Develop Reference

How to flip entire awt.Canvas vertically

I am sitting with my son, trying to implement a school homework. The task is to write a program that draws X and Y axis and functions, e.g. Sinus or x² into a awt.Canvas. The issue we are struggeling with is that the root, Point(0,0) of the Canvas is designed to be in the upper left corner. The cartesian coordinate system that we have to have, has the origin in the lower left corner. So we tried to apply a AffineTransform and translate in the paint method of the Canvas, which in essence works but has two issues:
1st, for whatever reason the related translation doesn't really moves the origin to the bottom but about 100 pixels to high (see image).
When we put in the below code an additional offset of about 100 pixels with tx.translate(0, -(getHeight()+100)); it looks about right.Same issue seems to be true on the right side. There is also unintended free space. We colored the background of the containing Frame in black and the Canvas in grey to exclude an artefact between these two containers. But doesn't seem to be the case.
2nd, and that concerns us more, is the side effect that all text, when e.g. adding values to the axes will also be fliped, as you see at our debug info in the plotAxes method.
Here is what we have done so far..
public class PlotterView extends Canvas {
protected int MINWIDTH = 500;
protected int MINHEIGHT = 400;
Point[][] lines;
public PlotterView() {
Dimension dim = new Dimension(MINWIDTH, MINHEIGHT);
setPreferredSize(dim);
setBackground(Color.LIGHT_GRAY);
}
protected void plotAxes(Graphics2D g) {
Color defaultColor = g.getColor(); // save to restore defaults in the end
int originX = 5; // x origin of both axes - shift right
int originY = 5; // y origin of both axis - shift up
// Debug info to compare
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g.drawString("X: " + originX + "; Y: " + originY, originX, originY);
// X-Axis
g.setColor(Color.RED);
g.drawLine(originX, originY, MINWIDTH-20, originY);
g.drawLine(MINWIDTH-20, originY, MINWIDTH-30, originY-5);
g.drawLine(MINWIDTH-20, originY, MINWIDTH-30, originY+5);
// Y-Axis
g.setColor(Color.BLUE);
g.drawLine(originX, originY, originX, MINHEIGHT-20);
g.drawLine(originX, MINHEIGHT-20, originX-5, MINHEIGHT-30);
g.drawLine(originX, MINHEIGHT-20, originX+5, MINHEIGHT-30);
// Restore defaults
g.setColor(defaultColor);
}
public void paint(Graphics g) {
super.paint(g);
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
AffineTransform tx = AffineTransform.getScaleInstance(1, -1);
tx.translate(0, -getHeight());
g2.setTransform(tx);
plotAxes(g2);
}
}
One alternative would be to implement a method that "adjusts" every x-value from upper left to lower left, but that feels like a kind of botch job.
How to solve this right? Thank you in advance

Thank you for the feedback. I figured out that issue number 1 is born by using the AffineTransform. If I apply the scale and translate on the g2 directly the issue disappears.
Issue number 2 is a conflict of interest. We couldn't manage to find and apply the "three magic lines of code" (or whatever number would be required) to from thereon programm in a cartesian coordinate system. Instead we are converting all y-values into this top-level-origin coordinate system. Makes the code hard to read, but with the help debugging we managed.

Rotating the Rectangle object in java

Is it possible to rotate the Rectangle object to a certain degree around it's axis? Is it as easy as Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(x,y,w,h,r)?
If it is not possible to rotate the object, what would be a way I could get similar results?
Edit: for clarity here is my dilemma, I have images that rotate but when they colide with other images the collisions only work at 90 and 180 degree rotations because their hit box Rectangle objects don't rotate.

Edit: for clarity here is my dilemma, I have images that rotate but when they colide with other images the collisions only work at 90 and 180 degree rotations because their hit box Rectangle objects don't rotate.
You can rotate a Shape-derived object, such as a Rectangle2D by using the AffineTransform method, createTransformedShape(...).
Rectangle2D myRect = new Rectangle2D.Double(100, 100, 200, 200);
AffineTransform at = AffineTransform.getRotateInstance(Math.PI / 4, 150, 150);
Shape rotatedRect = at.createTransformedShape(myRect);
Note: code not compiled nor tested.

To rotate the rectangle, you give the graphics context an AffineTransform for rotation. Here's an example:
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
AffineTransform oldTransform = g2d.getTransform();
g2d.setTransform(AffineTransform.getRotateInstance(radians);
g2d.draw(rectangle);
g2d.setTransform(oldTransform);
}
You can also use g2d.rotate(radians) for rotation.
Note that the angle must be in radians. To convert degrees into radians, use degrees * (Math.PI/180) for the angle.

There's also another way to do this (besides createTransformedShape) which creates fewer temporary objects, if that's desirable.
Instead of keeping a Rectangle2D for the bounding box, you can keep a Path2D and then do the transform in place, using Path2D.transform(AffineTransform):
import java.awt.geom.*;
public class Example {
private final Path2D hitBox;
public Example(Rectangle2D initialHitBox) {
this.hitBox = new Path2D.Double(initialHitBox);
}
public void transform(AffineTransform tx) {
path.transform(tx); // In-place transformation.
}
// ...
}
This is very similar to what AffineTransform actually does under the hood.

Make oval/rectangle using float/double values

I want to draw a figure using float or double values, to be precise.
I use:
g.drawOval(0, 0, 10, 10);
to draw a circle, but I only can use integer values.
Is there any statement that use float/double values that do the same?
Here is a picture: Problem
The circles have to be centered, and I can't. Any solution?
Code:
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
public class Bulls_EYE extends JPanel
{
int red, green, blue;
int height, width;
int heightOval = 475, widthOval = 475;
Random rValue = new Random();
public void paint (Graphics g)
{
super.paint(g);
for (int idx = 0; idx < 100; idx++)
{
g.setColor(new Color(red = 1 + rValue.nextInt(255), green = 1 + rValue.nextInt(255), blue = 1 + rValue.nextInt(255)));
g.fillOval(width+2*idx, height+2*idx, widthOval-5*idx, heightOval-5*idx);
}
}
}

I think it's an interesting question but needs more context. Drawing primitives are usually expressed in pixel coordinates so fractions of a pixel do not make much sense.
If you want precision like a CAD application note that what is displayed on the screen is only an approximation of the underlying model due to the limitations of the display.
You can represent your models precisely in memory (with limitations in floating point representation) and draw the approximation on the screen.
Update
Based on your last update:
We know from the JavaDoc that fillOval takes as parameters (x, y, w, h) where x, y are the upper left coordinates, and w, h are the width and height.
If for each concentric circle you move the upper left coordinates inward, in this case by 2 px, to keep them centered, you must also reduce the width and height by twice that amount. Change the following line:
g.fillOval(width+2*idx, height+2*idx, widthOval-5*idx, heightOval-5*idx);
To
int dx, dy, dw, dh;
dx = 2*idx;
dy = 2*idx;
dw = 2*dx; // note this is 4*idx not 5*idx like you have currently
dh = 2*dy;
g.fillOval(width+dx, height+dy, widthOval-dw, heightOval-dh);
Note that your width and height variables being used in the first and second parameters really doesn't have anything to do with width and height but instead are providing a beginning offset from the origin where the oval is drawn.

There is no reason you should do this, because when drawing an oval with the given coordinates, they are referred to pixels on the screen. Since you can't draw between pixels, 1 is the smallest unit you can use. If you want to round the values before drawing, you can use
g.drawOval(Math.round(a),Math.round(b),Math.round(x),Math.round(y)
which will round the float a, b, x and y before drawing the oval. The only reason I can see is that you calculate the coordinates and the result is a float, then you need to round it like above.

You can use the Arc2D class for drawing circles with float/double precision, since it is a Shape and the Graphics2D class can draw shapes.
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
Shape circle = new Arc2D.Double(
// Same values as used in the fillOval function,
// but with double precision.
x, y, width, height,
// Draw a full circle (yes, in degrees).
0, 360,
// Connect the endpoint with the startpoint.
Arc2D.CORD
);
// Paint the circle.
g2d.fill(circle);
}
In a similar way, you can draw rectangles by using the Rectangle2D class.
Also, please use the paintComponent function instead of the paint function, as explained here.

AffineTransform without transforming Stroke?

When using the Graphics2D scale() function with two different parameters (scaling by different ratios in x- and y-direction), everything drawn later on this Graphics2D object is scaled too. This has the strange effect that lines drawn in one direction are thicker than those in another direction. The following program produces this effect, it shows this window:
public class StrokeExample extends JPanel {
public void paintComponent(Graphics context) {
super.paintComponent(context);
Graphics2D g = (Graphics2D)context.create();
g.setStroke(new BasicStroke(0.2f));
int height = getHeight();
int width = getWidth();
g.scale(width/7.0, height/4.0);
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g.draw(new Rectangle( 2, 1, 4, 2));
}
public static void main(String[] params) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable(){public void run() {
StrokeExample example = new StrokeExample();
JFrame f = new JFrame("StrokeExample");
f.setSize(100, 300);
f.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
f.getContentPane().add(example);
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
f.setVisible(true);
}});
}
}
I'm using this coordinate transform to avoid having to manually transform my application model coordinates (the (2,1, 2,4) in this example) to screen (or component) pixel coordinates, but I don't want this stroke distortion. In other words, I want to have all lines the same width, independent of current x- and y-scale-factors.
I know what produces this effect (the Stroke object creates a stroked shape of the rectangle to be painted in user coordinates, which then are translated to screen coordinates), but I'm not sure on how to solve this.
Should I create a new Stroke implementation which strokes Shapes differently in X- and Y-direction (thereby undoing the distortion here)? (Or does anyone already knows such an implementation?)
Should I transform my shapes to screen coordinates and stroke there?
Any other (better) ideas?

Turns out my question was not so horrible difficult, and that my two ideas given in the question are actually the same idea. Here is a TransformedStroke class which implements a distorted Stroke by transforming the Shape.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
/**
* A implementation of {#link Stroke} which transforms another Stroke
* with an {#link AffineTransform} before stroking with it.
*
* This class is immutable as long as the underlying stroke is
* immutable.
*/
public class TransformedStroke
implements Stroke
{
/**
* To make this serializable without problems.
*/
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1;
/**
* the AffineTransform used to transform the shape before stroking.
*/
private AffineTransform transform;
/**
* The inverse of {#link #transform}, used to transform
* back after stroking.
*/
private AffineTransform inverse;
/**
* Our base stroke.
*/
private Stroke stroke;
/**
* Creates a TransformedStroke based on another Stroke
* and an AffineTransform.
*/
public TransformedStroke(Stroke base, AffineTransform at)
throws NoninvertibleTransformException
{
this.transform = new AffineTransform(at);
this.inverse = transform.createInverse();
this.stroke = base;
}
/**
* Strokes the given Shape with this stroke, creating an outline.
*
* This outline is distorted by our AffineTransform relative to the
* outline which would be given by the base stroke, but only in terms
* of scaling (i.e. thickness of the lines), as translation and rotation
* are undone after the stroking.
*/
public Shape createStrokedShape(Shape s) {
Shape sTrans = transform.createTransformedShape(s);
Shape sTransStroked = stroke.createStrokedShape(sTrans);
Shape sStroked = inverse.createTransformedShape(sTransStroked);
return sStroked;
}
}
My paint-method using it then looks like this:
public void paintComponent(Graphics context) {
super.paintComponent(context);
Graphics2D g = (Graphics2D)context.create();
int height = getHeight();
int width = getWidth();
g.scale(width/4.0, height/7.0);
try {
g.setStroke(new TransformedStroke(new BasicStroke(2f),
g.getTransform()));
}
catch(NoninvertibleTransformException ex) {
// should not occur if width and height > 0
ex.printStackTrace();
}
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g.draw(new Rectangle( 1, 2, 2, 4));
}
Then my window looks like this:
I'm quite content with this, but if someone has more ideas, feel free to answer nevertheless.
Attention: This g.getTransform() is returning the complete transformation of g relative to the device space, not only the transformation applied after the .create(). So, if someone did some scaling before giving the Graphics to my component, this would still draw with a 2-device-pixel width stroke, not 2 pixels of the grapics given to my method. If this would be a problem, use it like this:
public void paintComponent(Graphics context) {
super.paintComponent(context);
Graphics2D g = (Graphics2D)context.create();
AffineTransform trans = new AffineTransform();
int height = getHeight();
int width = getWidth();
trans.scale(width/4.0, height/7.0);
g.transform(trans);
try {
g.setStroke(new TransformedStroke(new BasicStroke(2f),
trans));
}
catch(NoninvertibleTransformException ex) {
// should not occur if width and height > 0
ex.printStackTrace();
}
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g.draw(new Rectangle( 1, 2, 2, 4));
}
In Swing normally your Graphics given to the paintComponent is only translated (so (0,0) is the upper left corner of your component), not scaled, so there is no difference.

There is a simpler and less 'hacky' solution than the original TransformedStroke answer.
I got the idea when I read how the rendering pipeline works:
(from http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/2d/spec/j2d-awt.html)
If the Shape is to be stroked, the Stroke attribute in the Graphics2D context is used to generate a new Shape that encompasses the stroked path.
The coordinates of the Shape’s path are transformed from user space into device space according to the transform attribute in the Graphics2D context.
The Shape’s path is clipped using the clip attribute in the Graphics2D context.
The remaining Shape, if any, is filled using the Paint and Composite attributes in the Graphics2D context.
What you, and I, ideally seek is a way to swap the first two steps.
If you look closely at the second step, TransformedStroke already contains part of the solution.
Shape sTrans = transform.createTransformedShape(s);
solution
In stead of:
g.scale(...), g.transform(...), whatever,
g.draw(new Rectangle( 1, 2, 2, 4));
Or, using TransformedStroke:
g.setStroke(new TransformedStroke(new BasicStroke(2f), g.getTransform());
g.draw(new Rectangle( 1, 2, 2, 4));
I propose you do:
transform =whatever,
g.draw(transform.createTransformedShape(new Rectangle( 1, 2, 2, 4));
Don't transform g anymore. Ever. Transform the shapes instead, using a transform that you make and modify yourself.
discussion
TransformedStroke feels more like a 'hack' than a way the authors of Stroke meant the interface to be used. It also requires an extra class.
This solution keeps a separate Transform around and modifies the Shape instead of transforming the Graphics object. This is however in no way a hack, because I'm not abusing existing functionality but using API functionality exactly how it's meant to be used. I'm just using the more explicit parts of the API instead of the 'shortcut'/'convenience' methods of the API (g.scale() etc.).
Performance-wise, this solution can only be more efficient. Effectively one step is now skipped. In the original solution, TransformedStroke transforms the shape twice and strokes the shape once. This solution transforms the shape explicitly and the *current* stroke strokes the shape once.

Have you just tried to make the int x and int y on the application bigger like int x = 500 int y = 900??? Also my suggestion is that with out rewritten the whole code is to implement where the recs are thicker when the app is closer together more like doubling the rectangle on the top and the bottom but when the app is extended the recs on the top and bottom go back to normal...

Java2d: Translate the axes

I am developing an application using Java2d. The weird thing I noticed is, the origin is at the top left corner and positive x goes right and positive y increases down.
Is there a way to move the origin bottom left?
Thank you.

You are going to need to do a Scale and a translate.
in your paintComponent method you could do this:
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
{
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
g2d.translate(0, -height);
g2d.scale(1.0, -1.0);
//draw your component with the new coordinates
//you may want to reset the transforms at the end to prevent
//other controls from making incorrect assumptions
g2d.scale(1.0, -1.0);
g2d.translate(0, height);
}
my Swing is a little rusty but this should accomplish the task.

We can use the following way to resolve easily the problem,
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
{
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
// Flip the sign of the coordinate system
g2d.translate(0.0, getHeight());
g2d.scale(1.0, -1.0);
......
}

Have you tried Graphics2D.translate()?

You're going to want to just get used to it. Like luke mentioned, you technically CAN apply a transform to the graphics instance, but that will end up affecting performance negatively.
Just doing a translate could move the position of 0,0 to the bottom left, but movement along the positive axes will still be right in the x direction and down in the y direction, so the only thing you would accomplish is drawing everything offscreen. You'd need to do a rotate to accomplish what you're asking, which would add the overhead of radian calculations to the transform matrix of the graphics instance. That is not a good tradeoff.

Just for later reference, I had to swap the order of the calls to scale and translate in my code. Maybe this will help someone in the future:
#Test
public void bottomLeftOriginTest() throws IOException {
int width = 256;
int height = 512;
BufferedImage bi = new BufferedImage(width, height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_BGR);
Graphics2D ig = bi.createGraphics();
// save the "old" transform
AffineTransform old = ig.getTransform();
// origin is top left:
// update graphics object with the inverted y-transform
if (true) { /* order ok */
ig.scale(1.0, -1.0);
ig.translate(0, -bi.getHeight());
} else {
ig.translate(0, -bi.getHeight());
ig.scale(1.0, -1.0);
}
int xPoints[] = new int[] { 0, width, width };
int yPoints[] = new int[] { 0, height, 0 };
int nPoints = xPoints.length;
ig.setColor(Color.BLUE);
ig.fillRect(0, 0, bi.getWidth(), bi.getHeight());
ig.setColor(Color.RED);
ig.fillPolygon(xPoints, yPoints, nPoints);
// restore the old transform
ig.setTransform(old);
// Export the result to a file
ImageIO.write(bi, "PNG", new File("origin.png"));
}