How to change font/ font color etc in a graphic object using JCombobox?

Question

Hello
My program im writing recently is a small tiny application which can change fonts, font sizes, font colors and background color of the graphics object containing some strings. Im planning to use Jcomboboxes for all those 4 ideas in implementing those functions. Somehow it doesnt work! Any help would be grateful.
So currently what ive done so far is that: Im using two classes to implement the whole program. One class is the main class which contains the GUI with its components (Jcomboboxes etc..) and the other class is a class extending JPanel which does all the drawing. Therefore it contains a graphics object in that class which draws the string. However what i want it to do is using jcombobox which should contain alit of all fonts available/ font sizes/ colors etc. When i scroll through the lists and click the one item i want - the graphics object properties (font sizes/ color etc) should change as a result.
What ive gt so far is implemented the jcomboboxes in place. Problem is i cant get the font to change once selecting an item form it.
Another problem is that to set the color of font - i need to use it with a graphics object in the paintcomponent method. In this case i dnt want to create several diff paint.. method with different property settings (font/ size/ color)
Below is my code; perhaps you'll understand more looking at code.
public class main...
Color[] Colors = {Color.BLUE, Color.RED, Color.GREEN};
        ColorList = new JComboBox(Colors);
ColorList.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ev) {
                 JComboBox cb = (JComboBox)ev.getSource();
                Color colorType = (Color)cb.getSelectedItem();
                drawingBoard.setBackground(colorType);
          });;1) providing the GUI is correctly implemented with components
2) Combobox stores the colors in an array
3) ActionListener should do following job: (but cant get it right - that is where my problem is)
- once selected the item (color/ font size etc... as i would have similar methods for each) i want, it should pass the item into the drawingboard class (JPanel) and then this class should do the job.
public class DrawingBoard extends JPanel {
       private String message;
       public DrawingBoard() {
              setBackground(Color.white);
              Font font = new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, fontSize);
              setFont(font);
              message = "";
       public void setMessage(String m) {
            message = m;
            repaint();
       public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
              super.paintComponent(g);
              //setBackground(Color.RED);
              Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
              g2.setRenderingHint             
              g2.drawString(message, 50, 50);
       public void settingFont(String font) {
            //not sure how to implement this?                          //Jcombobox should pass an item to this
                               //it should match against all known fonts in system then set that font to the graphics
      private void settingFontSize(Graphics g, int f) {
                     //same probelm with above..              
      public void setBackgroundColor(Color c) {
           setBackground(c);
           repaint(); // still not sure if this done corretly.
      public void setFontColor(Color c) {
                //not sure how to do this part aswell.
               //i know a method " g.setColor(c)" exist but i need to use a graphics object - and to do that i need to pass it in (then it will cause some confusion in the main class (previous code)
       My problems have been highlighted in the comments of code above.
Any help will be much appreciated thanks!!!

Answer 1

It is the completely correct code
I hope that's what you need
Just put DrawingBoard into JFrame and run
Good luck!
public class DrawingBoard extends JPanel implements ActionListener{
     private String message = "message";
     private Font font = new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 10);
     private Color color = Color.RED;
     private Color bg = Color.WHITE;
     private int size = 10;
     public DrawingBoard(){
          JComboBox cbFont = new JComboBox(GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getAvailableFontFamilyNames());
          cbFont.setActionCommand("font");
          JComboBox cbSize = new JComboBox(new Integer[]{new Integer(14), new Integer(13)});
          cbSize.setActionCommand("size");
          JComboBox cbColor = new JComboBox(new Color[]{Color.BLUE, Color.RED, Color.GREEN});
          cbColor.setActionCommand("color");
          JComboBox cbBG = new JComboBox(new Color[]{Color.BLUE, Color.RED, Color.GREEN});
          cbBG.setActionCommand("bg");
          add(cbFont);
          cbFont.addActionListener(this);
          add(cbSize);
          cbSize.addActionListener(this);
          add(cbColor);
          cbColor.addActionListener(this);
          add(cbBG);
          cbBG.addActionListener(this);
     public void setMessage(String m){
          message = m;
          repaint();
     protected void paintComponent(Graphics g){
          super.paintComponent(g);
          Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g;
          g2.setColor(bg);//set background color
          g2.fillRect(0,0, getWidth(), getHeight());          
          g2.setColor(color);//set text color
          FontRenderContext frc = g2.getFontRenderContext();
          TextLayout tl = new TextLayout(message,font,frc);//set font and message
          AffineTransform at = new AffineTransform();
          at.setToTranslation(getWidth()/2-tl.getBounds().getWidth()/2,
                    getWidth()/2 + tl.getBounds().getHeight()/2);//set text at center of panel
          g2.fill(tl.getOutline(at));
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
          JComboBox cb = (JComboBox)e.getSource();
          if (e.getActionCommand().equals("font")){
               font = new Font(cb.getSelectedItem().toString(), Font.PLAIN, size);
          }else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("size")){
               size = ((Integer)cb.getSelectedItem()).intValue();
          }else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("color")){
               color = (Color)cb.getSelectedItem();
          }else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("bg")){
               bg = (Color)cb.getSelectedItem();
          repaint();
}