Using Text Attributes to Style Text

Applications typically need the capability to apply the following text attributes:

• Underline – A line that is drawn underneath text
• Strikethrough – A horizontal line that is drawn through the text
• Superscript or Subscript – A text or a letter that appears slightly above a line or correspondingly below a line
• Kerning – The adjustment of the space between characters

These and other text attributes can be applied by using the Java 2D™ TextAttribute class.

To apply these text attributes by add them to a Font object. For example:

Map<TextAttribute, Object> map =
    new Hashtable<TextAttribute, Object>();
map.put(TextAttribute.KERNING,
    TextAttribute.KERNING_ON);
font = font.deriveFont(map);
graphics.setFont(font);

The code example represented below shows the application of text attributes in the following order:

1. Sample string (no text attributes applied)
2. Kerning
3. Kerning and Underlining
4. Kerning,Underlining and Strikethrough
5. Kerning,Underlining, Strikethrough and Color

The complete code for this applet is in AttributedText.java.