Display text in Swing without JLabel

Question

I have to make a Java Program using Swing and I want to show some text, but not using JLabel (including text component)! I have to extends JFrame. What other options do I have?

That's a rather strange restriction. Do you have any other restrictions we should know about before suggesting answers? Why can you not use a JLabel? — Duncan Jones, Oct 23 '12 at 17:35
I don't think this question is too localized—there may be a reason to render text directly—but more context would help. — trashgod, Oct 23 '12 at 17:43
Other restrictions could be if the text must wrap the words before show. — Roman C, Oct 23 '12 at 17:46
Dont rewrite/delete question text with nonsense, either delete it, leave it for now and come back later when you know exactly or mark as solved if it is. But editing a question to now say: *I have to think about it more...* is not good idea it will be removed. — David Kroukamp, Oct 23 '12 at 18:24

David Kroukamp · Answer 1 · 2012-10-23T18:23:23.143

You should not:

Extend JFrame unnecessarily
Draw directly to JFrame via paint(..)

You should:

override JComponents paintComponent(...)
do custom painting in paintComponent(...),
add JComponent instance to JFrame

Here is an example for you:

enter image description here

import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.FontMetrics;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class DrawSimpleText {

    public DrawSimpleText() {
        initComponents();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new DrawSimpleText();
            }
        });
    }

    private void initComponents() {
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.getContentPane().add(new JPanel(true) {
            Font font = new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 20);
            String s = "Java Source and Support";

            @Override
            public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
                super.paintComponent(g);
                Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;

                g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
                        RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
                g2.setFont(font);

                FontMetrics fm = g.getFontMetrics(font);

                int width = fm.stringWidth(s);

                Dimension d = getSize();

                //center String/text
                int cx = (d.width - width) / 2;
                int cy = (d.height - fm.getHeight()) / 2 + fm.getAscent();

                g2.drawString(s, cx, cy);
            }

            @Override
            public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
                return new Dimension(300, 100);
            }
        });
        f.pack();
        f.setVisible(true);
    }
}

UPDATE:

As per your comment though its going against all Swing rules and my own morals:

However if you still need to do this (which I cannot fathom why this is just bad practice) here is how:

enter image description here

import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.FontMetrics;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class DrawSimpleText extends JFrame {

    public DrawSimpleText() {
        initComponents();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new DrawSimpleText();
            }
        });
    }

    private void initComponents() {
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        pack();
        setVisible(true);
    }
    Font font = new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 20);
    String s = "Java Source and Support";

    @Override
    public void paint(Graphics g) {

        super.paint(g);
        Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;

        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
                RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        g2.setFont(font);

        FontMetrics fm = g.getFontMetrics(font);

        int width = fm.stringWidth(s);

        Dimension d = getSize();

        //center String/text
        int cx = (d.width - width) / 2;
        int cy = (d.height - fm.getHeight()) / 2 + fm.getAscent();

        g2.drawString(s, cx, cy);
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        return new Dimension(300, 100);
    }
}

Also consider `TextLayout` for better metrics, as shown [here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/4287269/230513). — trashgod, Oct 23 '12 at 17:40
@user1769093 that is not considered good practice, but see my updated post — David Kroukamp, Oct 23 '12 at 17:42
Why the values are hardcoded? And also how about double buffer? — Roman C, Oct 23 '12 at 17:51
@RomanC +1 yes good one added double buffer. What hard coded values the text co-ordinates? — David Kroukamp, Oct 23 '12 at 17:54
@RomanC while I'm all for flexible APIs, this is just an example & demonstrates the basic requirements of the OP. +1 — MadProgrammer, Oct 23 '12 at 18:05
@MadProgrammer Showing a bad practices in the example doesn't fill the requirements of the OP. — Roman C, Oct 23 '12 at 18:10
@MadProgrammer +1 yup I do agree, although we should give good examples whats the use of giving an example that is near perfect OP wont learn... — David Kroukamp, Oct 23 '12 at 18:10
@david teach em to fish, sometimes pointing them in the right direction is more important then giving then the right answer — MadProgrammer, Oct 23 '12 at 18:14
@romanc I don't think this is a bad example. There are no requirements from the OP with regards to layout, they wanted to draw text. If we start second guessing the requirements we could not only be wasting our time but also introducing irrelevancy into the answer. I agree, we should correct bad practice when we see it and encourage good practice, but there's only so much we can guess at. I don't think in this case going all out with providing properties to set the text position is required to answer the OPs question ... IMHO — MadProgrammer, Oct 23 '12 at 18:17

Display text in Swing without JLabel

1 Answers1