JTable change Column Font

Question

I'm making a table where I want to make the first column with a higher Font Size.

For example in column 0 I want Font size of 30 and on columns 1-3 y want Font size of 13.

Here's my code

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel;
import javax.swing.table.*;

public class kanji_list extends JFrame {

    kanji_list(){

        JTable table = new JTable();
        JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane();
        Image icon = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage("JLPT.jpg");
        ImageIcon ima = new ImageIcon("JLPT.jpg");

        DefaultTableModel model = new DefaultTableModel(get_data(), get_header());


        table = new JTable(model){
            public boolean isCellEditable(int rowIndex, int vColIndex){
                return false;
            }
        };
        JTableHeader th = table.getTableHeader();  
        TableColumnModel tcm = th.getColumnModel();
        TableColumn column = null;
        table.setFont(new Font("Microsoft JhengHei", Font.BOLD, 13));
        for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
            column = table.getColumnModel().getColumn(i);
            DefaultTableCellRenderer tcr = new DefaultTableCellRenderer();
            tcr.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
            column.setCellRenderer(tcr);
            if (i==0) {
                column.setPreferredWidth(50);
            }
            else{
                if(i==1){
                    column.setPreferredWidth(175);
                }
                else{
                    if(i==2){
                        column.setPreferredWidth(200);
                    }
                    else{
                        column.setPreferredWidth(875);
                    }
                }
            }
        }       
        table.setRowHeight(table.getRowHeight()+30);
        table.setModel(model);
        scroll.add(table);
        this.add(scroll);
        this.setTitle("Katakana");
        this.setSize(1350, 700);
        this.setIconImage(icon);
        this.setVisible(true);
        this.setLocationRelativeTo(null);

        scroll.setViewportView(table);
    }
    Object [][]get_data(){
        Object data[][] = new Object[][]{
            {"\u4e00", "Uno, 1", "ICHI, ITSU", "hito-, hitotsu"}, 
            {"\u4e8c", "Dos, 2", "NI, JI", "futa, futatsu, futatabi"}, 
            {"\u4e09", "Tres, 3", "SAN, JOU", "mi, mitsu, mittsu"},
            {"\u99c5", "Estación", "EKI", ""}
        };
        return data;
    }
    String []get_header(){
        String header [] = new String[]{"KANJI", "SIGNIFICADO", "LECTURA ON", "LECTURA KUN"};
        return header;
    }
}

This is a Japanese learning system, and Kanjis on unicode on 1st column aren't visible at all with my 13 size font, but if I make all the table on a higher size, all the other columns get bigger and it doesn't looks fine.

Solution

In core JTable you basically need a custom renderer which sets the Font to something different from the table's font, f.i. in a subclass of DefaultTableCellRenderer. Note that setting the font on DefaultTableCellRenderer once after instantiation won't work because it's reset on each call to getTableCellRendererComponent.

JTable table = new JTable(new AncientSwingTeam());
// the default renderer uses the table's font,
// so set it as appropriate
table.setFont(fontToUseForAllColumnsExceptFirst);
// a custom renderer which uses a special font
DefaultTableCellRenderer r = new DefaultTableCellRenderer() {
    Font font = fontToUseForFirstColumn;

    @Override
    public Component getTableCellRendererComponent(JTable table,
            Object value, boolean isSelected, boolean hasFocus,
            int row, int column) {
        super.getTableCellRendererComponent(table, value, isSelected, hasFocus,
                row, column);
        setFont(font);
        return this;
    }

};
// doesn't work because the default renderer's font is reset
// to the table's font always
// r.setFont(font);
// set the custom renderer for first column
table.getColumnModel().getColumn(0).setCellRenderer(r);

An alternative is the renderer decoration approach, supported in the SwingX project (biased me can't resist :-) Then the above would be a two-liner (assuming table is of type JXTable):

Highlighter hl = new FontHighlighter(font);
table.getColumnExt(0).setHighlighter(hl);

Comments

[mKorbel]

please whats wrong (excluding Nimbus) with table.getTableHeader().setFont(new Font(null, Font.PLAIN, 23));

[kleopatra]

@mKorbel nothing wrong :-) Only that's unrelated to the question as I understand it: it's about a per-column font, that's different from the table's font.

[camickr]

+1, Sorry, I didn't even see your answer. I'll delete mine so yours appears first.

[Frakcool]

@kleopatra I tried this but went all wrong, I'm still a student from java, can you help me getting that code into my code? or maybe explain me with simple words how it works? 'cause I still can't understand very well how it works

[kleopatra]

@Frakcool hmm.. there is not much more to explain, it's rather basic and all there's to do. If you have problems with it, you might consider reading the chapter about rendering in the tutorial (link is in the swing tag wiki, that is the info tab above)