'Graying Out' a WPF button image?

Question

I have a simple Button control that contains an Image object as its content. I want so set the Image opacity to 0.5 when the Button is disabled to provide an additional visual cue as to the Button status.

What is the simplest way to accomplish that result in XAML? Thanks for your help.

Couldn't make this work. This worked for me: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4532943/icommand-canexecute-can-not-disable-button-with-image-content/11126571#11126571 — aeinstein, Jun 20 '12 at 19:32

score 184 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '10 at 21:10

Use a trigger in the Image style. (It would be more natural to put it in the Button style, but the Button style can't easily affect the Image for annoying technical reasons. It could be done in the Button's ControlTemplate but that's overkill for what you want here.)

<Button>
  <Image Source="something.png">
    <Image.Style>
      <Style TargetType="Image">
        <Style.Triggers>
          <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
            <Setter Property="Opacity" Value="0.5" />
          </Trigger>
        </Style.Triggers>
      </Style>
    </Image.Style>
  </Image>
</Button>

Note we are taking advantage here of the fact that the Image will be disabled when the Button is disabled, so we can trigger directly on the Image's own IsEnabled property. In other cases, the Button property we want to trigger on might not be inherited by the Image; in that case, we'd need to use a DataTrigger with the FindAncestor RelativeSource to bind to the containing button.

FWIW, when using XAML images in a ControlTemplate, you can add this to the ``. I used this to make toolbar buttons fade when disabled. — fadden, Jun 21 '19 at 22:50

score 42 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 22:23

42

If you want something more generic, put this in your resources section for your window or UserControl .

<UserControl.Resources>     
    <Style x:Key="ImageEnabled" TargetType="Image">
        <Style.Triggers>
            <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
                <Setter Property="Opacity" Value="0.25"></Setter>
            </Trigger>
        </Style.Triggers>
    </Style>
</UserControl.Resources>

And in the actual button just do this

<Button>
    <Image Source="{StaticResource LinkImage}" Style="{StaticResource ImageEnabled}"/>
</Button>

answered Jan 03 '13 at 22:23

CGsoldier

441
4
4

Replace `Source="{StaticResource LinkImage}"` with your actual code, e.g. `Source="Resources/stop-icon.png"`. It wasn't entirely clear to me on a first look. Also, I would argue that `ImageDisabled` is more semantically correct as the style's name. Otherwise, a very good answer. – z33k Aug 27 '21 at 13:23
Don't put x:Key="ImageEnabled" and it will apply to all images. A disabled image should always be grayed. Not only images in a button IMO. – Regis St-Gelais Jan 13 '23 at 15:56

score 22 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 10 '12 at 11:31

22

Here's a more generic style you can apply:

<Style TargetType="Button">
    <Style.Resources>
        <Style TargetType="Image">
            <Style.Triggers>
                <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
                    <Setter Property="Opacity" Value="0.5" />
                </Trigger>
            </Style.Triggers>
        </Style>
    </Style.Resources>
</Style>

answered Jun 10 '12 at 11:31

Tower

98,741
129
357
507

3

Note that this only works if the Image is a direct child of button. In my case, the button content is wrapped by a StackPanel and didn't worked. – Jone Polvora Mar 23 '15 at 01:41
@JonePolvora thank you for clarifying. I was confused why I failed to benefit from this post until I saw your post. – Michael Alexander Dec 29 '15 at 22:13

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 20 '18 at 21:03

If you want the entire button greyed out, styling the button itself has worked for me. It seems to grey out all button content.

                    <Button.Style>
                        <Style TargetType="Button">
                            <Style.Triggers>
                                <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
                                    <Setter Property="Opacity" Value=".75"/>
                                </Trigger>
                            </Style.Triggers>
                        </Style>
                    </Button.Style>

This does work. Note however that it conflicts with use of an alternative theme (like here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13156199/wpf-options-classic-theme) such that the button seems to revert to a 2D look & feel vs. the "Classic" theme I was using. — StayOnTarget, Apr 17 '19 at 15:52

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 17 '22 at 10:00

previous solutions only change opacity and not the color of the image, to gray out an image one need to convert the image to grayscale as follow. I did it for a toggleButton but the same method can be used on a button.

<ToggleButton>
    <ToggleButton.Style>
        <Style TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}">
           <Setter Property="Content">
               <Setter.Value>
                    <Image
                         RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality"
                         RenderOptions.EdgeMode="Aliased"
                         Source="/Resources/imageForButton.png"
                         Stretch="UniformToFill" />
                 </Setter.Value>
             </Setter>
             <Style.Triggers>
                 <Trigger Property="IsChecked" Value="False">
                     <Setter Property="Content">
                         <Setter.Value>
                             <Image
                               RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality"
                               RenderOptions.EdgeMode="Aliased"
                               Stretch="UniformToFill">
                                 <Image.Source>
                                    <FormatConvertedBitmap
                                       x:Name="myImageFormat"
                                       DestinationFormat="Gray8"
                                       Source="/Resources/imageForButton.png" />
                                 </Image.Source>
                             </Image>
                       </Setter.Value>
                </Setter>
             </Trigger>
          </Style.Triggers>
       </Style>
    </ToggleButton.Style>
</ToggleButton>

'Graying Out' a WPF button image?

5 Answers5