Creating Windows - Beginning Java - page 828

GraphicsEnvironment e = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
Font[] fonts = e.getAllFonts(); // Get the fonts
You get a reference to the GraphicsEnvironment object for the current machine by calling the static
method getLocalGraphicsEnvironment() . You then use the reference that is returned to call its
getAllFonts() method. The getAllFonts() method returns an array of Font objects consisting of those
available on the current system. You can then check this list for the font you want to use. Each of the Font
instances in the array are of a 1-point size. Characters with a point size of 1 are approximately 1/72 of an
inch, or 0.353 mm, so you should change this unless your screen and eyesight are really exceptional. To
change the size and/or style of a font, you call its deriveFont() method. This method comes in six versions
but I'll only discuss three of them:
• Font deriveFont(int Style) : Returns a new Font object with the style specified — one of
PLAIN , BOLD , ITALIC , or BOLD+ITALIC .
• Font deriveFont(float size) : Returns a new Font object with the specified point size.
• Font deriveFont(int Style, float size) : Returns a new Font object with the specified
style and point size.
You could use the last font from the array of Font objects to create an equivalent 12-point font with the
following statement:
Font newFont = fonts[fonts.length-1].deriveFont(12.0f);
Of the three other versions of deriveFont() , two involve an object of type java.awt.geom.Affine
Transform , but I'm deferring discussion of AffineTransform objects until Chapter 20. The third makes
use of a Map collection object containing special iterator objects for text attributes, but I don't discuss these.
Getting a Font object for every physical font in the system can be a time-consuming process if you have
many fonts installed. A much faster alternative is to get the physical font names and then use one of these to
create the Font object that you require. You can get the face names for all the fonts in a system like this:
GraphicsEnvironment e = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
String[] fontnames = e.getAvailableFontFamilyNames();
The array fontnames contains the names of all the font faces available, and you can use one or more of
these to create the Font objects you need.
TRY IT OUT: Getting the List of Fonts
This program outputs your primary display's size and resolution, as well as the list of font family names
installed on your machine:
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.Dimension;