Styling JavaFX Applications with CSS

Are you tired of your JavaFX applications looking bland and unappealing? Do you want to add some pizzazz to your user interface? Look no further than CSS styling for JavaFX!

JavaFX is a powerful platform for building desktop applications, but sometimes the default styling can leave something to be desired. With CSS styling, you can customize the look and feel of your application to match your brand or personal preferences.

In this article, we'll cover the basics of CSS styling for JavaFX, including how to apply styles to individual nodes, how to use CSS selectors, and how to create custom stylesheets.

Applying Styles to Nodes

The simplest way to apply CSS styles to your JavaFX application is by setting the style property of individual nodes. For example, if you have a Button object in your application, you can set its background color to red like this:

Button button = new Button("Click me!");
button.setStyle("-fx-background-color: red;");

This will set the background color of the button to red. You can also set other properties, such as font size, font family, and padding, using the same syntax.

Using CSS Selectors

While setting the style property of individual nodes is useful for small changes, it can quickly become unwieldy for larger applications. That's where CSS selectors come in.

CSS selectors allow you to apply styles to multiple nodes at once, based on their type, ID, or class. For example, if you have a group of buttons that you want to style the same way, you can give them all the same class and apply a style to that class:

Button button1 = new Button("Click me!");
Button button2 = new Button("Click me too!");
Button button3 = new Button("Click me three!");

button1.getStyleClass().add("my-button");
button2.getStyleClass().add("my-button");
button3.getStyleClass().add("my-button");

.my-button {
    -fx-background-color: blue;
    -fx-text-fill: white;
}

This will set the background color of all buttons with the my-button class to blue, and the text color to white.

You can also use other CSS selectors, such as :hover and :focused, to apply styles to nodes based on their state. For example, to change the background color of a button when the mouse is hovering over it, you can use the :hover selector:

.my-button:hover {
    -fx-background-color: lightblue;
}

Creating Custom Stylesheets

While using CSS selectors is a great way to apply styles to multiple nodes at once, it can still be cumbersome for larger applications. That's where custom stylesheets come in.

A custom stylesheet is a separate file that contains all of the CSS styles for your application. You can then apply the stylesheet to your application using the Scene object's getStylesheets() method.

To create a custom stylesheet, simply create a new file with a .css extension and add your styles:

.my-button {
    -fx-background-color: blue;
    -fx-text-fill: white;
}

.my-button:hover {
    -fx-background-color: lightblue;
}

Then, in your JavaFX application, load the stylesheet and apply it to the scene:

Scene scene = new Scene(root, 800, 600);
scene.getStylesheets().add("path/to/stylesheet.css");

Now all buttons with the my-button class will have the styles defined in the stylesheet.

Conclusion

CSS styling is a powerful tool for customizing the look and feel of your JavaFX applications. Whether you're making small tweaks to individual nodes or creating custom stylesheets for your entire application, CSS gives you the flexibility to make your application look exactly the way you want it to.

So what are you waiting for? Start styling your JavaFX applications with CSS today!

Editor Recommended Sites