Rendering Hints - The 2D Tutorial

Use the Text antialiasing technique to smooth the edges of text on a screen. The Java 2D™ API enables applications to specify whether this technique should be used and what algorithm to use by applying a text rendering hint to the Graphics.

Java 2D text rendering can be affected by rendering hints. The most common rendering hint blends the foreground (text) color with the onscreen background pixels at the edges of the text.

To request this hint an application must invoke the following method:

graphics2D.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_TEXT_ANTIALIASING, 
			    RenderingHints.VALUE_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_ON);

For more information about rendering hints available in JDK 6, see the Controlling Rendering Quality section of the 2D Graphics tutorial.

Guess what rendering hints were applied to the sample string.

Actually, the antialiasing capability was applied in the following order:

1. Antialiasing is off.
2. Antialiasing is on.
3. Antialiasing using the TEXT_ANTIALIAS_GASP hint.
4. Antialiasing using the TEXT_ANTIALIAS_LCD_HRGB hint.

Play with the font size and rendering hints to produce various visual effects. Find the complete code for this application as well as more details on antialiasing in the Displaying Antialiased Text by Using Rendering Hints section of the 2D trail.

-- Alla Redko

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Thanks!

-- Sharon Zakhour

Posted at 09:05AM Feb 13, 2007 by The Java Tutorial Team  |  Comments[3]