Pluggable look and feel
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Pluggable look and feel is a mechanism used in the Java Swing widget toolkit allowing to change the look and feel of the graphical user interface at runtime.
Swing allows an application to specialize the look and feel of widgets by modifying the default (via runtime parameters), deriving from an existing one, by creating one from scratch, or, beginning with J2SE 5.0, by using the
property file. The look and feel can be changed at runtime.Architecture
The corresponding
API
includes:
- widgets to interact with their look and feel. Each widget defined in Swing can delegate its "painting" to its associated user interfaceclasses called UI delegates.
- An API to manage existing look-and-feel definitions. This API allow to set the look and feel or switch from look and feels at runtime.
- Another API to define a specific look and feel, or derive a look and feel from an existing one.
Examples of look and feels
Platform look and feels
The
Java platform comes with several bundled look and feels:[1]
- A default cross-platform look and feel, called Metal (see:
MetalLookAndFeel). This look and feel comes with several themes- The
DefaultMetalTheme, which was historically the first Swing default theme. - The smoother
OceanTheme, which became the default theme for Java 5.0.
- The
- Other cross-platform look and feels:
- A property file.
- The
Nimbuslook and feel (based on synth), which is added for the Java SE 6 Update 10.[2][3]
- Platform-dependent look and feels:[4] Look and feels that aim to be the closest as possible to the platform native GUI. The fidelity to the native look-and-feel theming has been improved in recent Java versions by leveraging the platform native GUI theming library when possible[5][6]
- A Windows look and feel (this look and feel depends on the version of the Windows Operating System),
- A Solaris,
- A specific vendor look and feel for Mac OS X.
Third-party look and feels
Numerous other look and feels have been developed by third parties, such as:
- FlatLaf, open-source, "looks almost flat", themed, scales on HiDPI displays, for JDK8+
- Insubstantial, a maintenance fork of Substance
- JGoodies, Windows and plastic look and feels
- Liquid, which aim to look like the Liquid theme for KDE
- Napkin, which can be used to make GUI work look provisional
- Substance, a skinnablelook and feel
- Synthetica, based on synth
See also
References
- ^ "Java Tutorials: Available Look and Feels". Sun Microsystems. 2008-02-14. Archived from the original on 2010-08-22. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ Potts, Jasper (2007-12-07). "Nimbus Category". Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "Nimbus". Sun Microsystems. Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "Available Look and Feels". Sun Microsystems. Archived from the original on 2008-05-29. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "GTK Native L&F Fidelity". Sun Microsystems. Archived from the original on 2008-04-29. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "XP L&F does not work on Windows Vista (Longhorn) - needs to use uxtheme api". Sun Microsystems. Archived from the original on 2008-04-29. Retrieved 2008-05-25.