Text Drawing Error! Please Help!!

When trying to run this code, i get the error: System.NullReferenceException was unhandled.

My Code (Very Simple):

Public Class form1

Dim paints As System.Drawing.Graphics

Dim afont As New System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 22, FontStyle.Regular)

Dim x As Integer = 10

Dim y As Integer = 10

Private Sub form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

'This Doesn't Work!

paints.DrawString("Arctic Games Programming", afont, Brushes.Black, x, y)

End Sub

Private Sub form1_Paint(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Paint

'This Code Works

e.Graphics.DrawString("Arctic Games Programming", afont, Brushes.Black, x, y)

End Sub

End Class

Simon OConnor - MVP
In the Load event handler, the paints object isn't initialized. You could do this with:
paints = Me.CreateGraphics()

That's not necessary though, the Paint event handler will take care of painting.
Joeouts
You have it right (correct) by going through the paint method. For simple text, then the label may be the way to go.....
Gordon Radley
Is there an easier way to do something like this I just want it to display the text when it loads and maybe animate by changing the values of x and y
Scott Coffey
Lol, true. . .
Eviakhan

In your code the variable paints is never being set to a valid Graphics object, in the load function you could simply insert a line previously of:

paints = Graphics.FromHwnd(Me.Handle)

While this will not break at runtime it will also be effectively worthless as your form1_Load method is firing before the form is ever being drawn and when it is drawn your previous drawing is lost and then redrawn again from form1_Paint.
Aidin
You could put a label control on the form...
Text Drawing Error! Please Help!!