User interfaces

Zebra stripes are subtle alternating stripes painted behind list items in a graphical user interface (GUI). They improve the readability of wide and long lists, but the JList class in Java's Swing doesn't support them. This tip shows how to extend JList to add zebra background stripes.

Table zebra stripes are alternating subtle background stripes painted behind the table's rows in a graphical user interface (GUI). They improve the readability of long rows in wide tables, but the JTable class in Java's Swing doesn't support them. This tip shows how to extend JTable to add zebra background stripes.

Zebra stripes in a graphical user interface (GUI) are subtle background stripes painted behind the rows of a hierarchical list, or tree. They improve the readability of wide tree rows, but the JTree class in Java's Swing doesn't support them. This tip shows how to extend JTree to add zebra background stripes.

User interface themes for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux define the OS-wide look of window frames, buttons, scrollbars, and the like. Preference settings enable users to tune color schemes to taste. For Java applications, changing the theme also sets colors for pre-defined java.awt.SystemColor objects that indicate the color of buttons, text, and more. In principal, applications may use these colors to customize their user interfaces to match the current theme. In practice, there are quite a few problems with doing this.

This article begins a series that discusses Java's SystemColors and their use and problems on different OSes. Series articles also provide color swatches, RGB/HSV values, and downloadable color lists for SystemColors for each of the standard themes on the Mac, Windows, and Linux. The color swatches provide a resource for comparing theme colors and creating custom Java components that match the themes.

The classic Java Swing CDE/Motif look and feel recreates the beveled buttons, gray color scheme, and light-weight design of the X11 window system's applications circa 1990. This article is part 1 of 4 and provides a component by component review of problems, workarounds, and special features of Java's CDE/Motif look and feel. Example images are included along with UIDefaults values, color swatches, and icon images.

This part 2 of 4 articles continues a component by component review of problems, workarounds, and special features for the classic Java Swing CDE/Motif look and feel. Example images are included along with UIDefaults values, color swatches, and icon images.

This part 3 of 4 articles continues a component by component review of problems, workarounds, and special features for the classic Java Swing CDE/Motif look and feel. Example images are included along with UIDefaults values, color swatches, and icon images.

This part 4 of 4 articles continues a component by component review of problems, workarounds, and special features for the classic Java Swing CDE/Motif look and feel. Example images are included along with UIDefaults values, color swatches, and icon images.

Each Windows 7 theme sets the desktop image, screen saver, sound set, mouse pointer shapes, and color scheme for buttons, scroll bars, window frames, and so forth. For Java applications, changing the theme also sets colors in Java's java.awt.SystemColor objects, which applications may use to customize user interfaces to match the Windows theme.

This article discusses SystemColor problems on Windows 7, and provides color swatches, RGB/HSV values, and downloadable color lists for all SystemColors for each of the standard Windows 7 themes.

Linux's Gnome defines themes that set the color scheme and style for window frames, buttons, scrollbars, and other components drawn by Gnome's GTK user interface toolkit. For Java applications, changing the theme should set colors in Java's java.awt.SystemColor objects, which applications may use to customize their user interfaces to match the current theme. Unfortunately, there are some problems here.

This article discusses SystemColor problems with Gnome, and provides color swatches, RGB/HSV values, and downloadable color lists for the default SystemColors on Linux.