Java AWT Create Color Object

With colors and fonts, readability increases as important noteworthy topics can be colored. All the latest operating systems support colors and fonts and allow customizing also. To support colors and fonts, the java.awt package includes Color class and Font class.

Standard Color Models

Color can be specified in two formats – RGB and HSB.

1. RGB Model

RGB model comes with the combination of primary colors red, green and blue. Different proportions of these three components give different shades. The range of values of these three, passed to Color constructor, should be within 0 to 255. Going out side this range raises IllegalArgumentException. With different combination of these colors, 16 million shaded can be created.

Syntax:

Color clr1 = new Color(int red, int green, int blue);

Examples:

         Color clr1 = new Color(200, 50, 150);      // some color shade
         Color clr2 = new Color(200, 0, 0);        // pure red color
         Color clr3 = new Color(255, 255, 255);    // white
         Color clr4 = new Color(0, 0, 0);          // black

2. HSB Model

HSB model comes with the combination of Hue, Saturation and Brightness. The range of values of these three components, passed to Color constructor, should be within 0.0f to 1.0f. That, is HSB model takes floating-point values (RGB takes integer values). Going out side this range raises IllegalArgumentException.

Syntax:

Color clr1 = new Color(float red, float green, float blue);

Examples:

Color clr1 = new Color(0.85f, 0.2f, 0.36f); // some color shade
Color clr2 = new Color(1.0f, 0, 0); // pure red color
Color clr3 = new Color(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // white
Color clr4 = new Color(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); // black

Java designers identified 13 colors as most frequently used by programmers. These colors can be used straightaway by the programmer without creating objects. These 13 colors are defined as static constants in Color class.

Following are the colors.

red	green	blue
black	white
gray	lightGray	darkGray
pink	yellow	magenta	cyan	orange

Other than these 13, if the programmer desires some other color, he must create a Color object and use.

Following is the class signature

public class Color extends Object implements Paint, Serializable

Program illustrating how to create a Java AWT Create Color Object and apply to graphics (strings)

import java.awt.*;
public class UsingColors extends Frame
{
  public void paint(Graphics g)
  {
    Color clr1 = new Color(200, 25, 100);
    g.setColor(clr1);
    g.drawString("Color set to graphics: " + g.getColor(), 50, 60);    
    g.drawString("Red component: " + clr1.getRed(), 50, 80);
    g.drawString("Green component: " + clr1.getGreen(), 50, 100);
    g.drawString("Blue component: " + clr1.getBlue(), 50, 120);
  }
  public static void main(String args[])
  {
    Frame f1 = new UsingColors();
    f1.setSize(300, 200);
    f1.setVisible(true);
  }
}

Color clr1 = new Color(200, 25, 100);
g.setColor(clr1);

A color object clr1 is created with 200 red component, 25 green component and 100 blue component. The color clr1 is applied to stings with setColor() method of Graphics class. drawString() draws a string on the frame at the specified coordinates. For a similar program with many font and color objects refer ColorsAndFonts.java.

Note: Observe another style of creating frame. Frame is created in the main() method instead of conventional constructor as done in other programs.

The frame you get do not close when clicked over the close icon on the title bar of the frame. It requires extra code close icon to work.