Using BorderFactory class to draw borders on Swing components

JComponent supports drawing specialized borders around itself. This can be done using the setBorder(Border border) method. The javax.swing.border package provides classes to create several types of Border.

To create these borders it is advisable to always use the javax.swing.BorderFactory class. This is a factory pattern implementation for creating swing borders. The advantage in using this factory class is it will hand out references to the shared Border instances and will not create new Border objects every time.

Example Code:

This example creates different types of borders using the BorderFactory class. It creates border around JLabel and JPanel.

/*
 * This example is from javareference.com
 * for more information visit,
 * https://www.javareference.com
 */

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;

/**
 * This class demonstrates the use of BorderFactory class
 * to draw borders around the JComponent objects
 *
 * @author Rahul Sapkal(rahul@javareference.com)
 */
public class BorderFactoryDemo extends JFrame {
  /**
   * Constructor
   */
  public BorderFactoryDemo() {
    super("Border Factory Demo");

    //creating main panel
    JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER));
    mainPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));

    //createing simple borders
    JPanel simplePanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(7, 1, 5, 5));
    simplePanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));
    JLabel simpleLabel = new JLabel("SIMPLE BORDERS", JLabel.CENTER);
    simpleLabel.setForeground(Color.red.darker());
    simplePanel.add(simpleLabel);

    JLabel lineBorderLabel = new JLabel("Line Border", JLabel.CENTER);
    lineBorderLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
    simplePanel.add(lineBorderLabel);

    JLabel etchedRasBorderLabel = new JLabel("Raised Etched Border", JLabel.CENTER);
    etchedRasBorderLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder(EtchedBorder.RAISED));
    simplePanel.add(etchedRasBorderLabel);

    JLabel etchedLowBorderLabel = new JLabel("Lowered Etched Border", JLabel.CENTER);
    etchedLowBorderLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder(EtchedBorder.LOWERED));
    simplePanel.add(etchedLowBorderLabel);

    JLabel bevelRasBorderLabel = new JLabel("Raised Bevel Border", JLabel.CENTER);
    bevelRasBorderLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createRaisedBevelBorder());
    simplePanel.add(bevelRasBorderLabel);

    JLabel bevelLowBorderLabel = new JLabel("Lowered Bevel Border", JLabel.CENTER);
    bevelLowBorderLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLoweredBevelBorder());
    simplePanel.add(bevelLowBorderLabel);

    JLabel emptyBorderLabel = new JLabel("Empty Border", JLabel.CENTER);
    emptyBorderLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));
    simplePanel.add(emptyBorderLabel);

    //creating title borders
    JPanel titlePanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(6, 1, 5, 5));
    titlePanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));
    JLabel titleLabel = new JLabel("TITLE BORDERS", JLabel.CENTER);
    titleLabel.setForeground(Color.red.darker());
    titlePanel.add(titleLabel);

    JPanel titleBorderPanel = new JPanel();
    titleBorderPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Title Border"));
    titleBorderPanel.add(new JLabel("JavaReference.com Examples"), JLabel.CENTER);
    titlePanel.add(titleBorderPanel);

    JPanel titleLineBorderPanel = new JPanel();
    titleLineBorderPanel.add(new JLabel("JavaReference.com Examples"), JLabel.CENTER);
    titleLineBorderPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(
            BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.BLUE), "Title Line Border with color"));
    titlePanel.add(titleLineBorderPanel);

    JPanel titleLowEtcBorderPanel = new JPanel();
    titleLowEtcBorderPanel.add(new JLabel("JavaReference.com Examples", JLabel.CENTER));
    titleLowEtcBorderPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(
            BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder(EtchedBorder.LOWERED), "Title Lowered Etched Border"));
    titlePanel.add(titleLowEtcBorderPanel);

    JPanel titleLowBevBorderPanel = new JPanel();
    titleLowBevBorderPanel.add(new JLabel("JavaReference.com Examples", JLabel.CENTER));
    titleLowBevBorderPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(
            BorderFactory.createLoweredBevelBorder(), "Title Lowered Bevel Border"));
    titlePanel.add(titleLowBevBorderPanel);

    JPanel titleEmptyBorderPanel = new JPanel();
    titleEmptyBorderPanel.add(new JLabel("JavaReference.com Examples", JLabel.CENTER));
    titleEmptyBorderPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(
            10, 10, 10, 10), "Title Empty Border"));
    titlePanel.add(titleEmptyBorderPanel);

    //creating matte borders
    JPanel mattePanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(4, 1, 5, 5));
    mattePanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));
    JLabel matteLabel = new JLabel("MATTE BORDERS", JLabel.CENTER);
    matteLabel.setForeground(Color.red.darker());
    mattePanel.add(matteLabel);

    ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage("matte.gif"));

    JLabel matteIconBorderLabel = new JLabel("Matt Border with Icon", JLabel.CENTER);
    matteIconBorderLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createMatteBorder(
            -1, -1, -1, -1, icon));
    mattePanel.add(matteIconBorderLabel);

    JLabel mattIconBorderWithSpaceLabel = new JLabel("Matt Border with Icon and Spacing",
            JLabel.CENTER);
    mattIconBorderWithSpaceLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createMatteBorder(
            0, 20, 0, 0, icon));
    mattePanel.add(mattIconBorderWithSpaceLabel);

    JLabel mattColorBorderLabel = new JLabel("Matt Border with Color and Spacing", JLabel.CENTER);
    mattColorBorderLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createMatteBorder(
            2, 5, 2, 5, Color.BLUE));
    mattePanel.add(mattColorBorderLabel);

    //creating compound borders
    JPanel compPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(3, 1, 5, 5));
    compPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));
    JLabel compLabel = new JLabel("COMPOUND BORDERS", JLabel.CENTER);
    compLabel.setForeground(Color.red.darker());
    compPanel.add(compLabel);

    JLabel compBevelLabel = new JLabel("Rasied and Low Bevel combination", JLabel.CENTER);
    compBevelLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(BorderFactory.createRaisedBevelBorder(),
            BorderFactory.createLoweredBevelBorder()));
    compPanel.add(compBevelLabel);

    JLabel compMatteLineBorderLabel = new JLabel("Matte and Line border combination", JLabel.CENTER);
    compMatteLineBorderLabel.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.red),
                    BorderFactory.createMatteBorder(-1, -1, -1, -1, icon)));
    compPanel.add(compMatteLineBorderLabel);

    //adding border panels to main panel
    mainPanel.add(simplePanel);
    mainPanel.add(titlePanel);
    mainPanel.add(mattePanel);
    mainPanel.add(compPanel);

    //adding mainpanel to the frame
    getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
  }

  /**
   * Main method to run as an Application
   *
   * @param argv
   */
  public static void main(String[] argv) {
    BorderFactoryDemo borderFactoryDemo = new BorderFactoryDemo();
    borderFactoryDemo.setVisible(true);
    borderFactoryDemo.pack();
  }
}