The Java Tutorials have been written for JDK 8. Examples and practices described in this page don't take advantage of improvements introduced in later releases and might use technology no longer available.
See Java Language Changes for a summary of updated language features in Java SE 9 and subsequent releases.
See JDK Release Notes for information about new features, enhancements, and removed or deprecated options for all JDK releases.
This lesson tells you how to change the look and feel of your Swing application. The "look" of an application refers to its appearance. The "feel" refers to how the widgets behave. You can choose to use the default Swing look and feel (such as the Ocean theme for the Metal look and feel), or the look and feel of the native platform (such as Windows, GTK+), or you can customize your own look and feel.
Basic information on setting the look and feel to one of the available look and feels. Information on setting the look and feel programmatically, and at the command line, is provided.
Information on how to customize your look and feel using the Synth package is provided.
Information on how to customize your look and feel using the Nimbus package, introduced in the JDK 7 release, is provided.
If you are interested in using JavaFX to create your GUI, see Skinning JavaFX Applications with CSS and Using JavaFX Charts.