Question

i am trying to draw some lines. Problem is about colors. For example. I have several lines of red color, and than i draw one line of blue color (or reversed). And sometimes, that lines those is more, is opaque for that last one.

I tried to make new color and set color with alpha composite 0.7 – for those more lines, and one color i left default – opaque (alpha 1.0). At first i draw more lines, and than last one. But that lines “overwrite” that one. Is there some solution to fix this problem?

I draw that lines on glasspane.

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edit: that code is robust, so it is difficult to post it, and it is one part of thesis.
principle is 2 color for example
Color basicColor;
Color similarColor;

than i have paint method and 2 hashmaps as attributes – some points are stored.
i iterate over this map, remember that one point and similar to him, all other connect with
graphics2D.drawLine(x1,y1,x2,y2) and than change color and paint last one line with another color. I am modifying stroke too, to make it more significant.

I hope it will be enough…

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edit2:
i have some Point similarPoint than some robust paint method and here is graphics modifying
iterator iterate over list of points’ lists.

Point similar = null;
Iterator<Point> secondIterator;
graphics.setColor(colorOfSimilar);
while (iterator.hasNext()) {
    Point point = iterator.next();
    if (point.equals(similarPoint)) {
        similar = similarPoint;
    } else {
        secondIterator = secondMap.get(point).iterator();
        while (secondIterator.hasNext()) {
            Point secondPoint = secondIterator.next();
            graphics2D.drawLine(point.getX(), point.getY(),
                secondPoint.getX(), secondPoint.getY());
        }
    }
}
if (similar != null) {
    secondIterator = secondMap.get(similar);
    graphics2D.setColor(hooverColor);
    graphics2D.setStroke(new BasicStroke(2.5f));
    while (secondIterator.hasNext()) {
        Point secondPoint = secondIterator.next();
        graphics2D.drawLine(similar.getX(), similar.getY(),
            secondPoint.getX(), secondPoint.getY());
    }
    graphics2D.setColor(colorOfSimilar);
    graphics2D.setStroke(new BasicStroke(1.0f));
}

i wrote it in notepad so sorry about some mistakes (i think brackets etc.), but this is mechanism of modifying, around that is other methods for iterate and other, but it is not important. Problem with stroke doesn´t exist, because at first i did it without stroke.

Thanks for any idea.

Answer 1

The result depends on which compositing rule is specified in the graphics context using setComposite(). This utility may be useful in understanding the various modes. It may also help you in preparing an sscce that exhibits the problem you describe.

Addendum: Here’s an example that shows how one might use AlphaComposite.Src mode for this.

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

/** @see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7823631 */
public class X extends JPanel {

    private static final int SIZE = 300;
    private static final int INSET = 64;
    private static final AlphaComposite OVER_HALF =
        AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, 0.5f);
    private boolean src;

    public X(boolean src) {
        this.src = src;
        this.setBackground(Color.lightGray);
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        return new Dimension(SIZE, SIZE);
    }

    @Override
    public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        super.paintComponent(g);
        Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
        g2.setRenderingHint(
            RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
            RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        Line2D line1 = new Line2D.Double(INSET, INSET,
            getWidth() - INSET, getHeight() - INSET);
        Line2D line2 = new Line2D.Double(getWidth() - INSET,
            INSET, INSET, getHeight() - INSET);
        g2.setStroke(new BasicStroke(64,
            BasicStroke.CAP_ROUND,
            BasicStroke.JOIN_BEVEL));
        g2.setComposite(OVER_HALF);
        g2.setColor(Color.red);
        g2.draw(line1);
        if (src) {
            g2.setComposite(AlphaComposite.Src);
        }
        g2.setColor(Color.blue);
        g2.draw(line2);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        final JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 0));
        frame.add(new X(false));
        frame.add(new X(true));
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }
}