Incorrect list item background color in Nimbus custom ListCellRenderer

Question

Hi there,
I've been doing lots of web searches trying to come up with what's going on here. It seems other people have had the same problem I've had, but in the one place that seems to nail the question directly, it doesn't seem to be resolved. The issue is that I'm using a JPanel as a ListCellRenderer for a JList. I'm using the Nimbus LAF, and my problem is that the background of the panel doesn't seem to have its background color set properly. I call setBackground on it, and it should be setting it to a DerivedColor that's pure white, but it seems to have no effect. Manually calling setBackground to white works, but it also means I've now hardcoded the color into it, which I'm trying to refrain from doing. Here's some code to reproduce the issue:
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.ListCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo;
import javax.swing.border.Border;
public class ListTest extends JFrame {
  private JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane();
  private JList list = new JList(new String[] {"TEST 1", "TEST 2"});
  private class Renderer extends JPanel implements ListCellRenderer {
    private JLabel text = new JLabel();
    public Renderer() {
      add(text);
    public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list, Object value, int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {
      setEnabled(list.isEnabled());
      Border border = null;
      if (cellHasFocus) {
        if (isSelected) {
          border = UIManager.getBorder("List.focusSelectedCellHighlightBorder");
        if (border == null) {
          border = UIManager.getBorder("List.focusCellHighlightBorder");
      } else {
        border = UIManager.getBorder("List.cellNoFocusBorder");
      setBorder(border);
      // set renderer values
      text.setText((String)value);
      text.setFont(list.getFont());
      if (isSelected) {
        setBackground(list.getSelectionBackground());
        text.setForeground(list.getSelectionForeground());
      } else {
        // the color returned from list.getBackground() is pure white
        // but the list items appear with a grey background!
        setBackground(list.getBackground());
        // THIS works -- but is obviously hardcoded
        // setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        text.setForeground(list.getForeground());
      return this;
  public ListTest() {
    list.setCellRenderer(new Renderer());
    scrollPane.setViewportView(list);
    add(scrollPane);
    pack();
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        for (LookAndFeelInfo info : UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) {
          if ("Nimbus".equals(info.getName())) {
            try {
              UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName());
            } catch (Exception ex) { }
        new ListTest().setVisible(true);
}Here's a StackOverflow question that is exactly what I'm experiencing, but doesn't seem to be exactly resolved: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2787781
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Answer 1

// the color returned from list.getBackground() is pure white
// but the list items appear with a grey background!
setBackground(list.getBackground());
// THIS works -- but is obviously hardcoded
// setBackground(Color.WHITE);So when you hardcode the background you are using a Color object.
Have you added any debug info to see what kind of class list.getBackground() returns?
If it is some fancy class that extend Color, you can always create your Color object by using:
Color background = new Color(....)
Then all you have to do is get the RGB values from the list Color object.