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Render with SkiaSharp views on Windows

SkiaSharp ships separate view packages for the major Windows UI frameworks:

UI framework Package Raster control GPU control
WPF SkiaSharp.Views.WPF SKElement SKGLElement
Windows Forms SkiaSharp.Views.WindowsForms SKControl SKGLControl
WinUI 3 SkiaSharp.Views.WinUI SKXamlCanvas SKSwapChainPanel

The raster controls raise SKPaintSurfaceEventArgs. The GPU controls raise SKPaintGLSurfaceEventArgs.

WPF

Add the WPF namespace and choose SKElement or SKGLElement:

<Window
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:skia="clr-namespace:SkiaSharp.Views.WPF;assembly=SkiaSharp.Views.WPF">
    <skia:SKElement PaintSurface="OnPaintSurface" />
</Window>

SKElement renders through a WriteableBitmap. SKGLElement creates a Ganesh OpenGL context through OpenTK. Use InvalidateVisual() to request another WPF frame.

Windows Forms

Create SKControl for raster drawing or SKGLControl for Ganesh OpenGL:

using System.Windows.Forms;
using SkiaSharp.Views.Desktop;

var skiaControl = new SKControl { Dock = DockStyle.Fill };
skiaControl.PaintSurface += OnPaintSurface;
Controls.Add(skiaControl);

Use the normal Windows Forms invalidation and lifetime APIs. The control owns the per-frame surface; application code owns any drawing resources it creates.

WinUI 3

The WinUI controls use the SkiaSharp.Views.Windows namespace:

<Page
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:skia="using:SkiaSharp.Views.Windows">
    <skia:SKXamlCanvas PaintSurface="OnPaintSurface" />
</Page>

SKXamlCanvas presents raster pixels through a WriteableBitmap. SKSwapChainPanel uses Ganesh over ANGLE/OpenGL ES. Call the control's Invalidate() method for on-demand rendering; enable its render loop only for continuous animation.

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