JTextArea default font very small in Windows

Question

I'm using platform look-and-fell and on Linux my JTextArea is pretty readable But on Windows it uses "Monospaced 9" and the text is very small.

Why and what is the best way to fix that?

Why default Windows look-and-fell uses such small font in JTextArea?

Ferous

hmm, cant reproduce: on my system (Vista) the font is monospaced 16. Typically, WindowLookAndFeel uses the OS font settings - so maybe your system settings are so small? What's your win version? – Untwist

Answer 1

Instead of creating new font, it is better to derive existing font, because this way you'll save the font set by platform look and feel, and it may also avoid problems with unicode characters:

textArea.setFont(textArea.getFont().deriveFont(12f)); // will only change size to 12pt

Affusion

Answer 2

Here's a solution that you can use to change all JTextAreas at once instead of using setFont() every time you add new text area:

UIManager.getDefaults().put("TextArea.font", UIManager.getFont("TextField.font"));

Call this on start of your application, after setting the Look and Feel.

Most L&Fs use the same font for JTextArea and JTextField, it's strange that Windows doesn't.

Kirwan

Answer 3

If you want a consistent look then use the Nimbus or Metal look and feel instead of the OS default. That will also allow you to tweak any settings. Plus I personally I think the Nimbus Look and Feel is much smoother looking than the others.

Vinic

on Windows it looks very different to OS windows. I really prefer "system" look and feel – Ferous

nevertheless, Nimbus and Metal look alien on any platform and some users really don't like it. I hope that time for fancy-looking skinned apps is gone. – Affusion

Answer 4

You can use the JTextArea1.setFont(Font(String name, int style, int size)) method to specify the specific type of font for a JTextArea component. As an example

jTextArea1.setFont(new Font("Arial Black", Font.BOLD, 8));

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Font;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.WindowConstants;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class NewJFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    private JTextArea jTextArea1;
    private JTextArea jTextArea2;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                NewJFrame inst = new NewJFrame();
                inst.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
                inst.setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    public NewJFrame() {
        super();
        initGUI();
    }

    private void initGUI() {
        try {
            setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
            {
                jTextArea1 = new JTextArea();
                getContentPane().add(jTextArea1, BorderLayout.NORTH);
                jTextArea1.setText("This is a fox running slow");
                jTextArea1.setFont(new Font("Arial Black", Font.BOLD, 8));
                jTextArea1.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(164, 114));
            }
            {
                jTextArea2 = new JTextArea();
                getContentPane().add(jTextArea2, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
                jTextArea2.setText("This is a fox running slow");
                jTextArea2.setFont(new Font("Book Antiqua", Font.ITALIC, 12));
                jTextArea2.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(384, 129));
            }
            pack();
            setSize(400, 300);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            //add your error handling code here
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

}

Ambo

I don't want to specify the font, I only want to specify the size of the font :) Default font should be used – Ferous

jTextArea doesn't have getStyle() method. setFont method doesn't accept 3 arguments. – Ferous

Answer 5

I've just used TextField font in TextArea...

textArea = new JTextArea();
textArea.setFont(UIManager.getFont("TextField.font"));

Ferous

Answer 6

Just do

textArea.setFont(new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 16));

That changes all of the text inside of the textarea to the same size font.

Cameraman