Kerning in vb.net

Does anyone know how to change the kerning (space between characters) in vb.net? For example, i would like to change "STRING" to "S T R I N G". If possible i would like to be able to create my own font where i can specify the kerning 开发者_开发问答as i wish! Thanks in advance!

The only way I found is to P/Invoke. Assumming a generic form with a generic button this code will work.

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Public Class Form1
    Declare Function SetTextCharacterExtra Lib "gdi32" Alias "SetTextCharacterExtra" (ByVal hDC As Integer, ByVal nCharExtra As Integer) As Integer
    <DllImport("gdi32")> _
    Private Shared Function TextOut(ByVal hdc As IntPtr, ByVal x As Integer, ByVal y As Integer, ByVal textstring As String, ByVal charCount As Integer) As Boolean
    End Function
    <DllImport("gdi32")> _
    Private Shared Function SelectObject(ByVal hdc As IntPtr, ByVal hgdiobj As IntPtr) As IntPtr
    End Function
    <DllImport("gdi32")> _
    Private Shared Function DeleteObject(ByVal objectHandle As IntPtr) As Boolean
    End Function
    <DllImport("gdi32")> _
    Private Shared Function SetBkColor(ByVal hdc As IntPtr, ByVal crColor As Integer) As UInt32
    End Function
    <DllImport("gdi32")> _
    Private Shared Function SetTextColor(ByVal hdc As IntPtr, ByVal crColor As Integer) As UInt32
    End Function

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Using G = Graphics.FromHwnd(Me.Handle)
            Using myFont As New System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 20, FontStyle.Regular, GraphicsUnit.Pixel)
                'Regular Way
                Dim LeftEdge = 20
                G.DrawString("Hello", myFont, Brushes.Red, LeftEdge, 40)

                'If you want kerning
                Dim Kerning As Integer = 6 'I think this is twips
                Dim Hdc As IntPtr
                Dim FontPtr As IntPtr
                Try
                    'Grab the Graphic object's handle
                    Hdc = G.GetHdc()
                    'Set the current GDI font
                    FontPtr = SelectObject(Hdc, myFont.ToHfont())
                    'Set the drawing surface background color
                    SetBkColor(Hdc, ColorTranslator.ToWin32(Me.BackColor))
                    'Set the text color
                    SetTextColor(Hdc, ColorTranslator.ToWin32(Color.Red))
                    'Set the kerning
                    SetTextCharacterExtra(Hdc, Kerning)
                    Dim Text = "Hello"
                    'Draw the text at (20,60), Kerning will be applied so reset the left edge to half of kerning
                    TextOut(Hdc, LeftEdge + (Kerning \ 2), 60, Text, Text.Length)
                Catch ex As Exception

                Finally
                    'Release the font
                    DeleteObject(FontPtr)
                    'Release the handle on the graphics object
                    G.ReleaseHdc()
                End Try
            End Using
        End Using
    End Sub
End Class

You can use CSS. I usually set the letter-spacing style attribute in my aspx page.