Vertical Labels

Question

I'm having a problem with getting text to read downwards using 'JLabels' (but I don't mind using normal 'Label's).
If anybody knows how to either :-
1) Get a Label or JLabel to write downwards or,
2) Rotate a Component or JComponent 90 degrees
I would be very thankful. I've looked as much as I can into the Online Javadoc Overview without finding a solution.
Thanks

Answer 1

The obvious way to do 2) is to override the size accessor methods (getPreferredSize etc) to invert the width and height and then implement paint / paintComponent as: protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
    if (g instanceof Graphics2D)
        // Let affine transforms handle it.
        Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D)g;
        g2d.rotate(-Math.PI / 2);
        // It may also be necessary to translate it. Left as an exercise to the reader.
        super.paintComponent(g2d);
        // Now undo our affine transforms, starting with the translation if used.
        g2d.rotate(Math.PI / 2);
        // g is now in the original affine space.
    else
        // Have to paint onto a BufferedImage or somesuch, rotate that and paint.
        // Note: this will be very slow. Optimise by reusing BufferedImage when size doesn't change.
        Dimension actualSize = getSize();
        BufferedImage img = new BufferedImage(actualSize.height, actualSize.width, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
        super.paintComponent(img.getGraphics());
        // Construct a suitable affine transform - again, translation may be necessary.
        AffineTransform trans = new AffineTransform();
        trans.rotate(-Math.PI / 2);
        // Transform the image.
        AffineTransformOp op = new AffineTransformOp(trans, AffineTransformOp.TYPE_NEAREST_NEIGHBOUR);
        BufferedImage imgRot = new BufferedImage(actualSize.width, actualSize.height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
        op.filter(img, imgRot);
        // Should really use an ImageObserver?
        g.drawImage(imgRot, 0, 0, null);
}Note: this is not production-quality code. It is entirely untested. Use at own risk.