Java All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 2

Drawing Shapes

In This Chapter

Creating basic shapes such as lines, rectangles, and ellipses

Setting the fill color and stroke thickness

Creating shapes you can see through

Creating gradient fills

Rotating shapes

Drawing text onscreen

Were you one of those kids who, way back in school, passed away the boring hours of algebra class by doodling in the margins of the book? If so, you're in luck. Now that you're a grownup and you're mastering Java programming, you don't have to doodle in the book. Instead, you can write programs that doodle onscreen.

This chapter is a gentle introduction to the fascinating world of drawing in Java. The designers of Java call this feature Java 2D. With Java 2D, you can draw basic shapes: lines, arcs, rectangles, ellipses, and so on. You can set the style used to draw the shape's outline, and you can fill the shape with a solid color, a gradient ...