Synth Look and Feel

synth is a skinnable Java look and feel, which is configured with an XML property file.

According to Sun, goals for synth were:
 * Enable to create custom look without writing any code.
 * Allow appearance to be configured from images.
 * Provide the ability to customize the look of a component based on its named properties.
 * Provide a centralized point for overriding the look of all components.
 * Enable custom rendering based on images, or user-defined s.

History
synth is available beginning with version J2SE 5.0 of Java (see Java version history).

Java SE 6 Update 10 release and newer contain Nimbus, a cross-platform Look and Feel implemented with Synth. However, for backwards compatibility, Metal is still the default Swing look and feel.

Architecture
Synth is a skinnable look and feel in which all painting is delegated to the components, without having to write any code (see ).

However synth does not provide a default look, and components that are not defined in the synth XML file will not be painted. It is however possible to assign a default style to all other widgets, and customize styles for some specific widgets only.

Example
The following XML declaration defines a style named textfield and binds it to all text fields. The defaultStyle allows to set a default font, foreground and background colors to all other widgets.

Supposing that the XML declaration is defined in a file named synthExample.xml, the following code loads the XML definition file and sets the current look and feel to synth (loading a synth Look and Feel is done using the load method of the class):