Java 2D Graphics

About This Book

This book covers a lot of ground. It presents the essentials of several complex fields — computer graphics, signal processing, typesetting, and color handling — in a compact form. I concentrate on what you need to know to use the features in the 2D API. Although you'll get a good conceptual background in computer graphics, this is a very practical book: it includes a working example for almost every concept.

Java 2D was designed so that simple operations are simple and complex operations are feasible. This book is designed the same way. I explain the simple way to do things first, then follow up with the full details. For example, two chapters are devoted to drawing text with the 2D API. The first chapter explains how to draw strings and perform other mainstream operations. If you really need fine control over each letter shape, however, you can go ahead and read the second chapter.

Here's a description of each chapter in this book:

Chapter 1, talks about Java 2D's role in the larger scheme of things, its origins, and related technology. It also includes an example that demonstrates some of the power of the 2D API.

Chapter 2, presents a bird's-eye view of the 2D API. You should definitely read this chapter so that you have a conceptual framework to hold the information that's in the rest of the book.

Chapter 3, describes how shapes are represented in the 2D API.

Chapter 4, shows how the 2D API can be used to produce dotted lines, lines of different thicknesses, ...