Using a custom font for a JLabel

Question

I'm trying to use a special font in my JFrame, but I'm running into problems. I have a JLabel defined like this:

private JLabel lab = new JLabel("Text");

and I have a file called CUSTOMFONT-MEDIUM.TTF (TrueType font) but after writing the following:

    try {
    lab.setFont(Font.createFont(Font.TRUETYPE_FONT, getClass().getResource("/CUSTOMFONT-MEDIUM.TTF").openStream()));
    } catch(IOException ex){
    //exception handled here I suppose  
    } catch(FontFormatException ex2) {
    //same here
    }

the code compiles and the everything works right except that "lab" is not displayed so there is no text. I suppose it is because I never specified what the font size should be, but any attempt I have made to do that fails. Can someone help me out here?

Answer 1

@sasankad is mostly correct (+1).

Once you have created the font, it will have a default size of 1

Font font = Font.createFont(Font.TRUETYPE_FONT, getClass().getResourceAsStream("/CUSTOMFONT-MEDIUM.TTF"));  

You then need to derive the font size and style you want.

Font biggerFont = font.deriveFont(Font.BOLD, 48f);

import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.FontFormatException;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException;

public class TestCustomFont {

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

    public TestCustomFont() {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
                } catch (ClassNotFoundException | InstantiationException | IllegalAccessException | UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }

                JFrame frame = new JFrame("Testing");
                frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                frame.add(new TestPane());
                frame.pack();
                frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
                frame.setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    public class TestPane extends JPanel {

        public TestPane() {
            setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
            try {
                Font font = Font.createFont(Font.TRUETYPE_FONT, getClass().getResourceAsStream("/Royal Chicken.ttf"));
                JLabel happy = new JLabel("Happy little Miss Chicken");
                happy.setFont(font.deriveFont(Font.BOLD, 48f));
                add(happy);
            } catch (FontFormatException | IOException ex) {
                ex.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

    }

}

Check out java.awt.Font for more details...

You may also want to take a look at Physical and Logical Fonts, Font Configuration Files

Answer 2

The Font you created has to be registered first in the GraphicsEnvironment to be accessible to all and derive the size of the font:

Font font = Font.createFont(Font.TRUETYPE_FONT, getClass().getResource("/CUSTOMFONT-MEDIUM.TTF").openStream());   

GraphicsEnvironment genv = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
genv.registerFont(font);
// makesure to derive the size
font = font.deriveFont(12f);