VTerminal

This project does not require frequent updates as it is a look and feel for Swing, which is a stable framework. You can assume it works unless otherwise stated.

Table of Contents

• Links
• Installation
  • Gradle
  • Maven
  • sbt
• Media (Screenshots & Videos)
• Supported Components
• Enhanced Components
• Credits & Inspiration

Links

• Discussions/Forum
• Documentation
  • Usage Guide
• Related Projects
  • VTerminalPaletteEditor, which can be used to create or edit custom palettes for use with VTerminal.
  • VTerminalTestGUI, which I use to visually test VTerminal.
  • Chris Reuter’s demo, showing how VTerminal can be used with JRuby.
• Performance Tips
• Resolving Compatibility & Render Issues

Installation

VTerminal is hosted on the JitPack package repository which supports Gradle, Maven, and sbt.

Gradle

Add JitPack to your build.gradle at the end of repositories.

allprojects {
	repositories {
		...
		maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
	}
}

Add VTerminal as a dependency.

dependencies {
	implementation 'com.github.Valkryst:VTerminal:2026.11.05'
}

Maven

Add JitPack as a repository.

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>jitpack.io</id>
        <url>https://jitpack.io</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>

Add VTerminal as a dependency.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.github.Valkryst</groupId>
    <artifactId>VTerminal</artifactId>
    <version>2026.11.05</version>
</dependency>

Scala SBT

Add JitPack as a resolver.

resolvers += "jitpack" at "https://jitpack.io"

Add VTerminal as a dependency.

libraryDependencies += "com.github.Valkryst" % "VTerminal" % "2026.11.05"

Media

Please note that all screenshots and videos will look worse than if you were to run the example GUI yourself. This is primarily due to compression.

Screenshots

• JButton
• JCheckBox
• JLabel
• JLayeredPane
• JPasswordField
• JProgressBar
• JRadioButton
• JScrollPane
• VEditorPane
• VPanel
  • With a blur shader.
• VTextArea
• VTextField
• VTextPane

Videos

• Click-through of the example GUI used for testing VTerminal. This covers most, if not all the supported components.

Supported Components

If there is a component that you’d like VTerminal to support, or if you’re experiencing any issues with the supported components, then please feel free to open an issue.

• JButton
• JCheckBox
• JEditorPane
• JLabel
• JPanel
• JPasswordField
• JProgressBar
• JRadioButton
• JScrollPane
• JTextArea
• JTextField
• JTextPane
• JToolTip
• VFrame
  • A subclass of JFrame which allows for easier en/disabling of full-screen mode and which has a number of convenience methods.
• VPanel
  • A subclass of JPanel which allows for displaying a 2D grid of characters in which each cell can display a unique fore/background color and code point (Unicode character).

Enhanced Components

Every component rendered by the VTerminal LAF automatically applies a set of high-quality RenderingHints (antialiasing, bicubic interpolation, etc.) to its Graphics2D context before painting. No special subclasses are required — standard Swing components work as-is once the LAF is installed.

The following image shows a JEditorPane rendered with and without high-quality hints side-by-side.

Controlling rendering quality

There are three control levels, applied in order of precedence:

1. Global default — enabled by default; applies to every component.

// Disable high-quality rendering for all components.
VTerminalLookAndFeel.enableHighQualityRendering(false);

// Re-enable it.
VTerminalLookAndFeel.enableHighQualityRendering(true);

2. Per-component override — overrides the global default for a single component.

// Force high-quality rendering for this component regardless of the global default.
component.putClientProperty(VTerminalLookAndFeel.HIGH_QUALITY_RENDERING_KEY, Boolean.TRUE);

// Force low-quality rendering for this component regardless of the global default.
component.putClientProperty(VTerminalLookAndFeel.HIGH_QUALITY_RENDERING_KEY, Boolean.FALSE);

3. Clear the override — removes the per-component override and reverts to the global default.

component.putClientProperty(VTerminalLookAndFeel.HIGH_QUALITY_RENDERING_KEY, null);

Credits & Inspiration

• Architecture
  • Robert Eckstein’s “Java SE Application Design With MVC”.
  • Juri Strumpflohner’s “Logical separation with MVC”, a follow-up to Eckstein’s article.
• Filthy Rich Clients: Developing Animated and Graphical Effects for Desktop Java™ Applications
• Trystan’s AsciiPanel.
• VFont
  • The FontGenerator from ZenDarva’s AsylumRLE.
  • The FontRenderer from Oddlabs’ Tribal Trouble.