How to get list of font names from Java

Question

In Java we can create a Font object as such:

new Font("Helvetica", Font.PLAIN, 12);

My question is how do we get the entire list of font names from Java, for example "Helvetica" which we can use it as one the argument for the Font constructor?

I tried the following, but I can't find "Helvetica" in all of the lists.

    GraphicsEnvironment ge;  
    ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();  

    String[] names = ge.getAvailableFontFamilyNames();
    Font[] allFonts = ge.getAllFonts();

    for(int x=0; x<names.length; x++)
        System.out.println(names[x]);

    for(int x=0; x<allFonts.length; x++){           
        System.out.println(allFonts[x].getName());
        System.out.println(allFonts[x].getFontName());
        System.out.println(allFonts[x].getFamily());
        System.out.println(allFonts[x].getPSName());
    }

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Edit: More importantly, I also want to know what is the first attribute call in Font constructornew Font("What attribute is this?", Font.PLAIN, 12)

Q: Is it a fontName, family, fontFace, name or what?

Answer 1

On your system, that font may well be mapped to something else

Font helvetica = new Font("Helvetica", Font.PLAIN, 12);
System.out.println(helvetica.getFontName(Locale.US));

and I get

SansSerif.plain

To output the names of all local fonts, you could use something like

GraphicsEnvironment ge = GraphicsEnvironment
        .getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();

Font[] allFonts = ge.getAllFonts();

for (Font font : allFonts) {
    System.out.println(font.getFontName(Locale.US));
}

Answer 2

new Font("Helvetica", Font.PLAIN, 12);

In this case, it is better to use something like:

new Font(Font.SANS_SERIF, Font.PLAIN, 12);

That will produce the undecorated Font used by default on that OS.

On Windows it would be Arial. On OS X it would be Helvetica. On *nix machines it might be either, or a 3rd undecorated Font.

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In answer to your specific question, I've always found the 'font family' string to be useful for creating an instance of the font.