Java 2D Graphics

Chapter 13. Printing

It used to be that making pretty pictures on a computer was nothing unless you could put the results on paper or transparencies. These days, paper is not as important as it used to be, with images and graphics migrating to the Web. Transparencies, which used to be de rigueur for business presentations, are now old-fashioned. Now a laptop computer attached to a video display is the standard equipment for presentations. But don't give up on paper yet. The paperless society hasn't arrived, and I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it.

The Java 2 platform offers a clean, compact Printing API. If you've been struggling to get JDK 1.0 or JDK 1.1 to produce nice printed output, you'll be really happy to see the Printing API.^[1] The basic concept is very simple: the Printing API can give you a Graphics2D that represents a printer. You can perform the same rendering, regardless of whether the output device is the screen or a printer. Java 2 unleashes the full power of the 2D API is on your printer. Whee!

^[1] JDK 1.0 didn't include any printing support, so you may have turned to third-party native code solutions.

The classes and interfaces involved in printing are neatly tucked away in the java.awt.print package. It's a small package, easy to understand and easy to use. The secret of this simplicity is that an application can use the same code to render on a screen or on a printer. Printing is simply a matter of obtaining a Graphics2D that corresponds to the ...