Re-paint on translucent frame/panel/component.

Question

I\'m trying to create a translucent window with Java on OSX and add a JLabel to it.

This JLabel changes its text every second....

Answer 1

The problem may also have to do with the fact that you're setting the JLabel's text from a thread that is not the Event Dispatch Thread.

There are two ways to solve this. Without testing your problem, I'd solve it by using the javax.swing.Timer class, instead of the java.util.Timer class. javax.swing.Timer will ensure that events are fired on the dispatch thread.

So (untested code):

final ActionListener labelUpdater = new ActionListener() {
  private int i;
  @Override
  public final void actionPerformed(final ActionEvent event) {
    label.setText("Hola " + this.i++);
  }
};
final javax.swing.Timer timer = new javax.swing.Timer(1000L, labelUpdater);

The other way to solve it is to continue to use java.util.Timer but to make sure that you use EventQueue.invokeLater(Runnable) to ensure that updates to the label take place on the EDT.

Answer 2

I've had some luck extending JLabel and implementing Icon to get a translucent component working the way I want. You can see the result of various rule combinations in this AlphaCompositeDemo. The example below is 100% white atop 50% black.

Addendum: Note how this example composites opaque text on a clear offscreen background over the translucent frame background.

Addendum: Here's a way to make the whole frame translucent. Unfortunately, it dims the content, too.

import java.awt.AlphaComposite;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.FontMetrics;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.Timer;

public class Translucent extends JPanel implements ActionListener {

    private static final int W = 300;
    private static final int H = 100;
    private static final Font font =
        new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 48);
    private static final SimpleDateFormat df =
        new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss");
    private final Date now = new Date();
    private final Timer timer = new Timer(1000, this);
    private BufferedImage time;
    private Graphics2D timeG;

    public Translucent() {
        super(true);
        this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(W, H));
        timer.start();
    }

    @Override
    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
        g2d.setRenderingHint(
            RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
            RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        int w = this.getWidth();
        int h = this.getHeight();
        g2d.setComposite(AlphaComposite.Clear);
        g2d.fillRect(0, 0, w, h);
        g2d.setComposite(AlphaComposite.Src);
        g2d.setPaint(g2d.getBackground());
        g2d.fillRect(0, 0, w, h);
        renderTime(g2d);
        int w2 = time.getWidth() / 2;
        int h2 = time.getHeight() / 2;
        g2d.setComposite(AlphaComposite.SrcOver);
        g2d.drawImage(time, w / 2 - w2, h / 2 - h2, null);
    }

    private void renderTime(Graphics2D g2d) {
        g2d.setFont(font);
        String s = df.format(now);
        FontMetrics fm = g2d.getFontMetrics();
        int w = fm.stringWidth(s);
        int h = fm.getHeight();
        if (time == null && timeG == null) {
            time = new BufferedImage(w, h, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
            timeG = time.createGraphics();
            timeG.setRenderingHint(
                RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
                RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
            timeG.setFont(font);
        }
        timeG.setComposite(AlphaComposite.Clear);
        timeG.fillRect(0, 0, w, h);
        timeG.setComposite(AlphaComposite.Src);
        timeG.setPaint(Color.green);
        timeG.drawString(s, 0, fm.getAscent());
    }

    private static void create() {
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.setBackground(new Color(0f, 0f, 0f, 0.3f));
        f.setUndecorated(true);
        f.add(new Translucent());
        f.pack();
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }

    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        now.setTime(System.currentTimeMillis());
        this.repaint();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                create();
            }
        });
    }
}

Answer 3

/*
 * To change this license header, choose License Headers in Project Properties.
 * To change this template file, choose Tools | Templates
 * and open the template in the editor.
 */

package mreg;

import java.awt.AlphaComposite;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JWindow;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.UIManager;

/**
 *
 * @author Manoj
 */
public class TranscluentWindow {

 public static void main(String[] args) {
        new TranscluentWindow();
    }

    public TranscluentWindow() {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    try {
                        UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
                    } catch (Exception ex) {
                    }

                    JWindow frame = new JWindow();
                    frame.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
                    frame.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {



                    });
                    frame.setBackground(new Color(0,0,0,0));
                    frame.setContentPane(new TranslucentPane());
                    frame.add(new JLabel(new ImageIcon(ImageIO.read(getClass().getResource("/124742-high-school-collection/png/image_4.png")))));
                    frame.pack();
                    frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
                    frame.setVisible(true);

                       new Thread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {

                    try {

                        Thread.sleep(2500);
                    } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                    }

                frame.dispose();
                new loging().setVisible(true);
            }
        }).start();






                } catch (IOException ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }

            }
        });
    }

    public class TranslucentPane extends JPanel {

        public TranslucentPane() {
            setOpaque(false);
        }

        @Override
        protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
            super.paintComponent(g); 

            Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g.create();
            g2d.setComposite(AlphaComposite.SrcOver.derive(0.0f));
            g2d.setColor(getBackground());
            g2d.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());

        }

    }   



}

Answer 4

I don't know if the problem is solved, but I solved it in my application with a "Frame.repaint();"

So every second my Frame will be repainted and my JLabel will be updatet with the actual time.