Change the BackColor of the ToolStripSeparator control

Question

Is it possible to change the BackColor of ToolStripSeparator control? There is a BackColor property in the designer, but it doesn't appear to be used - the color is always white.

Answer 1

The default toolstrip renderer ignores the BackColor property and uses hard-coded colors.

You can refer following link to use your own renderer to paint the separators the way you want them.

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        toolStrip1.Renderer = new MyRenderer();
    }
    
    private class MyRenderer : ToolStripProfessionalRenderer
    {
        protected override void OnRenderSeparator(ToolStripSeparatorRenderEventArgs e)
        {
            if ((e.Item as ToolStripSeparator) == null)
            {
                base.OnRenderSeparator(e);
                return;
            }
            Rectangle bounds = new Rectangle(Point.Empty, e.Item.Size);
            bounds.Y += 3;
            bounds.Height = Math.Max(0, bounds.Height - 6);
            if (bounds.Height >= 4)
                bounds.Inflate(0, -2);
            int x = bounds.Width / 2;
            using(Pen pen = new Pen(Color.DarkBlue))
                e.Graphics.DrawLine(pen, x, bounds.Top, x, bounds.Bottom - 1);
            using (Pen pen = new Pen(Color.Blue))
                e.Graphics.DrawLine(pen, x + 1, bounds.Top + 1, x + 1, bounds.Bottom);
        }
    }
}

Source: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/winforms/thread/6cceab5b-7e06-40cf-82da-56cdcc57eb5d