Canvas creators can be defined as parameters using the canvasCreator tag or inside own XML files typically with the extension *.ccreator.xml. The extension can be chosen differently if required. For both versions the same tag definition is used.

Canvas creators are always based directly or indirectly on a type. This type is the Canvas Creator Prototype and defines what instance of CanvasCreator is used in the scripts. The choice of prototype affects the appearance of the canvas creator and the configuration possibilities.

The following prototypes are provided by default by the CanvasCreators script class:

You can use custom prototypes by adding them to CanvasCreators instance before loading gui themes. This is useful if you created custom canvas creator subclasses requiring custom parameters.

This example defines a canvas creator based on the Image prototype displaying canvasImage.png stretched across entire canvas size.

<canvasCreator parameter='ParameterName' type='Image'>
   <image parameter='image'>canvasImage.png</image>
</canvasCreator>

If you modify an existing canvas creator the type of the original canvas creator is taken over. This example creates a canvas creator by loading it from a file and then replaces the image used.

<canvasCreator parameter='ParameterName' extend='imageCreator.ccreator.xml'>
   <image parameter='image'>anotherCanvasImage.png</image>
</canvasCreator>

Canvas creators are configured by setting parameters. For each supported parameter type an own tag exists. See Defining Parameters for an overview of the supported types. The supported parameters by canvas creator type are listed below.

The most basic canvas creator creating no canvas creator at all (empty canvas creator). Creates an instance of the DefaultCanvasCreator script class. This is useful to set an empty canvas creator. As such it has no parameters at all.

Creates a canvas creator drawing a rectangle with optional fill color. Creates an instance of the RectangleCanvasCreator script class. Both the rectangle and fill color are optional.

These parameters can be used:

Creates a canvas creator drawing a bevelled rectangle with optional fill color. Creates an instance of the BevelCanvasCreator script class. Both the rectangle and fill colors are optional.

These parameters can be used:

Creates a canvas creator stretching an image across the entire canvas size. Creates an instance of the ImageCanvasCreator script class. The image is optional. If not set this is the same as the default canvas creator.

These parameters can be used:

Creates a canvas creator using up to 9 images to draw a size adapting border. The set of images composes of a center, side images and corner images. The corner images are placed at their original size in each corner. The side images are stretched along the respective border between the corners. The center is stretched to touch all corners. Creates an instance of the ImageBorderCanvasCreator script class. All images are optional. Make sure the sizes of the images match. For example the top-left corner, top-right corner and top side images should have the same height. Otherwise gaps can result. If the canvas gets too small all images are scaled down to fit. This can be a suboptimal result so try to keep widgets using this canvas creator at a reasonable size.

These parameters can be used: