Vertical text in JTabbedPanes on MAC

Question

Hi all,
I use the CrossPlatformLookAndFeel for my Java application and I want to have vertical text in tabs with are placed on the left side. For displaying the vertical text I use a special TabbedPanUI (see code below) which rotates the text. This works fine on Linux and Windows platforms, but on Mac the text is not readable.
Anyone got a clue about this??
Thank for your help
import java.awt.AlphaComposite;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.FontMetrics;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.Image;
import java.awt.Insets;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import javax.swing.Icon;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicGraphicsUtils;
import javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTabbedPaneUI;
* @author elkes
public class DOOCSTabbedPaneUI extends BasicTabbedPaneUI {
    /** Creates a new instance of DOOCSTabbedPaneUI */
    public DOOCSTabbedPaneUI() {
        super();
    private Image getVerticalImage(int tabIndex) {
        ImageIcon iconNormale = (ImageIcon) tabPane.getIconAt(tabIndex);
        int iconWidth = (iconNormale != null) ? iconNormale.getIconHeight() : 0;
        int iconHeight = (iconNormale != null) ? iconNormale.getIconWidth() : 0;
        String title = tabPane.getTitleAt(tabIndex);
        FontMetrics metrics = getFontMetrics();
        int titleWidth = (title != null) ? metrics.stringWidth(title) : 0;
        int titleHeight = (title != null) ? metrics.getHeight() : 0;
        int height = iconWidth + titleWidth + textIconGap + 1;
        int width = Math.max(iconHeight, titleHeight);
        if (width==0) width=1;
        boolean isSelected = (tabPane.getSelectedIndex() == tabIndex);
        int tabPlacement = tabPane.getTabPlacement();
        BufferedImage image = new BufferedImage(width, height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
        Graphics2D g2 = image.createGraphics();
        g2.setComposite(AlphaComposite.Src);
        if (tabPlacement == JTabbedPane.LEFT) {
            g2.translate(0, height);
            g2.rotate(-Math.PI / 2);
        } else {
            g2.translate(width, 0);
            g2.rotate(Math.PI / 2);
        Color background = (isSelected) ? UIManager.getColor("TabbedPane.selected")
                : tabPane.getBackgroundAt(tabIndex);
        g2.setColor(background);
        g2.fillRect(0, 0, height, width);
        if (iconNormale != null) {
            g2.drawImage(iconNormale.getImage(), 0, 0, null);
        if (title != null) {
            g2.setFont(metrics.getFont());
            g2.setColor(tabPane.getForegroundAt(tabIndex));
            int mnemIndex = tabPane.getDisplayedMnemonicIndexAt(tabIndex);
            BasicGraphicsUtils.drawStringUnderlineCharAt(g2, title, mnemIndex, iconWidth + textIconGap, metrics.getAscent());
        g2.dispose();
        return image;
    private boolean isBottomOrTop() {
        int tabPlacement = tabPane.getTabPlacement();
        return tabPlacement == JTabbedPane.TOP || tabPlacement == JTabbedPane.BOTTOM;
    protected int calculateTabHeight(int tabPlacement, int tabIndex, int fontHeight) {
        if (isBottomOrTop()) {
            return super.calculateTabHeight(tabPlacement, tabIndex, fontHeight);
        return super.calculateTabWidth(tabPlacement, tabIndex, getFontMetrics());
    protected int calculateTabWidth(int tabPlacement, int tabIndex, FontMetrics metrics) {
        if (isBottomOrTop()) {
            return super.calculateTabWidth(tabPlacement, tabIndex, metrics);
        return getVerticalImage(tabIndex).getWidth(null);
    protected void paintText(Graphics g, int tabPlacement, Font font, FontMetrics metrics, int tabIndex, String title, Rectangle textRect, boolean isSelected) {
        if (isBottomOrTop()) {
            super.paintText(g, tabPlacement, font, metrics, tabIndex, title, textRect, isSelected);
        } else {
            Image image = getVerticalImage(tabIndex);
            Rectangle r = getTabBounds(tabPane, tabIndex);
            Insets insets = getTabAreaInsets(tabPlacement);
            int dx = r.x + insets.top;
            int dy = r.y;
            if (tabPlacement == JTabbedPane.LEFT) {
                dy += insets.left;
            } else {
                dy += insets.right;
            g.drawImage(image, dx, dy, null);
    protected void paintIcon(Graphics g, int tabPlacement, int tabIndex,
            Icon icon, Rectangle iconRect, boolean isSelected) {
        if (!isBottomOrTop()) {
            return;
        super.paintIcon(g, tabPlacement, tabIndex, icon, iconRect, isSelected);
}

Answer 1

Maybe the approach of using a [url http://tips4java.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/rotated-icon/]Rotated Icon along with the TextIcon, will work on all platforms without using a custom UI.