Transparency
Michael Szul
Ranch Hand
Posts: 57
posted 15 years ago
This was brought up under http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/003335.html, and I would like to put in my quick request.
Does anybody know any way to set a color to transparent. Like if you make a JWindow with an animation on it and you want the background to be transparent. Is this possible with the Java API's.
Does anybody know any way to set a color to transparent. Like if you make a JWindow with an animation on it and you want the background to be transparent. Is this possible with the Java API's.
posted 15 years ago
Sure, and it's not hard. Color objects have opacity as part of their properties. It's referred to in the documentation as the alpha value.
Just create a Color object with an alpha value of 255, and the color of the object behind will show completely through.
Note it is *not* possible to do this with an AWT Frame or other top-level window objects. Frames are "heavyweight" components which include by definition an opaque background. You can change the alpha value on a top-level window, but it will have no effect.
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Michael Ernest, co-author of: The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide
Just create a Color object with an alpha value of 255, and the color of the object behind will show completely through.
Note it is *not* possible to do this with an AWT Frame or other top-level window objects. Frames are "heavyweight" components which include by definition an opaque background. You can change the alpha value on a top-level window, but it will have no effect.
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Michael Ernest, co-author of: The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide
Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.
- Robert Bresson
Michael Szul
Ranch Hand
Posts: 57
posted 15 years ago
So with Java, you really couldn't make an application like say... Desk Flag (http://www.deskflag.com) or Virtual Girl.
You couldn't make an animation on a JWindow with the part of the frame that isn't being animated transparent, so that you could see the desktop.
You couldn't make an animation on a JWindow with the part of the frame that isn't being animated transparent, so that you could see the desktop.
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