Hello all, as the title says , I need to serialize my font. I have tried the following approach unfortunately to no avail.

This is what I have and what happens;

I have a drawing application and certain variables and properties need to be serialized. (So , Xml.Serialization has been used.)

Now this has already been done in a huge portion and I've created some other attributes which needed to be serialized and it works.

There is one base class and classes such as drawablestar, drawableeclipse ,etc. all inherit from this class. As does my drawabletextboxclass. The base class is Serializable as can be seen in the sample below.

It looks like this...

Imports System.Xml.Serialization
<Serializable()> _
Public MustInherit Class Drawable
    ' Drawing characteristics.
    'Font characteristics
    <XmlIgnore()> Public FontFamily As String
    <XmlIgnore()> Public FontSize As Integer
    <XmlIgnore()> Public FontType As Integer

    <XmlIgnore()> Public ForeColor As Color
    <XmlIgnore()> Public FillColor As Color


    <XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public LineWidth As Integer = 0

    <XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public X1 As Integer
    <XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public Y1 As Integer
    <XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public X2 As Integer
    <XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public Y2 As Integer


    ' attributes  for size textbox 
    <XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public widthLabel As Integer
    <XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public heightLabel As Integer

    '<XmlTextAttribute()> Public FontFamily As String
    '<XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public FontSize As Integer


    'this should actually not be here..   
    <XmlAttributeAttribute()> Public s_InsertLabel As String


    ' Indicates whether we should draw as selected.
    <XmlIgnore()> Public IsSelected As Boolean = False


    ' Constructors.
    Public Sub New()
        ForeColor = Color.Black
        FillColor = Color.White
        'FontFamily = "Impact"
        'FontSize = 12

    End Sub


    Friend WriteOnly Property _Label() As String

        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            s_InsertLabel = Value

        End Set

    End Property

    Public Sub New(ByVal fore_color As Color, ByVal fill_color As Color, Optional ByVal line_width As Integer = 0)
        LineWidth = line_width
        ForeColor = fore_color
        FillColor = fill_color

        ' FontFamily = Font_Family
        ' FontSize = Font_Size

    End Sub

    ' Property procedures to serialize and
    ' deserialize ForeColor and FillColor.
    <XmlAttributeAttribute("ForeColor")> _
    Public Property ForeColorArgb() As Integer
        Get
            Return ForeColor.ToArgb()
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As Integer)
            ForeColor = Color.FromArgb(Value)
        End Set
    End Property

    <XmlAttributeAttribute("BackColor")> _
    Public Property FillColorArgb() As Integer
        Get
            Return FillColor.ToArgb()
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As Integer)
            FillColor = Color.FromArgb(Value)
        End Set
    End Property



    'Property procedures to serialize and 
    'deserialize Font

    <XmlAttributeAttribute("InsertLabel")> _
     Public Property InsertLabel_() As String
        Get
            Return s_InsertLabel
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            s_InsertLabel = value
        End Set
    End Property


    <XmlAttributeAttribute("FontSize")> _
    Public Property FontSizeGet() As Integer
        Get
            Return FontSize
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As Integer)
            FontSize = value
        End Set
    End Property

    <XmlAttributeAttribute("FontFamily")> _
    Public Property FontFamilyGet() As String
        Get
            Return FontFamily
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            FontFamily = value
        End Set
    End Property

    <XmlAttributeAttribute("FontType")> _
    Public Property FontType_() As Integer
        Get
            Return FontType
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As Integer)
            FontType = value
        End Set
    End Property


#Region "Methods to override"

    Public MustOverride Sub Draw(ByVal gr As Graphics)

    ' Return the object's bounding rectangle.
    Public MustOverride Function GetBounds() As Rectangle

   ...... ........
 ..... 

End Class
[/code]

Imports System.Math
Imports System.Xml.Serialization
Imports System.Windows.Forms


<Serializable()> _
Public Class DrawableTextBox
    Inherits Drawable

    Private i_StringLength As Integer
    Private i_StringWidth As Integer
    Private drawFont As Font = New Font(FontFamily, 12, FontStyle.Regular)

    Private brsTextColor As Brush = Brushes.Black
    Private s_insertLabelTextbox As String = "label"

    ' Constructors.

    Public Sub New()
    End Sub


    Public Sub New(ByVal objCanvas As PictureBox, ByVal fore_color As Color, ByVal fill_color As Color, Optional ByVal line_width As Integer = 0, Optional ByVal new_x1 As Integer = 0, Optional ByVal new_y1 As Integer = 0, Optional ByVal new_x2 As Integer = 1, Optional ByVal new_y2 As Integer = 1)

        MyBase.New(fore_color, fill_color, line_width)

        Dim objGraphics As Graphics = objCanvas.CreateGraphics()

        X1 = new_x1
        Y1 = new_y1

        'Only rectangles ,circles and stars can resize for now  b_Movement 
        b_Movement = True

        Dim frm As New frmTextbox
        frm.MyFont = drawFont
        frm.ShowDialog()

        If frm.DialogResult = DialogResult.OK Then


            FontFamily = frm.MyFont.FontFamily.Name
            FontSize = frm.MyFont.Size
            FontType = frm.MyFont.Style

            'drawFont = frm.MyFont

            drawFont = New Font(FontFamily, FontSize)
            drawFont = FontAttributes()

            brsTextColor = New SolidBrush(frm.txtLabel.ForeColor)

            s_InsertLabel = frm.txtLabel.Text

            i_StringLength = s_InsertLabel.Length


            'gefixtf
            Dim objSizeF As SizeF = objGraphics.MeasureString(s_InsertLabel, drawFont, New PointF(X2 - X1, Y2 - Y1), New StringFormat(StringFormatFlags.NoClip))
            Dim objPoint As Point = objCanvas.PointToClient(New Point(X1 + objSizeF.Width, Y1 + objSizeF.Height))

            widthLabel = objSizeF.Width
            heightLabel = objSizeF.Height

            X2 = X1 + widthLabel
            Y2 = Y1 + heightLabel

        Else
            Throw New ApplicationException()
        End If
    End Sub


    ' Draw the object on this Graphics surface.
    Public Overrides Sub Draw(ByVal gr As System.Drawing.Graphics)

        ' Make a Rectangle representing this rectangle.
        Dim rectString As Rectangle

        rectString = New Rectangle(X1, Y1, widthLabel, heightLabel)
        rectString = GetBounds()


        ' See if we're selected.
        If IsSelected Then

            gr.DrawString(s_InsertLabel, drawFont, brsTextColor, X1, Y1)

            'gr.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, rect)   ' Pens.Transparent
            gr.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, rectString)

            '   Draw grab handles.
            DrawGrabHandle(gr, X1, Y1)
            DrawGrabHandle(gr, X1, Y2)
            DrawGrabHandle(gr, X2, Y2)
            DrawGrabHandle(gr, X2, Y1)
        Else

            gr.DrawString(s_InsertLabel, drawFont, brsTextColor, X1, Y1)
            'gr.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, rect)   ' Pens.Transparent
            gr.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, rectString)

        End If

    End Sub

    'get fontattributes 
    Public Function FontAttributes() As Font
        Return New Font(FontFamily, 12, FontStyle.Regular)

    End Function

    ' Return the object's bounding rectangle.
    Public Overrides Function GetBounds() As System.Drawing.Rectangle
        Return New Rectangle( _
            Min(X1, X1), _
            Min(Y1, Y1), _
            Abs(widthLabel), _
            Abs(heightLabel))
    End Function


    ' Return True if this point is on the object.
    Public Overrides Function IsAt(ByVal x As Integer, ByVal y As Integer) As Boolean
        Return (x >= Min(X1, X2)) AndAlso _
               (x <= Max(X1, X2)) AndAlso _
               (y >= Min(Y1, Y2)) AndAlso _
               (y <= Max(Y1, Y2))
    End Function

    ' Move the second point.
    Public Overrides Sub NewPoint(ByVal x As Integer, ByVal y As Integer)
        X2 = x
        Y2 = y
    End Sub

    ' Return True if the object is empty (e.g. a zero-length line).
    Public Overrides Function IsEmpty() As Boolean
        Return (X1 = X2) AndAlso (Y1 = Y2)

    End Function


End Class

The coordinates ( X1 ,X2,Y1, Y2 ) are needed to draw a circle , rectangle etc. ( in the other classes ).This all works. If I load my saved file it shows me the correct location and correct size of drawn objects. If I open my xml file I can see all values are correctly saved ( including my FontFamily ).

Also the color which can be adjusted is saved and then properly displayed when I load a previously saved drawing.

Of course because the coordinates work, if I insert a textField ,the location where it is being displayed is correct. However here comes the problem , my fontSize and fontfamily don't work.

As you can see I created them in the base class, However this does not work. Is my approach completely off? What can I do ? Before saving img14.imageshack.us/i/beforeos.jpg/

After loading the Font jumps back to Sans serif and size 12.

I could really use some help here..

Edit: I've been using the sample from this website http://www.vb-helper.com/howto_net_drawing_framework.html