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Translate/Rotate/Move a graphics object without messing up the whole screen

I'm coding a GUI that will be doing some graphics translations/rotations, etc.
My problem is that when I try to translate my graphics,
(a) The entire screen translates instead of my one little painted area
(b) The old paint stays there, leaving a big paint blob instead of a translated image
(c) If I use the clearRect method to allow me to avoid (b), the entire screen goes white and (a) is still a problem
my DrawPanel class (I called it "LaunchTubeImage" for whatever reason)
private class LaunchTubeImage extends JPanel {
private Color colour;
public LaunchTubeImage(Color color) {
super();
this.colour = color;
}
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D gg = (Graphics2D)g;
double theta = (double)angle.getValue();
theta = Math.toRadians(theta);
gg.rotate(theta,tubeImage.getSize().width/2 + 10,
tubeImage.getSize().height - 50);
g.setColor(colour);
g.clearRect(0,0,getWidth(),getHeight());
g.fillRect(tubeImage.getSize().width/2,
tubeImage.getSize().height - 100 , 10, 50);
}
}
where this is called in my code
tubeImage = new LaunchTubeImage(Color.MAGENTA);
angle.addChangeListener(new ChangeListener(){
public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
tubeImage.repaint();
}
});
Case 1: Comment out clearRect in that 1st block of code I posted
http://i58.tinypic.com/2d1l5w2_th.png
Black background as desired. Not rotated yet. Looks good so far.
http://oi60.tinypic.com/1zw1sm.jpg
Rotated it with my JSpinner... you see that the previous location was not removed (and note how my buttons randomly doubled and put themselves at the top of the screen).
Case 2: Keeping in the clearRect method
oi57.tinypic.com/2s84307.jpg
Layout is fine so far, but I wanted the background to be black
oi57.tinypic.com/4rde8x.jpg
Yay! It rotated. But note the weird behavior of that random "15" that appeared in my top right corner
oi58.tinypic.com/vymljm.jpg
And finally... when I resize the window you see that my entire screen was rotated - not just the pink image I wanted to rotate
Tips/fixes/advice? Thanks!! I hope I've provided enough information
(P.s. if you insist on us asking clear/useful questions.... then DON'T limit the number of images you can post... :/ )

The first line of an overridden paintComponent method should usually be super.paintComponent(g). On a JPanel, this will cause the drawing area to be cleared with the background color. If you want to clear the background with a different color, you can do this by manually filling a rectangle (clearRect is discouraged, see the JavaDoc), but of course, this has to be done before applying any transform.
So your method should probably look like this:
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
g.setColor(colour);
g.fillRect(0,0,getWidth(),getHeight());
Graphics2D gg = (Graphics2D)g;
double theta = (double)angle.getValue();
theta = Math.toRadians(theta);
gg.rotate(theta,tubeImage.getSize().width/2 + 10,tubeImage.getSize().height - 50);
gg.fillRect(tubeImage.getSize().width/2,tubeImage.getSize().height - 100 , 10, 50);
}

Formatting with java: Mixing text and pictures

I have a certain text, that i want to annotate for the user. Unfortunately i don't even see where to begin. My algorithm gives as output a range on a string. What i am going for is something like this:
I would need two ways to marker the Characters ( Blue line, red line), maybe also to invert the character (Give a character a different background), or make them fat. What is especially difficult is aligning the Pictures (here designated by two black dots) with the characters. Since the characters should be in Courier New, i could know where to put the offset, but i cannot seem to do it.
Lastly i would have to apply a break after X characters and begin a new line, just like in the picture. I have not found any example how to approach this with java yet. With python i could use ImageDraw, but i am out of the water with java.
is it possible to show this in a canvas on the screen and export this as svg or pdf? I dont know any libraries that could do this. So i would be happy to receive some suggestions/examples also along this way.

The key is to deal with the FontMetrics API. The best you can do is looking at this reference doc.
Here is a sample code demonstrating this usage. It draws red and blue lines around an "Hello world" text according a range of chars.
The text is inside a JLabel, but you can adapt the paint method on any component (but you will have to call graphics.drawChars to paint the text.)
(the code is not very nice, but it demonstrates the usage of FontMetrics)
package com.example.swing;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class DemoFontMetrics {
public static void main(String[] args){
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
DecoratedLabel label = new DecoratedLabel("hello world !",new int[]{2,4}, new int[]{6,9});
JPanel textContainer = new JPanel(new FlowLayout());
textContainer.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
textContainer.add(label);
frame.getContentPane().add(textContainer);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
private static class DecoratedLabel extends JLabel{
int startBlue;
int endBlue;
int startRed;
int endRed;
private DecoratedLabel(String text, int[] blueRange, int[] redRange) {
super(text);
startBlue = blueRange[0];
endBlue = blueRange[1];
startRed = redRange[0];
endRed = redRange[1];
}
#Override
public void paint(Graphics g) {
super.paint(g); //draw text
//set line with : 3
Stroke stroke = new BasicStroke(3f);
((Graphics2D)g).setStroke(stroke);
FontMetrics fm = g.getFontMetrics();
int h = fm.getHeight();
//compute blue line coordonate
fm.stringWidth(getText().substring(0,startBlue));
int x1 = fm.stringWidth(getText().substring(0, startBlue));
int x2 = fm.stringWidth(getText().substring(0, endBlue));
g.setColor(Color.BLUE);
g.drawLine(x1,0,x2,0);// draw blue line
//compute red line coordonates
int x3 = fm.stringWidth(getText().substring(0,startRed));
int x4 = fm.stringWidth(getText().substring(0, endRed));
g.setColor(Color.RED);
g.drawLine(x3,h-1,x4,h-1); // draw redline
}
}
}

If the text is displayed via JTextPane you can conveniently define a custom HighlightPainter, that draws lines above or under the text.
Then you can add highlights to the text pane programmatically by calling:
textPane.getHighlighter().addHighlight(startPos, endPos,
myLineHighlightPainter);
Images may as well easily be added to the pane, by:
textPane.setIcon(myImageIcon);

You can create svg directly for example: http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/batik/ it's an xml based vector graphics format.
EDIT: You can display svg in java, you can create pdf's with it from java. You can publish it in the web (simply as svg).

Changing the colour of text in drawstring()

I'm trying to add emphasis to one work in a string im drawing using swing.
I was advised to use HTML with the following code:
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
g.drawString("this is something I want people to <p color="#00FF00">NOTICE</p>", x, y);
I tried this but had no luck... it just outputs the HTML
Can anyone point me in the right direction?

How does this compile: g.drawString("this is something I want people to <p color="#00FF00">NOTICE</p>", x, y); as ' " ' is a special character we must escape it with \
You cast to Graphics2D but dont use it (not relevant to problem but can cause anomalies).
It should be:
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
g2.drawString("this is something I want people to <p color=\"#00FF00\">NOTICE</p>", x, y);
to add colour simply call setColor(Color c) on Graphics object:
g2.setColor(Color.GREEN);
However this will set the entire String to be drawn green, if you want only parts to be drawn green use JLabel for HTML support (up to HTML3.2):
JLabel label = new JLabel("<html>this is something I want people to <p color=\"#00FF00\">NOTICE</p></html>");
full example:
NB As you can see notice is on its own line thats because of the paragraph tag rather use font tag to get it on a single line like so:
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
public class Test {
public Test() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JLabel label = new JLabel("<html>this is something I want people to <p color=\"#00FF00\">NOTICE</p></html>");
// JLabel label = new JLabel("<html>this is something I want people to <font color=\"#00FF00\">NOTICE</font></html>");//will be shown on single line
frame.add(label);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new Test();
}
});
}
}

Use Graphics.setColor() to change the color of anything you do. Or use a JLabel to set the color on.

Use a JLabel for styled text. See LabelRenderTest for how it can be drawn to an image & used in paint.
Using Graphics/AWT methods
The string implies NOTICE should be green, but the rest default (black). We would need to call drawString(String) twice with the colors of the two parts of the string, offsetting the latter string by the width of the first. To get the width, see things like FontMetrics or a GlyphVector. This answer uses a GlyphVector to get an outline of the letters.

If you're just creating a simple label with emphasis on a word, you can just assign the HTML straight onto the JLabel like this...
JLabel label = new JLabel("<html>this is something I want people to <p color='#00FF00'>NOTICE</p>");
As long as you have the <html> piece at the beginning of the String for a JLabel, it will use the HTML renderer to paint it.
As pointed out by #AndrewThompson, however, the <p> will force the colored text on to a new line, so perhaps <span> would be more appropriate...
JLabel label = new JLabel("<html>this is something I want people to <span style='color:#00FF00;'>NOTICE</span>");

you can use g.setColor(Color.BLUE) before g.drawString(). (For example Color.BLUE)

You could add g.setColor(Color.Chosen Color);and then write the string out with g.drawString()
perhaps

Seeing pixels of a SVG file when scaling in Java

I am handling a SVG file in Java using Batik library. The problem occurs when i scale it. I can see pixels of lines. Off course this should not happen, i should be able to zoom at least about 4000% and maintain the smoothness.
SVG file is read from an extended class, and it is painted from an override paint method. First i set new scale to AffineTransform variable, apply this to graphics of the method and paint using super.paint().
I am really stuck and can't figure out the problem. SVG files I am using are ok, I opened them in Inkscape and could zoom without the pixels showing. Please help.
code:
#Override
public void paint(Graphics g) {
try {
rad = (int)(radInit*zoom);
updateTransform();
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
g2d.setTransform(transform);
super.paint(g);
paintElements(g2d);
} catch(NullPointerException nulle) {
// System.out.println("SVG not loaded yet");
}
}
private void updateTransform(){
transform = new AffineTransform();
transform.translate((-1)*zoom*centarX, (-1)*zoom*centarY);
transform.scale(zoom, zoom);
}

What was needed was
this.setRenderingTransform(transform, true);
This way no pixels can be seen or rather, everything is painted as it should be.

How can I repaint efficiently when using big custom component in Swing?

I have made a custom component (derived from JComponent) which represents
a draggable Bezier-curve.
(looks like a hanging cable, someone might know it
from Bender or Cubase)
My problem is: The curve may become really long,
let's say from top left to bottom right corners of the desktop.
This makes Swing's repaint functionality inefficient:
The area of the curve is perhaps few hundred pixels, but the area of
the component (being mostly 'transparent') is millions of pixels big.
My subjection impression is:
The longer the curve, the more flicker I get when dragging it.
I hope I made myself clear about the problem.
Perhaps it would help when I somehow could choose by myself, which regions
of the component needs repainting at all.
EDIT:
Such a mess! I'm profiling the application using Netbeans, which helps to
find inefficient code normally, but this Swing framework is making hundreds
of nested calls! I just can't figure out, what is slow and why.
By the way, disabling super.paint(...) or super.paintComponent(...) doesn't help.

Check out Filthy Rich Clients by Chet Haase and Romain Guy. They address these very optimizations among others along the way to producing responsive and graphically impressive UI.

Doing all of your bezier mathematics on the paint thread everytime the component is refreshed is (as you've gathered) a bad idea. Does your curve change often? If not then why not paint it to a BufferedImage as and when it changes, and change your paint() code to simply draw the buffered image to the component instead.
class CurveComponent extends JComponent {
private BufferedImage image;
#Override
public void paintComponent( Graphics g ) {
if ( image == null ) {
return;
}
g.drawImage( image, 0, 0, this );
}
private void updateCurve() {
image = new BufferedImage( getWidth(), getHeight(), BufferedImage.ARGB );
Graphics g = image.getGraphics();
// draw the curve onto image using g.
g.dispose();
}
}
Only call updateCurve() when you need to and all that expensive mathematics won't be needlessly repeated. Painting should be pretty responsive, even for a fullscreen window. drawImage() will be doing a straightforward memory copy and should be lightning fast.

Try writing a tiny test app, which consists of nothing except what you need to reproduce this problem. This will make profiling easier. Then post that app here, so we can take a look at possible solutions.
I found your question interesting so I wrote a test app myself. This draws a Bezier curve which is continually resized as you drag. I created a gradient background to ensure this works well with a nasty background. I get good performance and low flicker, although I use top-notch machine.
It pays to read "Filthy Rich Clients" to learn all the tricks of writing custom Swing components that perform really well.
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.geom.CubicCurve2D;
import java.awt.geom.Point2D;
public class CustomComponent extends JComponent {
private Point2D start = new Point2D.Double(0, 0);
private Point2D end = new Point2D.Double(300, 200);
private CustomComponent() {
this.setOpaque(true);
final MouseAdapter mouseAdapter = new MouseAdapter() {
#Override
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
setEnd(e.getPoint());
}
};
this.addMouseListener(mouseAdapter);
this.addMouseMotionListener(mouseAdapter);
}
public void setStart(Point2D start) {
this.start = start;
repaint();
}
public void setEnd(Point2D end) {
this.end = end;
repaint();
}
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
final Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
// draw gradient background
final int width = getWidth();
final int height = getHeight();
g2.setPaint(new GradientPaint(0, 0, Color.WHITE, width, height, Color.YELLOW));
g2.fillRect(0, 0, width, height);
// draw Bezier curve
final Shape shape = new CubicCurve2D.Double(start.getX(), start.getY(), start.getX(), end.getY(), end.getX(), start.getY(), end.getX(), end.getY());
g2.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g2.draw(shape);
g2.drawString("Click and drag to test for flickering", 100, 20);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
final CustomComponent component = new CustomComponent();
final Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
final Dimension size = new Dimension(screenSize.width - 20, screenSize.height - 100);
component.setPreferredSize(size);
final JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.add(component);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
Some things to note:
only overwrite paintComponent(Graphics g), not the other paintXXX() methods
set custom component to opaque if possible
only use repaint() to request repainting. Never directly order a repaint directly in your code. This lets Swing handle it well.

There is no efficient way to create lots of small clip rectangles for a diagonal structure which leaves you with two strategies to avoid flickering:
Double buffering. This needs an enormous amount of memory but the memory copy is very fast (it usually happens in the time the "electron beam" goes back from lower right to upper left ... if there was still a beam in your LCD).
Don't call super.paint() (which draws or "erases" the background) and draw the curve a second time with the background color to erase it.
For more details, see this document.
[EDIT] If fillRect() wasn't abstract, you could set a break point :) Set a break point in paint(), check who calls it and whether the background got cleared at that time. It should be since rendering would be completely wrong. Then set break points further up in the call chain.

You can redraw a smaller portion of the screen using repaint(Rectangle r)
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/javax/swing/JComponent.html#repaint(java.awt.Rectangle)
Then you mention flicker. Since you are using swing, which uses double buffering your flickering must be coming from something else. Are you clearing the screen in paintComponent(...)? I.e. call to fillRect(...)? Don't do that, it's not needed (IIRC).

Which method do yo use to paint your curve? paint or paintComponent?

My solution was a partial re-design:
Now I don't represent each "cable"-element by a component.
Now, cables are just dummy objects (with no involved JComponent).
The repaint takes place "globally", on the content pane of the parent JFrame.
Now it's efficient, and flickers less.

just use getVisibleRect(); inside paintComponent(Graphics g) to get the area you actually need to redraw