaderRow`
`StateDisabled`	`PaletteDataGridViewAll`	Disabled appearance (same structure as `StateNormal`)
`StateTracking`	`PaletteDataGridViewHeaders`	Header hover
`StatePressed`	`PaletteDataGridViewHeaders`	Header pressed
`StateSelected`	`PaletteDataGridViewCells`	Selected data cells and headers

PaletteDataGridViewAll exposes:

Background — grid background fill
Border — outer grid border (designer-visible; use for corner rounding)
DataCell, HeaderColumn, HeaderRow — per-element back, border, content

PaletteBorder on StateNormal is hidden from the designer; use Border instead.

GridStyles

[Category("Visuals")]
[DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content)]
public DataGridViewStyles GridStyles { get; }

Compound property controlling grid element styles.

Member	Type	Default	Description
`Style`	`DataGridViewStyle`	`List`	Overall style; sets column, row, data cell, and background together
`StyleColumn`	`GridStyle`	`List`	Column header style
`StyleRow`	`GridStyle`	`List`	Row header style
`StyleDataCells`	`GridStyle`	`List`	Data cell style
`StyleBackground`	`PaletteBackStyle`	`GridBackgroundList`	Background palette style

DataGridViewStyle values: List, Sheet, Custom1, Custom2, Custom3, Mixed.
GridStyle values: List, Sheet, Custom1, Custom2, Custom3.

When individual element styles differ, Style becomes Mixed.

Behavior

HideOuterBorders

[Category("Visuals")]
[DefaultValue(false)]
public bool HideOuterBorders { get; set; }

When true, suppresses drawing of cell borders on the outer edge of the grid. Use with a parent KryptonGroup border, or rely on automatic suppression when corner rounding is enabled.

AutoGenerateKryptonColumns

[Category("Behavior")]
[DefaultValue(true)]
public bool AutoGenerateKryptonColumns { get; set; }

When true and AutoGenerateColumns is enabled, WinForms column types created from a data source are replaced with Krypton column types when ColumnCount is set.

DoubleBuffered

[Category("Behavior")]
[DefaultValue(true)]
public new bool DoubleBuffered { get; set; }

Reduces flicker during scroll and repaint (visible in the designer).

ShowCellToolTips

public new bool ShowCellToolTips { get; set; }

Enables Krypton-themed cell tooltips when cells define tooltip text.

ToolTipShadow

[Category("ToolTip")]
[DefaultValue(true)]
public bool ToolTipShadow { get; set; }

Draws a shadow on cell tooltips.

KryptonContextMenu

[Category("Behavior")]
[DefaultValue(null)]
public virtual KryptonContextMenu? KryptonContextMenu { get; set; }

Context menu shown on right-click (preferred over WinForms ContextMenuStrip for full theming).

ContextMenuStrip

public override ContextMenuStrip? ContextMenuStrip { get; set; }

Standard context menu; opening hooks apply the Krypton renderer automatically.

Advanced / non-browsable

Property	Description
`CellOver`	Internal mouse-over cell coordinates
`ColumnCount`	Hidden; triggers Krypton column conversion when auto-generating

Hidden WinForms appearance properties

The following are hidden from the designer because palette state drives appearance. Setting them has little or no effect on Krypton drawing:

BackgroundColor, CellBorderStyle, ColumnHeadersBorderStyle, ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle, DefaultCellStyle, EnableHeadersVisualStyles, GridColor, RowHeadersBorderStyle, RowHeadersDefaultCellStyle

Use StateCommon / StateNormal and GridStyles instead.

Methods

PerformNeedPaint

public void PerformNeedPaint(bool needLayout)

Requests repaint; optionally layout when palette or state changes require it.

GetCellTriple

public virtual PaletteState GetCellTriple(
    DataGridViewElementStates state,
    int rowIndex,
    int columnIndex,
    out IPaletteBack paletteBack,
    out IPaletteBorder paletteBorder,
    out IPaletteContent paletteContent)

Resolves back, border, and content palettes for a cell based on enabled state, selection, and header tracking/pressed state. Used by custom drawing and column/cell implementations.

HighlightSearch

public void HighlightSearch(string s)
public void HighlightSearch(string s, List<int> columnsIndex)

Highlights matching text in the grid. Empty columnsIndex searches all columns.

ResetPaletteMode / ResetPalette

Restore default global palette mode.

GetViewManager / GetResolvedPalette

Internal/advanced access to view manager and resolved palette instance.

Events

PaletteChanged

public event EventHandler? PaletteChanged;

Raised when Palette or PaletteMode changes.

EditingControlButtonSpecClick

public event EventHandler<DataGridViewButtonSpecClickEventArgs>? EditingControlButtonSpecClick;

Raised when a ButtonSpec on an in-cell editing control is clicked.

Grid styles

Select the control at design time and open Visuals → GridStyles.

KryptonDataGridView comparing GridStyles Style List (left) and Style Sheet (right)

Figure 1 — Style = List and Style = Sheet

KryptonDataGridView grid appearance for List and Sheet styles using Office 2007 Blue palette

Figure 2 — Grid appearance for List and Sheet styles

Changing Style updates column headers, row headers, data cells, and background together. To mix styles, set StyleColumn, StyleRow, or StyleDataCells individually; Style then shows Mixed.

External corner rounding

KryptonDataGridView can draw a themed outer border with rounded corners. The control clips its client area, paints the outer border from the palette, rounds outer corner cells, and accounts for visible scroll bars when locating corners.

Designer: Visuals → StateNormal → Border → Rounding (and StateDisabled → Border for disabled state).

`Rounding`	Effect
`> 0`	Enable corner rounding with the specified radius
`-1`	Inherit from the active palette (default)
`0`	Force flat corners

kryptonDataGridView1.StateNormal.Border.Rounding = 5f;
kryptonDataGridView1.StateDisabled.Border.Rounding = 5f;

Other Border properties (Color1, Width, Draw, etc.) apply to the outer chrome when rounding is enabled. Outer-edge cell borders are suppressed automatically when rounding is active.

See HideOuterBorders when using a KryptonGroup wrapper instead.

HideOuterBorders

Unlike the standard DataGridView, this control does not use the WinForms control border. By default no outer border is drawn unless corner rounding is enabled.

Placing the grid in a KryptonGroup with Dock = Fill still provides group chrome. Set HideOuterBorders to True to avoid double borders where cell edges meet the group border.

KryptonDataGridView comparing HideOuterBorders False (left) and True (right) inside a KryptonGroup

Figure 3 — HideOuterBorders = False and True

Visual states reference

Grid element	Normal	Disabled	Selected	Tracking	Pressed
Data cells	Yes	Yes	Yes	—	—
Header column	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Header row	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Background	Yes	Yes	—	—	—
Whole-grid `Border`	Yes (`StateNormal` / `StateDisabled`)	Yes	—	—	—

StateCommon supplies defaults when a state-specific override is not set. State-specific values always win over StateCommon.

Overriding cell styles

Per-column and per-cell DefaultCellStyle / CellStyle (Font, BackColor, ForeColor, selection colors) work as on DataGridView. KryptonDataGridView applies palette colors when those style properties are not explicitly set on the cell.

kryptonDataGridView1.Rows[0].Cells[0].Style.ForeColor = Color.Red;

Configure column defaults via the Columns collection in the designer.

Column types

Prefer Krypton column types so cells render with palette-consistent editors and chrome:

Column type	Purpose
`KryptonDataGridViewTextBoxColumn`	Text
`KryptonDataGridViewMaskedTextBoxColumn`	Masked input
`KryptonDataGridViewComboBoxColumn`	Drop-down list
`KryptonDataGridViewNumericUpDownColumn`	Numeric up/down
`KryptonDataGridViewDomainUpDownColumn`	Domain up/down
`KryptonDataGridViewDateTimePickerColumn`	Date/time
`KryptonDataGridViewCheckBoxColumn`	Check box
`KryptonDataGridViewButtonColumn`	Button
`KryptonDataGridViewLinkColumn`	Link
`KryptonDataGridViewImageColumn`	Image
`KryptonDataGridViewProgressColumn`	Progress bar cell
`KryptonDataGridViewRatingColumn`	Star rating cell
`KryptonDataGridViewIconColumn`	Icon / indicator cell

Column type picker showing Krypton-specific DataGridView column types

Figure 4 — Krypton-specific columns in the column type picker

Usage examples

Corner rounding and grid lines

// Rounded outer border
kdgv.StateNormal.Border.Rounding = 8f;
kdgv.StateDisabled.Border.Rounding = 8f;

// Toggle inner grid lines via StateCommon
kdgv.StateCommon.DataCell.Border.DrawBorders = PaletteDrawBorders.All;
kdgv.HideOuterBorders = false;

kdgv.KryptonContextMenu = kryptonContextMenu1;

Search highlight

kdgv.HighlightSearch("invoice", new List<int> { 0, 2 });

Best practices

Use Krypton column types for new columns; enable AutoGenerateKryptonColumns for bound grids.
Customize appearance via GridStyles and State### properties, not hidden WinForms color properties.
Set both StateNormal.Border.Rounding and StateDisabled.Border.Rounding for consistent enabled/disabled chrome.
Use KryptonContextMenu for fully themed right-click menus.
Validate layout in TestForm → DataGridView demo (corner rounding, grid lines, binding).

KryptonDataGridView

Overview

Key features

Palette integration

Data and columns

Behavior

Class hierarchy

Constructor

KryptonDataGridView()

Properties

Palette and rendering

PaletteMode

Palette

Renderer

Visual states

GridStyles

GridStyles

Behavior

HideOuterBorders

AutoGenerateKryptonColumns

DoubleBuffered

ShowCellToolTips

ToolTipShadow

KryptonContextMenu

ContextMenuStrip

Advanced / non-browsable

Hidden WinForms appearance properties

Methods

PerformNeedPaint

GetCellTriple

HighlightSearch

ResetPaletteMode / ResetPalette

GetViewManager / GetResolvedPalette

Events

PaletteChanged

EditingControlButtonSpecClick

Grid styles

External corner rounding

HideOuterBorders

Visual states reference

Overriding cell styles

Column types

Usage examples

Corner rounding and grid lines

Themed context menu

Search highlight

Best practices

See also