How to make rotated text look good with Java2D

Question

My question is not about how to rotate text with Java2D; I know how to do that. What I don't know is how to make the rotated text "look good." For example, if you create a text box in PowerPoint and rotate it, the text appears sharp and clear no matter the rotation angle. However, text drawn with g2D.drawString() looks okay at 0 or 90 degrees but not so good at other angles. Is there a way to manipulate the text to clean or sharpen it up? If so, then if someone could point me to where look to learn how to do this I would be so thankful.

Below is a little program that illustrates what I'm talking about. The bigger font isn't too bad when rotated but still doesn't look very professional. The smaller font when rotated is terrible.

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class RotateTest extends JPanel {
    String message = "How does this text look?";

    public RotateTest() {
        this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(640, 280));
    }

    @Override
    public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        super.paintComponent(g);

        Graphics2D g2D = (Graphics2D) g;

        g2D.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_TEXT_ANTIALIASING,
                       RenderingHints.VALUE_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_ON);

        g2D.setFont(new Font("MyriadPro", Font.BOLD, 20));
        g2D.drawString(message, 80, 20);

        AffineTransform orig = g2D.getTransform();

        double angle = Math.toRadians(7.0);
        g2D.rotate(-angle, -10, 80);
        g2D.drawString(message, 80, 80);
        g2D.setTransform(orig);

        angle = Math.toRadians(30.0);
        g2D.rotate(-angle, -40, 80);
        g2D.drawString(message, 60, 260);
        g2D.setTransform(orig);

        g2D.setFont(new Font("MyriadPro", Font.BOLD, 12));
        g2D.drawString(message, 380, 20);

        angle = Math.toRadians(7.0);
        g2D.rotate(-angle, -10, 80);
        g2D.drawString(message, 380, 120);
        g2D.setTransform(orig);

        angle = Math.toRadians(30.0);
        g2D.rotate(-angle, -40, 80);
        g2D.drawString(message, 320, 400);
        g2D.setTransform(orig);
    }

    private void display() {
        JFrame f = new JFrame("RotateTest");
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.add(this);
        f.pack();
        f.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new RotateTest().display();
            }
        });
    }
}

Answer 1

I once had a similar problem, and solved it by drawing the text with high precision to an image, then drawing the rotated image.

Here's the code:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;

import javax.swing.*;

public class RotatedText extends JPanel {
    String message = "How does this text look?";

    public RotatedText() {
        this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(640, 280));
    }

    public BufferedImage createStringImage(Graphics g, String s) {
        int w = g.getFontMetrics().stringWidth(s) + 5;
        int h = g.getFontMetrics().getHeight();

        BufferedImage image = new BufferedImage(w, h, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
        Graphics2D imageGraphics = image.createGraphics();
        imageGraphics.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_TEXT_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        imageGraphics.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_FRACTIONALMETRICS, RenderingHints.VALUE_FRACTIONALMETRICS_ON);
        imageGraphics.setColor(Color.BLACK);
        imageGraphics.setFont(g.getFont());
        imageGraphics.drawString(s, 0, h - g.getFontMetrics().getDescent());
        imageGraphics.dispose();

        return image;
    }

    private void drawString(Graphics g, String s, int tx, int ty, double theta, double rotx, double roty) {
        AffineTransform aff = AffineTransform.getRotateInstance(theta, rotx, roty);
        aff.translate(tx, ty);

        Graphics2D g2D = ((Graphics2D) g);
        g2D.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_INTERPOLATION, RenderingHints.VALUE_INTERPOLATION_BICUBIC);
        g2D.drawImage(createStringImage(g, s), aff, this);
    }

    @Override
    public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        super.paintComponent(g);

        g.setFont(new Font("MyriadPro", Font.BOLD, 20));

        drawString(g, message, 80, 20, 0, 0, 0);
        drawString(g, message, 80, 80, -Math.toRadians(7.0), -10, 80);
        drawString(g, message, 60, 260, -Math.toRadians(30.0), -40, 80);

        g.setFont(new Font("MyriadPro", Font.BOLD, 12));

        drawString(g, message, 380, 20, 0, 0, 0);
        drawString(g, message, 380, 120, -Math.toRadians(7.0), -10, 80);
        drawString(g, message, 320, 400, -Math.toRadians(30.0), -40, 80);
    }

    private void display() {
        JFrame f = new JFrame("RotateTest");
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.add(this);
        f.pack();
        f.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new RotatedText().display();
            }
        });
    }
}