MaterialDesignInXamlToolkit
A comprehensive Material Design theme and control library for WPF desktop applications in C# and VB.NET.
What is MaterialDesignInXamlToolkit?
Material Design In XAML Toolkit is an open-source library that implements Google's Material Design for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications. It provides a complete theme, control styles, and additional UI components to help developers build modern, visually consistent desktop applications that follow Material Design guidelines. The toolkit solves the problem of bringing a cohesive, contemporary design language to traditional WPF projects.
WPF developers using C# or VB.NET who want to create desktop applications with a modern Material Design interface. It's particularly useful for teams building enterprise software, utilities, or any Windows desktop app requiring a polished, consistent UI.
Developers choose this toolkit because it offers the most comprehensive and faithful implementation of Material Design for WPF, with extensive control coverage, easy customization, and compatibility with other popular WPF libraries. Its active maintenance and inclusion of both Material Design 2 and 3 specifications make it a future-proof choice.
Overview
Google's Material Design in XAML & WPF, for C# & VB.Net.
Use Cases
Best For
- Modernizing legacy WPF applications with a contemporary UI
- Building enterprise desktop software with a consistent design system
- Creating utility applications that require a polished Material Design interface
- Developing Windows desktop tools that need to match web/mobile app aesthetics
- Prototyping WPF applications quickly with pre-styled components
- Teams wanting to enforce UI consistency across multiple WPF projects
Not Ideal For
- Teams building cross-platform .NET applications using frameworks like .NET MAUI or Avalonia, as this toolkit is WPF-specific
- Projects requiring strict adherence to Microsoft's Fluent Design System instead of Google's Material Design
- Applications with severe performance constraints on older hardware, due to the overhead of animations and effects
Pros & Cons
Pros
Provides Material Design styles for all major WPF Framework controls, ensuring visual consistency across the entire application interface.
Allows easy customization of color palettes at both design and runtime, following Google's Material Design guidelines for flexibility.
Includes the complete Material Design Icons collection, saving developers time on sourcing and managing icon assets.
Works seamlessly with WPF libraries like Dragablz and MahApps.Metro, facilitating integration into existing projects.
Offers support for the latest Material Design 3 specifications through dedicated demo apps and resources, keeping applications modern.
Cons
The Material Design 3 demo is labeled as 'under development', indicating that some features may be missing or unstable compared to MD2.
The internal namespace exposes types not guaranteed for backwards compatibility, risking breaking changes in future updates without warning.
Includes animations and transition effects that can impact rendering performance, as acknowledged in the dedicated FAQ section on performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
material-uiMaterial UI: Comprehensive React component library that implements Google's Material Design. Free forever.
material-design-iconsMaterial Design icons by Google (Material Symbols)
materializeMaterialize, a CSS Framework based on Material Design
material-design-liteMaterial Design Components in HTML/CSS/JS
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.