Lesson: Overview of the Java 2D API Concepts

The Java 2D API provides two-dimensional graphics, text, and imaging capabilities for Java programs through extensions to the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT). This comprehensive rendering package supports line art, text, and images in a flexible, full-featured framework for developing richer user interfaces, sophisticated drawing programs, and image editors. Java 2D objects exist on a plane called user coordinate space, or just user space. When objects are rendered on a screen or a printer, user space coordinates are transformed to device space coordinates. The following links are useful to start learning about the Java 2D API:

• Graphics class
• Graphics2D class

The Java 2D API provides following capabilities:

• A uniform rendering model for display devices and printers
• A wide range of geometric primitives, such as curves, rectangles, and ellipses, as well as a mechanism for rendering virtually any geometric shape
• Mechanisms for performing hit detection on shapes, text, and images
• A compositing model that provides control over how overlapping objects are rendered
• Enhanced color support that facilitates color management
• Support for printing complex documents
• Control of the quality of the rendering through the use of rendering hints

These topics are discussed in the following sections:

• Java 2D Rendering
• Geometric Primitives
• Text
• Images
• Printing