Can you set the font for an entire panel?

**pahiker** · 07-02-2010, 04:00 PM

Up to now I have been setting each field individually

Java Code:

aField.setFont (new Font("Courier", Font.PLAIN, 10));

I tried setting it at the panel level

Java Code:

myPanel.setFont (new Font("Courier", Font.PLAIN, 10));

It compiles, but the font remains unchanged. Is there a way to change the default font setting for a panel so that I can then only change a few fields to a different font, rather than setting dozens of fields to Courier? (I have only two fields out of 30 that I want at a non-Courier font)

**Norm** · 07-02-2010, 04:09 PM

Where does each field get its font? If there is a central location, that would be the place to put the desired font. If each field saves it own font, then each will have to be changed.
Make a list of all the fields and use a loop to set the fonts for each.

**pahiker** · 07-02-2010, 04:18 PM

That was, basically, my question - where is the default font set? I don't set it in my app, I change the font on each field individually. I would have guessed that it is set at the panel level, especially since it allowed the compile, but that doesn't seem to be the case (or I am setting the panel font at the wrong place). I've read the Java docs on this, and I cannot find anything that addresses a default font.

**Norm** · 07-02-2010, 05:17 PM

To see what the default font is, try calling getFont() for the component before setting the font.

**camickr** · 07-02-2010, 05:36 PM

If a component has a null Font then I believe it uses the Font of its parent.

Java Code:

textField.setFont(null);
panel.add( textField );
panel.setFont(...);

**Prajin** · 07-05-2010, 07:10 AM

No setting component font to null won't make it acquire font of its parent. It didn't work with me.

To make font setting little easy do like :

Java Code:

Font f1 = new Font("Arial", Font.BOLD, 20);
buttonNew.setFont(f1);
buttonClick.setFont(f1);

**Fubarable** · 07-05-2010, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by Prajin

No setting component font to null won't make it acquire font of its parent. It didn't work with me.

Hm, Rob Camick's suggestion worked fine for me. Perhaps you were doing it wrong?

Java Code:

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class FontTest {

  private static final int LABEL_COUNT = 5;

  private static void createAndShowUI() {
    JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 0, 30, 0));
    panel.setFont(new Font(Font.SERIF, Font.BOLD, 64));
    panel.setForeground(Color.red);
    
    JLabel[] labels = new JLabel[LABEL_COUNT];
    for (JLabel label : labels) {
      label = new JLabel("Foo");
      label.setFont(null);
      label.setForeground(null);
      panel.add(label);
    }
    
    
    JFrame frame = new JFrame("FontTest");
    frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.pack();
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    frame.setVisible(true);
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        createAndShowUI();
      }
    });
  }
}

Also, seemed to work well for foreground color as well.

**Prajin** · 07-05-2010, 08:35 AM

That's a good idea. I will try it
- Thanks

**pahiker** · 07-05-2010, 10:45 AM

Worked for me as well, thanks Rob. The key was setting the JLabel to null. Unfortunately, that's not any different than what I was doing, setting the font on each element separately. Apparently there is no way to cleanly set the font for the entire panel.