Question

I set my JButton with this properties:
– borderPainted to false
– contentAreaFilled to false
– border to null
– opaque to false

and after click on the button, the background turns black or fades to black color,
but why,.. any suggestions!? (thx)

Answer 1

If you want to create a transparent button you need only to setContentAreaFilled(false), do not call setOpaque, see the javadoc (Just note that the last line in the javadoc suggests that varies by Look and Feel,.):

Sets the contentAreaFilled property. If true the button will paint the content area. If you wish to have a transparent button, such as an icon only button, for example, then you should set this to false. Do not call setOpaque(false). The default value for the the contentAreaFilled property is true.

This function may cause the component’s opaque property to change.

The exact behavior of calling this function varies on a component-by-component and L&F-by-L&F basis.

If you "just want" text (and no border) you can call setBorder(null).

---

Example:

…with no border and no background (and no "pressed" background). Tested on default look and feel for unity/ubuntu e.g MetalLookAndFeel.

public static void main(String... args) {

    JButton button = new JButton(new AbstractAction("Button") {
        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
            // Printout to verify that the button was actually pressed
            // since no visual output is shown... :)
            System.out.println("Clicked");
        }
    });
    
    button.setContentAreaFilled(false);
    button.setBorder(null);
    
    JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
    frame.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
    frame.add(button);
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.setSize(400, 300);
    frame.setVisible(true);
}