Is this a valid work around for disabled TextField Font colors?

Question

We would like to change the font color in disabled TextFields.
Since the AWT calls some native code that apparently overrides
any call to setForeground(), so that the Foreground is always a
light gray color in disabled TextFields I decided to override
the paint() method. This works fine as listed below. The formula
for setting the initial position for the drawString() method has
worked for every Font/Size that I have tested, but I don't like
the added literals (2 and +1) that I am needing to pass to have
the string line up exactly as is displayed automatically.
Is there another way to get these (x,y) values from method calls
to the component, container or FontMetrics that I am missing?
Also, does anyone see anything wrong with this to override the
default implementation?
Even though I do not call super.paint() in the event that
the [enabled] field is true, the TextField still paints itself
correctly with the appopriate Background and Foreground.
If anyone knows why that is please let me know.
Thanks
public void setEnabled(boolean en) {
  enabled = en;
  super.setEnabled(enabled);
  if(enabled) {
    setBackground(defaultBackground);
    setForeground(defaultForeground);
  else {
    setBackground(disabledBackground);
    setForeground(disabledForeground);
public void paint(Graphics g) {
  FontMetrics fm = this.getFontMetrics(this.getFont());
  // [enabled] is a private field that is set in the constructor
  // by calling this.isEnabled(), and by any call to the setEnabled()
  // method
  if(!enabled) {
    // clear the old string representation
    g.clearRect(0, 0, getSize().width, getSize().height);
    // set the font color to the defined [disabledForeground] Color
    g.setColor(disabledForeground);
    // draw the string in the desired Color instead of the default
    // disabled color of light gray
    g.drawString(getText(), 2, fm.getAscent()+1);
}

Answer 1

Walt, I tried that first, but due to the native call to draw
the disabled TextField the setForeground() is useless.
"The solution is platform dependent. A TextField might be painted entierly by native code. And then calls you make to the Graphics object will then have no effect at all. If you run your textfield in an applet in IE you will not see anything but the native TextField painting. The g.drawString, g.setColor or g.clearRect you call seems to be totaly ignored..."
From the tests that I have done I was able to manipulate the
the Graphics object in the paint() method to override the default
representation of the TextField (I also tried this with a Button
and it worked as well). I did run this in IE 5.0 and was able to
get my modifications to work. Since the TextField that I am modifying
must extend another class to inherit some default behavior
I can not create a new TextField that implements a Panel, I thought
about that until I was told that the TextField needs to extend an
already existing class.
I think that my solution should be fine. I was hoping to find out
if anyone knows of a better way to determine the starting
point for the drawString() method besides adding literals for the (x,y)
attributes. If anyone knows a better way than my method please
let me know.
Thanks for the responses