Synth Look and Feel


synth is a skinnable Java Look and feel#Look and [Feel in Widget Toolkits|look and feel], which is configured with an XML property file.
According to Sun, goals for synth were:
  • Enable to create custom look without writing any code.
  • Allow appearance to be configured from images.
  • Provide the ability to customize the look of a component based on its named properties.
  • Provide a centralized point for overriding the look of all components.
  • Enable custom rendering based on images, or user-defined s.

History

synth is available beginning with version J2SE 5.0 of Java.
Java SE 6 Update 10 release and newer contain Nimbus, a cross-platform Look and Feel implemented with Synth. However, for backwards compatibility, Metal is still the default Swing look and feel.

Architecture

Synth is a skinnable look and feel in which all painting is delegated to the components, without having to write any code.
However synth does not provide a default look, and components that are not defined in the synth XML file will not be painted. It is however possible to assign a default style to all other widgets, and customize styles for some specific widgets only.

Example

The following XML declaration defines a style named textfield and binds it to all text fields. The defaultStyle allows to set a default font, foreground and background colors to all other widgets.








Supposing that the XML declaration is defined in a file named synthExample.xml, the following code loads the XML definition file and sets the current look and feel to synth :

SynthLookAndFeel laf = new SynthLookAndFeel;
laf.load.toURI.toURL);
UIManager.setLookAndFeel;