I'd like to draw symbols contained in exotic fonts such as Wingdings, Webdings (they are called dingbats : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingbat) in a java applet. When using Graphics.drawString() I end up with the typical 'square symbol' for each character in the drawn string. I could not find any answer by googling and I guess it's not something common.
In the past I've done it with C# WPF, failed to do it with SVG and HTML. Is it possible in java?
EDIT: Solved. There was a subtlety. Even though the symbol you want in such a font is linked to character 'a', it is in fact necessary to pass "\uF061" to g.drawString() and not "a". Otherwise you end up with the square symbol.
Solved. Even though the symbol you want in such a font is linked to character 'a', it is in fact necessary to pass "\uF061" to g.drawString() and not "a". Otherwise you end up with the square symbol.
Add the Font to a Jar (assuming you have the right to distribute it) that is on the run-time class-path of the applet. I.E. Add a reference to the Jar to the archive attribute of the applet element. Access it via (something like):
URL dingbatURL = this.getClass().getResource("/fonts/dingbat.ttf");
Then look to the Font methods for the createFont(int,InputStream) method.
Font dingbatFont = Font.createFont(Font.PLAIN,dingbatURL.openStream());
Thereafter is should be possible to use the Font in the Graphics instance.
