Convert a flat image to a nice rounded 3D backlit image, a la iPhone, using Qt

I'm not sure if a stylesheet can do everything you ask if you want the whole effect of iphone app icons: rounded rectangle, subtle gradient to give it a 3D look and shine. But perhaps it could, if you could overlay two images on top of each other. One of them could be a 3D rounded mask image with transparency, after which you simply place your 45X45 image. But then I don't know how extensible qstylesheets are at this point.

However, another option is to use QPainter. It can definitely do whatever you need it to. Basically what you would like to do is override paintEvent () of your widget, QPushButton, QLabel ... etc. and draw it yourself using the original image. Here is a link to a wiki entry I made on a custom QPushButton picture to give it a Windows Aero look that doesn't look like the iphone app icon: http://wiki.qtcentre.org/index.php?title=AeroButton

And here is paintEvent () from the class to give you a starting point. Once you enter it using a helper, it's pretty simple:

 void AeroButton::paintEvent(QPaintEvent * pe)
 {
     Q_UNUSED(pe);

     QPainter painter(this);  
     painter.setRenderHint(QPainter::Antialiasing);

     //test for state changes
     QColor button_color;
     if(this->isEnabled())
     {
         m_hovered ? button_color = m_highlight : button_color = m_color;

         if(m_pressed)
         {
              button_color = m_highlight.darker(250);
         }
     }
     else
     {
         button_color = QColor(50, 50, 50);
     }

     QRect button_rect = this->geometry();

     //outline
     painter.setPen(QPen(QBrush(Qt::black), 2.0));
     QPainterPath outline;
     outline.addRoundedRect(0, 0, button_rect.width(), button_rect.height(), m_roundness, m_roundness);
     painter.setOpacity(m_opacity);
     painter.drawPath(outline);

     //gradient
     QLinearGradient gradient(0, 0, 0, button_rect.height());
     gradient.setSpread(QGradient::ReflectSpread);
     gradient.setColorAt(0.0, button_color);
     gradient.setColorAt(0.4, m_shadow);
     gradient.setColorAt(0.6, m_shadow);
     gradient.setColorAt(1.0, button_color);

     QBrush brush(gradient);
     painter.setBrush(brush); 
     painter.setPen(QPen(QBrush(button_color), 2.0));

     //main button
     QPainterPath painter_path;
     painter_path.addRoundedRect(1, 1, button_rect.width() - 2, button_rect.height() - 2, m_roundness, m_roundness);
     painter.setClipPath(painter_path);

     painter.setOpacity(m_opacity);
     painter.drawRoundedRect(1, 1, button_rect.width() - 2, button_rect.height() - 2, m_roundness, m_roundness);

     //glass highlight
     painter.setBrush(QBrush(Qt::white));
     painter.setPen(QPen(QBrush(Qt::white), 0.01));
     painter.setOpacity(0.30);
     painter.drawRect(1, 1, button_rect.width() - 2, (button_rect.height() / 2) - 2);

     //text
     QString text = this->text();
     if(!text.isNull())
     {
         QFont font = this->font();
         painter.setFont(font);
         painter.setPen(Qt::white);
         painter.setOpacity(1.0);
         painter.drawText(0, 0, button_rect.width(), button_rect.height(), Qt::AlignCenter, text);
     }

      //icon
      QIcon icon = this->icon();
      if(!icon.isNull())
      {
         QSize icon_size = this->iconSize();
         QRect icon_position = this->calculateIconPosition(button_rect, icon_size);
         painter.setOpacity(1.0);
         painter.drawPixmap(icon_position, QPixmap(icon.pixmap(icon_size)));
      }
 }