How to increase Graphics2D text quality?

Question

I have a question concerning printing additional information on barcodes. I am using http://barbecue.sourceforge.net/ to create my barcodes. After I created my barcodes I want to add some additional information. At the moment i do this with the following way! For example: ``` Graphics2D g2d5 = container4Barcode.createGraphics(); g2d5.setBackground(Color.WHITE); g2d5.clearRect(0, 33, 200, 200); g2d5.setColor(Color.BLACK); g2d5.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_TEXT_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_ON); g2d5.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_TEXT_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_GASP); g2d5.setFont(new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 8)); g2d5.drawString(barcode, 8, 40); g2d5.drawString(generateRandomNumber(ekPreis), 57, 40); String datumResult = datum; g2d5.drawString(location, 98, 40); g2d5.drawString(datum.substring(2), 114, 40); g2d5.dispose(); ``` The output is in a pdf the following: As you can see is the quality of my text (above and under the barc…

Accepted Answer

If someone wants to use pixel images in such cases, and not vector, then image should be upscaled for better printing quality:

```
static final int PIXELS_PER_POINT = 4; // 4x
```

Then define all dimensions in points, not in pixels:

```
// Image size in points
static final int IMAGE_WIDTH = 150;
static final int IMAGE_HEIGHT = 60;
// Font size in points
static final int FONT_SIZE = 11;
```

Now, when do any drawing, always use points converted to pixels:

```
static int toPixels(int value) {
    return value * PIXELS_PER_POINT;
}

BufferedImage draw() {
    BufferedImage image = 
        new BufferedImage(toPixels(IMAGE_WIDTH), toPixels(IMAGE_HEIGHT), TYPE_INT_ARGB);
    Graphics2D g = image.createGraphics();
    // <graphics init code goes here>

Font font = new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, toPixels(FONT_SIZE));
    g.setFont(font);
    g.drawString("Grapes", toPixels(5), toPixels(40)); // coordinates are in points

g.dispose()
    return image;
}
```

So, with this approach you can operate with 'standard' dimentions. This approach works quite well for me for low- and medium complexity drawings.

You can go further and convert `PIXELS_PER_POINT` to a parameter: use `1x` for images on web-pages with ordinary display, `2x` for Retina displays and `4x` for printing!

How to increase Graphics2D text quality?

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