The Page Turn Effect in Java Swing/AWT

I would like to implement the page turn effect in Swing/AWT. The theory is pretty much explained here. My question is that since the page is to contain text, which is the correct swing/awt component to use? Also, to get a little deeper, how should I approach this problem? I mean I have the theory laid out before me, I know the tool I need to use, but I have never done anything like this with Swing/AWT, do I need to master all the minutiae of Swing/AWT to be able to do th开发者_JAVA技巧is?

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Whatever you do, you will have to implement your own drawing routines. As the text you intend to draw is going to not share most characteristics of the text drawn with other components (it will be angled, rotating over time, and clipped at a moving visible "edge" of the page), you will also have to draw the text.

In SWING, and in all non-console programs the text is drawn to the screen as would any graphics primitive. It takes a bit of learning; especially in the details of line spacing, letter spacing, word wrapping, etc.

That means I'd consider a new swing UI component. Here's how to write custom painting for one. Depending on the details, you may want to reuse a model. Generally it is easier to only write a view than a view and a model at the same time; however, you must balance the needs of the view with the suitability of the existing model.

If you choose an existing model, the Document interface is what you should code your view against. You can take your lead from the JTextPane or JTextArea view components, depeding on if you want the ability to "add style" to your text.

Don't forget that the view actually doesn't do the painting in a well structured Swing component. If it did, then it would not be able to be skinned (to follow the platform's theme). This means that while you will provide a Swing view (typically with a name pattern like JPagedBook), that view will have to be coupled to a UIDelegate which does the actual drawing of the view. This allows multiple UIDelegates for each view, with each UIDelegate containing the instructions of how to render (draw) the view in a manner that is consistent with the look-and-feel of the platform.

The biggest issues around this is typically the extra work involved to properly support look-and-feel, and the lack of knowledge of proper UIDelegate registration (so when the view draws, it finds something that will draw it). It's worth the extra few hours (or couple of days if GUI component programming is sort of new to you) to make it work like the rest of Swing. In the end you'll have a component that doesn't feel like a "separate" part of the library.