Java Syntettica look and feels

Question

Lately I have learned a lot of Java;

Currently I am using Swing for GUI; And I want to use Synthetica's L&F's ;

I need help on where to start, some comprehensive tutorials may help,

I also wonder that if I wasted time by learning swing. Cause I know Synthetica does not require writing code, or am I wrong ?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Synthetica is a Look and Feel (LaF) for the Java Swing GUI Library/Toolkit. Think of it as a skin to change the default look of a Java GUI app.

Here's some reading on how to integrate a different LaF into your app:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/examples/lookandfeel/

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/lookandfeel/plaf.html

http://www.javasoft.de/synthetica/faq/#general-1

Using a pre-built LaF will save you the time and code of making the LaF yourself, but you will still have to code the actual GUI (the frame, buttons, text boxes, etc). Synthetica will just make them look different than normal. I would say to effectively use Java Swing LaF's, you will still need to know a little about Swing.

If you do not like Swing, it's worth looking into JavaFX. It's the Swing replacement and is included in Java 8 by default. You can hand-code the GUI using Java code just like with Swing, or you can use something called FXML to basically write the GUI in a special XML document which is much faster. JavaFX also uses CSS to style the LaF to look however you want.