docs-desktop/dotnet-desktop-guide/framework/winforms/advanced/ellipses-and-arcs-in-gdi.md

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Ellipses and Arcs in GDI+	03/30/2017	csharp vb	arcs GDI+, arcs drawing [Windows Forms], ellipses GDI+, ellipses ellipses drawing [Windows Forms], arcs	34f35133-a835-4ca4-81f6-0dfedee8b683

Ellipses and Arcs in GDI+

You can easily draw ellipses and arcs using the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawEllipse%2A and xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawArc%2A methods of the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics class.

Drawing an Ellipse

To draw an ellipse, you need a xref:System.Drawing.Graphics object and a xref:System.Drawing.Pen object. The xref:System.Drawing.Graphics object provides the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawEllipse%2A method, and the xref:System.Drawing.Pen object stores attributes, such as width and color, of the line used to render the ellipse. The xref:System.Drawing.Pen object is passed as one of the arguments to the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawEllipse%2A method. The remaining arguments passed to the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawEllipse%2A method specify the bounding rectangle for the ellipse. The following illustration shows an ellipse along with its bounding rectangle.

The following example draws an ellipse; the bounding rectangle has a width of 80, a height of 40, and an upper-left corner of (100, 50):

[!code-csharpLinesCurvesAndShapes#51] [!code-vbLinesCurvesAndShapes#51]

xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawEllipse%2A is an overloaded method of the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics class, so there are several ways you can supply it with arguments. For example, you can construct a xref:System.Drawing.Rectangle and pass the xref:System.Drawing.Rectangle to the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawEllipse%2A method as an argument:

[!code-csharpLinesCurvesAndShapes#52] [!code-vbLinesCurvesAndShapes#52]

Drawing an Arc

An arc is a portion of an ellipse. To draw an arc, you call the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawArc%2A method of the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics class. The parameters of the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawArc%2A method are the same as the parameters of the xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawEllipse%2A method, except that xref:System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawArc%2A requires a starting angle and sweep angle. The following example draws an arc with a starting angle of 30 degrees and a sweep angle of 180 degrees:

[!code-csharpLinesCurvesAndShapes#53] [!code-vbLinesCurvesAndShapes#53]

The following illustration shows the arc, the ellipse, and the bounding rectangle.

See also

• xref:System.Drawing.Graphics?displayProperty=nameWithType
• xref:System.Drawing.Pen?displayProperty=nameWithType
• Lines, Curves, and Shapes
• How to: Create Graphics Objects for Drawing
• How to: Create a Pen
• How to: Draw an Outlined Shape