How to: Load a Picture Using the Designer (Windows Forms)

With the Windows Forms PictureBox control, you can load and display a picture on a form at design time by setting the Image property to a valid picture. The following table shows the acceptable file types.

Type File name extension
Bitmap .bmp
Icon .ico
GIF .gif
Metafile .wmf
JPEG .jpg

To display a picture at design time

  1. Draw a PictureBox control on a form.

  2. In the Properties window, select the Image property, then select the ellipsis button to display the Open dialog box.

  3. If you're looking for a specific file type (for example, .gif files), select it in the Files of type box.

  4. Select the file you want to display.

To clear the picture at design time

  1. In the Properties window, select the Image property. Right-click the small thumbnail image that appears to the left of the name of the image object, and then choose Reset.

See also