public class DataGridColoredTextBoxColumn : DataGridTextBoxColumn 
{ 
        protected override void Paint(System.Drawing.Graphics g, 
                 System.Drawing.Rectangle bounds, System.Windows.Forms.CurrencyManager 
                 source, int rowNum, System.Drawing.Brush backBrush, System.Drawing.Brush 
                 foreBrush, bool alignToRight) 
        { 
        // the idea is to conditionally set the foreBrush and/or backbrush 
        // depending upon some crireria on the cell value 
        // Here, we color anything that begins with a letter higher than 'F' 
                 try{ 
                            object o = this.GetColumnValueAtRow(source, rowNum); 
                            if( o!= null) 
                            { 
                                     char c = ((string)o)[0]; 
                                     if( c > 'F') 
                                     { 
                                     // could be as simple as 
                                     // backBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Pink); 
                                     // or something fancier... 
                                                backBrush = new LinearGradientBrush(bounds, 
                                                         Color.FromArgb(255, 200, 200), 
                                                         Color.FromArgb(128, 20, 20), 
                                                         LinearGradientMode.BackwardDiagonal); 
                                                foreBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.White); 
                                     } 
                            } 
                 } 
                    catch(Exception ex){ /* empty catch */ } 
                 finally{ 
                            // make sure the base class gets called to do the drawing with 
                            // the possibly changed brushes 
                            base.Paint(g, bounds, source, rowNum, backBrush, foreBrush, alignToRight); 
                 } 
        } 
}

Public Class DataGridColoredTextBoxColumn 
     Inherits DataGridTextBoxColumn 

     Public Sub New() 
     End Sub 

     Protected Overloads Overrides Sub Paint(ByVal g As Graphics, _
          ByVal bounds As Rectangle, ByVal source As CurrencyManager, _
          ByVal rowNum As Integer, ByVal backBrush As Brush, _
          ByVal foreBrush As Brush, ByVal alignToRight As Boolean) 

     ' the idea is to conditionally set the foreBrush and/or backbrush 
     ' depending upon some crireria on the cell value 
     ' Here, we color anything that begins with a letter higher than 'F' 
     Try 
          Dim o As Object 
          o = Me.GetColumnValueAtRow(source, rowNum) 
          If (Not (o) Is Nothing) Then 
               Dim c As Char 
               c = CType(o, String).Substring(0, 1) 
               If (c > "F") Then 
                     ' could be as simple as 
                    ' backBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Pink); 
                    ' or something fancier... 
                    backBrush = New LinearGradientBrush(bounds, _
                         Color.FromArgb(255, 200, 200), _
                         Color.FromArgb(128, 20, 20), _
                         LinearGradientMode.BackwardDiagonal) 
                    foreBrush = New SolidBrush(Color.White) 
               End If 
          End If 
          Catch ex As Exception 
               ' empty catch 
          Finally 
               ' make sure the base class gets called to do the drawing with 
                ' the possibly changed brushes 
               MyBase.Paint(g, bounds, source, rowNum, backBrush, foreBrush, alignToRight) 
          End Try 

     End Sub 
End Class