ModernTabControl.WinForms 1.0.0

ModernTabControl.WinForms

Stop using the ugly 3D gray WinForms TabControl. Upgrade to a hardware-accelerated, animated routing control with built-in Sidebar Navigation support.

🛑 The Problem with the Standard WinForms TabControl

The default TabControl is hardcoded to use Windows 95 3D borders. Even if you set it to OwnerDrawFixed, the ugly gray borders cannot be removed, and creating a modern Left-Hand Sidebar menu is virtually impossible without breaking the designer.

🟢 The Podargus Solution

ModernTabControl.WinForms completely hijacks the native painting pipeline. It visually destroys the legacy 3D borders and replaces the tab headers with a gorgeous, 60 FPS animated GDI+ rendering engine.

Because it still inherits from TabControl, it fully supports the Visual Studio Designer! You can drag and drop controls into your tabs just like you always do.

🚀 Key Features

• 3 Application Layout Modes: Instantly switch your entire app's navigation layout between TopUnderline, TopPill, and Sidebar mode.
• 60 FPS Kinetic Animations: The active tab indicator doesn't just snap—it smoothly glides across the screen using ease-out math.
• Flawless Visual Studio Designer: Click through your tabs in the designer and drag-and-drop components seamlessly.
• Native Dark Mode: Fills the ugly gray TabPage backgrounds with your app's actual background color automatically.
• 🎨 2 Theme Modes & 5 Core Styles: Full support for the Podargus Design Matrix (Dark/Light × DashboardPremium, FluentGlass, MaterialFlat, SoftNeumorphic, Cyberpunk).

📦 Installation

Package Manager Console

Install-Package ModernTabControl.WinForms

.NET CLI

dotnet add package ModernTabControl.WinForms

⚡ Quick Start & Code Examples

1. Designer Workflow (Easiest)

1. Open your Form in the Visual Studio Designer.
2. Locate ModernTabControl in the Toolbox.
3. Drag it onto the canvas, right-click it, and select Add Tab just like the standard control.
4. Set the LayoutStyle property to Sidebar to instantly create a left-hand navigation menu.

2. Programmatic Setup

Configure your application's routing layout via code:

using Podargus.UI.Controls.WinForms.ModernTabControl;
using Podargus.UI.Controls.WinForms.ModernTabControl.Enums;

var tabMenu = new ModernTabControl
{
    Dock = DockStyle.Fill,
    Theme = ThemeMode.Dark,
    Style = TabDesignStyle.FluentGlass,
    
    // Switch between Sidebar, TopPill, or TopUnderline
    LayoutStyle = TabLayoutStyle.Sidebar 
};

// Add standard WinForms TabPages
tabMenu.TabPages.Add(new TabPage("Dashboard"));
tabMenu.TabPages.Add(new TabPage("Settings"));
tabMenu.TabPages.Add(new TabPage("Users"));

this.Controls.Add(tabMenu);

🎨 Layout Matrix Explained

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See the repository LICENSE file for details.

Maintained by Podargus

Building zero-dependency, ultra-performance developer workflows and hardware-accelerated UI components.