Building custom TextBlock control in WPF - wpf

Question

I have built custom WPF Control which unique function is displaying text. I tried using TextBlock from System.Windows.Controls namespace but it's not working for me (I have ~10000 strings with different position and too much memory loss). So I tried making my own control by inheriting FrameworkElement, overriding OnRender method which now contain single line:
drawingContext.DrawText(...);
But...
I get a little confusing result.
After comparing performance for 10000 objects, I realized that the time needed for creating and adding to Canvas is still ~10 sec, and memory usage for my application raises from ~32MB to ~60MB !!!
So no benefits at all.
Can anyone explain why this happens, and what is the other way to create simple (simple = allocate less memory, take less time to create) visual with two functions:
display text
set position (using thickness or TranslateTransform)
Thanks.

Answer 1

Check out AvalonEdit
Also not sure how you are storing the strings, but have you used StringBuilder before?

Answer 2

Here is my code (a little bit modified):
public class SimpleTextBlock : FrameworkElement
{
#region Static
private const double _fontSize = 12;
private static Point _emptyPoint;
private static Typeface _typeface;
private static LinearGradientBrush _textBrush;
public readonly static DependencyProperty TextWidthProperty;
static SimpleTextBlock()
{
_emptyPoint = new Point();
_typeface = new Typeface(new FontFamily("Sergoe UI"), FontStyles.Normal, FontWeights.Normal, FontStretches.Normal);
GradientStopCollection GSC = new GradientStopCollection(2);
GSC.Add(new GradientStop(Color.FromArgb(160, 255, 255, 255), 0.0));
GSC.Add(new GradientStop(Color.FromArgb(160, 180, 200, 255), 0.7));
_textBrush = new LinearGradientBrush(GSC, 90);
_textBrush.Freeze();
SimpleTextBlock.TextWidthProperty = DependencyProperty.Register(
"TextWidth",
typeof(double),
typeof(SimpleTextBlock),
new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(0.0d, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.AffectsRender));
}
#endregion
FormattedText _formattedText;
public SimpleTextBlock(string text)
{
_formattedText = new FormattedText(text, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, FlowDirection.LeftToRight, _typeface, _fontSize, _textBrush);
}
public SimpleTextBlock(string text, FlowDirection FlowDirection)
{
_formattedText = new FormattedText(text, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, FlowDirection, _typeface, _fontSize, _textBrush);
}
protected override void OnRender(DrawingContext drawingContext)
{
_formattedText.MaxTextWidth = (double)GetValue(TextWidthProperty);
drawingContext.DrawText(_formattedText, _emptyPoint);
}
public double TextWidth
{
get { return (double)base.GetValue(TextWidthProperty); }
set { base.SetValue(TextWidthProperty, value); }
}
public double ActualTextWidth
{
get { return _formattedText.Width; }
}
public double ActualTextHeight
{
get { return _formattedText.Height; }
}
}

Answer 3

Since it sounds like we determined you should stylize a control like listbox, here are some examples of different things you can do:
Use Images as Items
Stylized and Binding
Honestly it all depends on what you want it to look like. WPF is great in how much control it gives you on how something looks.
Crazy example using a listbox to make the planet's orbits