Question

I use Graphics2D in Java to scale and rotate the picture I draw. I now want to be able to tell what the original coordinates were when I click on a certain point in the picture. So given the rotated and scaled coordinates I want to calculate the original ones. Is there a simple way to do this?

Answer 1

If you keep a copy of the AffineTransform you use when you paint the image, you can use
AffineTransform.inverseTransform(Point2D ptSrc, Point2D ptDst)
to transform a device space coordinate back to user space

Edit: If you capture the current transform of the Graphics2D while painting, beware of the Graphics2D being re-used for multiple lightweight children of the same window/panel, because then the transform will be relative to the parent component but the mouse coordinates will be relative to the child. You need to capture the changes you make to the transform not its final value. Example:

import java.awt.BasicStroke;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.Point;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.event.MouseMotionAdapter;
import java.awt.geom.AffineTransform;
import java.awt.geom.NoninvertibleTransformException;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;

import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.Box;
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws MalformedURLException, IOException {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        Box box = new Box(BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
        BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(new URL("http://sstatic.net/so/img/logo.png"));
        AffineTransform xfrm1 = AffineTransform.getScaleInstance(0.95, 1.25);
        xfrm1.rotate(-0.3);
        box.add(new ImageView(image, xfrm1));
        AffineTransform xfrm2 = AffineTransform.getShearInstance(0.1, 0.2);
        xfrm2.scale(1.3, 0.9);
        box.add(new ImageView(image, xfrm2));
        frame.add(box);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }
}

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
class ImageView extends JComponent {
    @Override
    public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
        try {
            paintXfrm = g2d.getTransform();
            paintXfrm.invert();
            g2d.translate(getWidth() / 2, getHeight() / 2);
            g2d.transform(xfrm);
            g2d.translate(image.getWidth() * -0.5, image.getHeight() * -0.5);
            paintXfrm.concatenate(g2d.getTransform());
            g2d.drawImage(image, 0, 0, this);
        } catch (NoninvertibleTransformException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        return new Dimension(image.getWidth() * 2, image.getHeight() * 2);
    }

    ImageView(final BufferedImage image, final AffineTransform xfrm) {
        this.canvas = image.createGraphics();
        canvas.setColor(Color.BLACK);
        canvas.setStroke(new BasicStroke(3.0f));
        this.image = image;
        this.xfrm = xfrm;
        addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
                try {
                    mouseDownCoord = e.getPoint();
                    paintXfrm.inverseTransform(mouseDownCoord, mouseDownCoord);
                } catch (NoninvertibleTransformException ex) {
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
                mouseDownCoord = null;
            }
        });
        addMouseMotionListener(new MouseMotionAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
                Point p = e.getPoint();
                try {
                    paintXfrm.inverseTransform(p, p);
                    if (mouseDownCoord != null) {
                        canvas.drawLine(mouseDownCoord.x, mouseDownCoord.y, p.x, p.y);
                        for (Component sibling: getParent().getComponents()) {
                            sibling.repaint();
                        }
                    }
                    mouseDownCoord = p;
                } catch (NoninvertibleTransformException ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });
    }

    private Graphics2D canvas;
    private BufferedImage image;
    private AffineTransform xfrm;
    private AffineTransform paintXfrm;
    private Point mouseDownCoord;
}