This document discusses Substance, a Java look and feel library. It provides screenshots and instructions for changing the look and feel of Swing applications using Substance. It also describes how to customize aspects like themes, skins, watermarks and animations. Additional UI elements and plugins for components like SwingX are discussed.

1. Substance look and feel
JavaOne 2007 Community Corner

2. An application before Substance

3. Same application with Substance

4. Same application with Substance

5. Using Substance in you app
 Go to https://substance.dev.java.net
 Download the latest substance.jar
 Use one of the three options:
◦ UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
new SubstanceLookAndFeel())
◦ UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
“org.jvnet.substance.SubstanceLookAndFeel”)
◦ -Dswing.defaultlaf=
org.jvnet.substance.SubstanceLookAndFeel

6. Substance themes
 Contains information on control colors
for different visual states (disabled,
default, active)
 Base class – SubstanceTheme
 Use bundled core themes
 Use APIs to create derived themes
 Extend and create a custom theme

7. Substance simple themes
SubstanceAquaTheme SubstanceBottleGreenTheme
SubstancePurpleTheme SubstanceOliveTheme

8. Substance derived themes
 Invert, negate, saturate, hue-shift and
color-blind
Example of hue-shift:
SubstanceTheme theme = SubstanceLookAndFeel.getTheme();
SubstanceTheme shifted = theme.hueShift(-0.5);
SubstanceLookAndFeel.setCurrentTheme(shifted);

9. Substance watermarks
 Simple watermarks
 Image-based watermarks
SubstanceBinaryWatermark SubstanceWoodWatermark
SubstanceImageWatermark + APP_TILE

10. Substance skins
 A collection of various settings (theme,
watermark, painters, shapers etc).
 In org.jvnet.substance.skin
package
 Can set as
◦ SubstanceLookAndFeel.setSkin(…)
◦ Derived look and feel classes based on a
specific skin (set with UIManager or VM
flag)

11. Substance toned-down skins
SubstanceBusinessLookAndFeel SubstanceBusinessBlackSteelLookAndFeel
SubstanceCremeLookAndFeel SubstanceSaharaLookAndFeel

12. Substance dark skins
SubstanceRavenGraphiteLookAndFeel SubstanceRavenLookAndFeel
SubstanceEmeraldDuskLookAndFeel SubstanceChallengerDeepLookAndFeel

13. Substance saturated skins
SubstanceOfficeBlue2007LookAndFeel SubstanceFieldOfWheatLookAndFeel
SubstanceGreenMagicLookAndFeel SubstanceFindingNemoLookAndFeel

14. Configuring animations
 LafWidget.ANIMATION_KIND –
controls animation speed (0.5 sec for
a transition by default)
 FadeConfigurationManager APIs –
to enable / disable animations
◦ On a specific control
◦ On control class (JTree, for example)
◦ Globally

15. Custom appearance
 Theme – extend SubstanceTheme or
use derivation APIs
 Watermark – implement
SubstanceWatermark
 Skin – implement SubstanceSkin or
extend SubstanceAbstractSkin
(provides basic functionality)
 See existing core implementation and
test app for examples

16. Additional UI elements
 Substance provides additional “feel”
part for some Swing components
 These are called widgets
 Some widgets are turned on by default
 Most widgets are configurable
 Some widgets are not visible –
behavior only

17. Widget examples
 Menu search panel on big menus
 Lock icon on non-editable text
components
 Auto-completion on editable
comboboxes
 Password strength checker
 Tab overview panel
 Tree smart scroll

18. Substance plugins
 Substance provides a plugin
mechanism for third-party components
 No need to change the code – just
drop the plugin jar in the classpath
 Available plugins for:
◦ NetBeans – module supports 5.0 and 5.5
◦ SwingX at https://swingx.dev.java.net
◦ Flamingo at https://flamingo.dev.java.net

19. SwingX plugin
 Provides consistent appearance
(colors, fonts, animation) for
◦ Task pane container and task panes
◦ Status bar
◦ Month view
◦ Date picker
◦ Translucency on JXPanel
 More to come as SwingX matures and
reaches the first release

20. Q&A
Visit https://substance.dev.java.net
Mail kirillcool@yahoo.com
See http://javootoo.com for a list of
other third-party look and feels