JDK 1.4 Tutorial, eDoc 2 : Print Services and the ImageIO Package: Two Tutorials

JDK 1.4 has a couple of important enhancements to the Java2D libraries -- the new Print Service API, and the new ImageIO library.

The Print Service API provides fine-grained control over the process of printing. While it's possible to print without using this new API, the older APIs are crude; the new API is more complete, allowing the sort of printing control found in commercial applications. This e-doc will instruct you in the ways of thew new API in the context of a working program.

The ImageIO library corrects a long-standing problem in Java programming: the limitations and inconveniences of reading and writing images. This new library is much easier to use than the browser-inspired image I/O features built into the AWT. At the same time, it is more powerful and general, supporting multi-frame images (animations), thumbnail images, and other format-specific features. It has a plugin-based architecture, which means that your programs can read and write new formats without modification to your code. This e-doc provides an overview of the ImageIO library, applying it to common reading and writing tasks.

This e-doc will show you how to:

• Discover the print services available on a system
• Initiate and track print jobs
• Discover and use printer-specific capabilities
• Read and write regular images
• Convert images from one format to another
• Read and write multi-frame (animated) images
• Generate an image on-the-fly and save it to disk

Sample programs included in this chapter:

• A custom print dialog with follow-up
• A program that converts an animated image into an image-strip
• A graph generator