Java Swing OSX Window Menu Icon Alignment

Question

Java Swing seems to place the \'Menu Text\' after the icon (if present) on MenuItems. See example below.

Answer 1

You could try either of these approaches:

• Unicode characters are appealing, but they offer poor alignment in a variable pitch font:

  JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
  JMenu windowMenu = new JMenu("Window");
  windowMenu.add(new JMenuItem("♦ Item"));
  windowMenu.add(new JMenuItem("✓ Item"));
  windowMenu.add(new JMenuItem("• Item"));
  menuBar.add(windowMenu);
  frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
  

• Better, implement the Icon interface, illustrated here and here, using a fixed-size implementation to control geometry. CellTest shows one approach to rendering an arbitrary unicode glyph.