Diferent font in JList

Question

hi is there a way to make each element in a JList to a different font. i am making a FontDialog and i would like each font name in the list to be the font of that font... like in MS word.
many thanks
David

Answer 1

Use a customized ListCellRenderer. The following outlines one possible way of doing it:
    // Use instances of this class as items in your list:
    class FontListItem {
        private Font    font;
        public FontListItem(Font font) {
            this.font = font;
        public String toString() {
            return font.getName();
        public Font getFont() {
            return font;
    // The ListCellRenderer for your JList:
    class FontListRenderer extends DefaultListCellRenderer {
        public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list,
                                                      Object value,
                                                      int index,
                                                      boolean isSelected,
                                                      boolean cellHasFocus) {
            JLabel renderer = (JLabel)super.getListCellRendererComponent(
                    list, value, index, isSelected, cellHasFocus);
            if( value instanceof FontListItem ) {
                renderer.setFont( ((FontListItem)value).getFont() );
            return renderer;
    // Example of use:
    FontListItem[] listItems = ...
    JList list = new JList(listItems);
    list.setCellRenderer(new FontListRenderer());